The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has recently made $3.524 billion in funding available through the FY 2024 and FY 2025 Continuum of Care Competition and Renewal or Replacement of Youth Homeless Demonstration Program Grants.
The team at the Alliance wanted to provide insight on key changes for this year. Along with a 12.44 percent increase over FY2023 funding, there are a few notable changes from the previous NOFO:
Building an Effective Workforce. Last year the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute published key findings from a survey of the field identifying low pay, high turnover, and lack of resources as core workforce challenges. HUD has added a new Homeless Policy Priority to the CoC Program Competition NOFO this year, recognizing these challenges and encouraging CoCs to work with funders and stakeholders to improve pay and support for people who work in the homelessness sector.
Two-Year Cycle for NOFO Applications. For Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025, a two-year Notification of Funding Opportunity was issued, inclusive of alternative procedures or requirements as necessary to allocate future appropriations in the second year, for the award of amounts made available for the Continuum of Care program.
- The application and selection and application process for FY 2024 funds will proceed much like it has in prior-year competitions.
- CoCs are only required to submit one CoC application that will be applicable to both FY 2024 and FY 2025 funds.
- HUD reserves the right to award available FY 2025 funds based on this NOFO competition.
- If new competitive funding becomes available for FY 2025, this NOFO may be amended, and the FY 2024-2025 CoC Application and score may be used for the application selection process.
- If FY 2025 appropriations are not able to fully fund all FY 2025 renewal grants, grant amounts may be reduced proportionately.
Changes to Tiering. Tier 1 is set at 90 percent of the CoC’s Annual Renewal Demand (ARD) for this NOFO.
Cost of Living Adjustments for Conditionally Selected Grants. HUD is authorized to make reasonable cost of living adjustments to renewal amounts, which can help organizations afford increasing cost of operations due to inflation. HUD will adjust amounts for the supportive services and HMIS Costs budget lines for renewing projects based on the most recent three-year average of changes in State Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEQ) for the category Social Assistance.
This year’s CoC Program Competition NOFO is due on October 30, 2024 at 5:00 P.M. PT / 8:00 P.M. ET. But beyond this year’s NOFO application, CoCs must think now about big picture planning and using the NOFO year off to recalibrate their system.
Here are several ways to start:
- Embed people with current and recent lived experience or expertise of homelessness into all aspects of your work (before, during, and after the NOFO process).
- Review the performance and program fidelity of projects to provide performance feedback.
- Establish and communicate performance expectations for CoC projects, especially regarding reducing racial disparities in outcomes and the number of people who move into permanent housing.
- Talk about reallocation early and continuously: develop a reallocation strategy as a CoC so there are no surprises, and all partners are clear about voluntary and involuntary reallocation.
- Engage in continuous quality improvement to improve fidelity to Housing First, performance, and equity in outcomes.
- Strengthen and streamline partnerships with your public housing authority (PHA) to ensure that more people experiencing homelessness are quickly housed.
Alliance Resources
The Alliance will be hosting a CoC NOFO webinar on Wednesday, August 28th from 9:00 – 10:30 A.M. PT /12:00 – 1:30 P.M. ET – please register here to attend.
In the meantime, check out updated Alliance resources on the CoC Program Competition NOFO:
- Do’s and Don’ts for the FY24/25 CoC Program Competition NOFO
- CoC Scoring Chart Comparison
- Stronger Together: A Roadmap to An Effective Homeless System Series, which provides communities with insights getting back to the use of best practices within the homeless response system