CEO Corner Week of June 7, 2026

Spring has turned out to be a busy time in our sector, with the release (finally) of the 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report and the FY 2026 CoC Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). This happened as the announcements were made for remaining FY 2025 CoC awards, and grant agreements are going out to get long-awaited funding to recipients around the country.  

But all this activity doesn’t mean the work is any easier, or that the Administration has backed off from positions that will harm people experiencing homelessness and the providers who serve them. 

I want to highlight two items where we have recently seen this type of harmful policy, and to provide a sense of where the Alliance stands on those items. 

2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (Part 1)

On May 29, the 2025 PIT data was released with little fanfare on a Friday afternoon – more than 16 months after the data in it was collected. And the numbers themselves showed something important. 

Between 2024 and 2025, the nation experienced the first decrease in overall homelessness in nearly a decade. Yet the administration inexplicably used this news as an opportunity to continue its attacks against best practices. 

To be sure, a 3.3% reduction is not a cause for celebration. And despite the small overall reduction, the 2025 numbers point to concerning trends – like increases in those experiencing chronic homelessness (+2.1 percent) and older adults (+6.8 percent for people aged 65 and older). HUD data also showed that homeless programs have permanent housing units for just 9.5 percent of people who need them.  

Yet, the system still increased the number of formerly unhoused people who paid rent in 2025, serving more than 642,000 people in permanent housing.  

These are signs of a system that – despite attacks from the highest levels of our government and challenges due to the economy and the housing market – continues to do the hard work of getting people into housing and ensuring they have the services they need to recover from the trauma of homelessness.  

Let’s hope these first signs of a reversal continue into 2026. As we have tracked incoming PIT counts for this year, we are very encouraged that it could.  

FY 2026 CoC Program Notice of Funding Opportunity

HUD released its FY 2026 CoC NOFO on June 1. 

The Alliance has released its initial analysis, including a detailed analysis of the NOFO requirements and an impact analysis. We will hold an informational webinar on Wednesday, June 10 at 1:30 ET. You can sign up to join us here. 

As our analysis shows, we have many significant concerns about the content and impact of this NOFO.  

We know that some people may feel forced to accept the shifts in this NOFO as “not as bad” as what HUD attempted to change last year. I want to be as clear as I can be: as a community of providers, people who have experienced homelessness, and other stakeholders, “not as bad” should not be our standard.  

The people we serve deserve something that respects their humanity, as do the people who do this work. This is not the NOFO we deserve to have held up as the standard for how HUD should operate for the remainder of this Administration. We deserve a lawful NOFO that uses evidence – not propaganda – as its base, that supports the work in the field, and that recognizes the reality of the world that people experiencing homelessness navigate.  

Do we want more services – including mental health and treatment services – that are accessible to people in need? Yes. Do we want to have a diverse pool of providers and funding recipients that can serve different needs in a community? Yes.  

Can we do that without badmouthing hard-working providers, further marginalizing people in permanent housing programs, while also obeying the law? ALSO, YES. 

Please take the time to read our analysis and join our webinar to learn more. 

Take care and I hope to see you on Wednesday’s webinar.