Home / Ending Homelessness / Policy / Policy Priorities

Policy Priorities

Each year, the Alliance develops a set of core policy priorities to guide our work. The Alliance works with policymakers to advocate for increased funding for homeless assistance programs to cover housing and supportive services, and other legislation that will impact people experiencing homelessness and those that work with them.

Your support for these funding priorities is crucial in the ongoing effort to combat homelessness. We appreciate your attention to these matters and look forward to working together for positive change.

Following HUD’s alarming announcement of a 12% increase in homelessness in 2022, the Alliance stresses the critical importance of preserving the Senate’s FY24 THUD funding request during the upcoming House-Senate conference.

The requested $275 million for Homeless Assistance Grants ($179 million more thanthe House’s request) includes significant allocations for various purposes:

  • $100 million: Grants to CoCs for the construction, acquisition, or rehabilitation of new permanent supportive housing.
  • $25 million: Supportive service line items to address reasonable cost of living adjustments for workers in homelessness services.
  • $5 million: Support for direct, community-specific technical assistance from HHS and HUD to communities leveraging programs like Medicaid for housing-related supportive services and behavioral healthcare.
  • $25 million: Grants to improve coordination with health care, addressing housing-related supportive services, and improving access to health services for chronically homeless individuals, which can be used for staffing increases and training needs as well as costs associated with system or process changes to support Medicaid billing and payment requirements, and data integration needs; and
  • $5 million: Funding to keep the e-snaps program running, a crucial component of the CoC competition process.
  • Furthermore, the Senate bill proposes a biennial Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Continuum of Care competition process for FY24 and FY25.

The Alliance’s policy priorities, outlined below, aim to streamline processes and enhance resources for addressing homelessness:

  • Move the Continuum of Care (CoC) program to a two-year Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): This change allows for a more strategic focus on planning and performance evaluation, alleviating the burden on CoCs and supporting effective resource allocation.
  • Increase caps on administration/planning funding: We propose raising the planning grant limits to the higher of 10% or $100,000 for the Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grant Program (ESG) programs, promoting greater coordination among stakeholders without impacting the budget.
  • Provide for automatic annual increase COLAs for frontline staff: Calculating annual cost-of-living increases for services, and including that amount in HUD’s budget, can be used to support improved compensation and staffing for frontline workers in homeless services, addressing workforce challenges and ensuring quality service delivery.
  • Temporary authorization of $5 million in funding for IT upgrades for e-snaps: Ensuring the survival and efficiency of the e-snaps system is vital for the CoC competition process.

Become an Advocate

Help the Alliance end homelessness. Sign up for our advocacy updates and get the most up-to-date resources and tools to take action on ending homelessness in your community.

Sign up