During Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, he used his public platform to draw attention to the marginalized in our society. That included people experiencing homelessness.
After his historic Congressional address, Pope Francis left the Capitol to have lunch with 300 low income and homeless people at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, DC. There he remarked, “Let me be clear. There is no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing.”
As you have probably figured out, the CoC NOFA is very different this year. HUD has created the most competitive application process for CoC funds we have ever seen, with a strong emphasis on evaluating project and system performance and reallocating funds to effective programs that actually reduce homelessness.
The NOFA also focuses on the goals articulated in Opening Doors, including an end to veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. The application newly requires CoCs to report their actual progress toward this important goal. The exciting news is that we know this achievement is within reach for many CoCs across the country. Several communities have already announced that they have succeeded.
Over the last 10 years, HUD has invested heavily in programs that provide permanent supportive housing (PSH) for chronically homeless persons. The scaling up of PSH has resulted in a dramatic reduction in chronic homelessness in the U.S.
HUD uses a competitive application process to determine funding for programs, which has driven the country closer to the goal of ending chronic homelessness. For CoC applicants this boils down to points. HUD has for many past NOFAs given more points, or a competitive edge, to CoCs who propose to fund more PSH for chronically homeless persons.
In the world of homelessness assistance, housing is the number one priority. As we like to say at the Alliance, housed people aren’t homeless.
But what happens after people exit homelessness to housing? In an ideal world, homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. People who have been housed through homeless programs sometimes fall back into homelessness. Fortunately, researchers are working to determine why some households remain stably housed and others don’t.
Like many of our colleagues around the country, folks at the Alliance are now carefully examining the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFA) that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued earlier this month for Continuum-of-Care (CoC) programs.
The CoC grant application process is always a competitive one, but the competition will be more, well, competitive, this year than in prior years. So, what’s at stake? We are told that there is significant risk that some communities will gain new funding at the expense of other communities who will lose it.