Alliance Resource Series: Using COVID-19 Federal Funding to End Homelessness

June 30, 2021  |  Videos, Toolkits and Training Materials
Federal relief funds to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic provide communities with an opportunity to end homelessness for more people than ever before.

However, new and unfamiliar resource streams can pose numerous challenges for implementation. In this resource series, Alliance staff and partners outline the key funding streams available and provide guidance on strategically leveraging them for the greatest impact on ending homelessness.

The resources in this series are aligned around a set of core values and priorities to guide implementation.

 

An Historic Opportunity to End Homelessness

Alliance President & CEO, Nan Roman, is joined by Nichele Carver of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to provide a high level overview of the opportunity at hand and the various resource streams that will be explored throughout this resource series.

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Being Smart and Strategic with Emergency Housing Vouchers

The 70,000 new Emergency Housing Vouchers provided by HUD as part of the ARPA create a critical opportunity for communities to quickly house their most vulnerable people. In this episode, experts discuss strategies for effectively partnering with Public Housing Authorities and how to prioritize voucher allocations for the greatest and most equitable impact.

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Converting Hotels and Motels to Housing

Through a combination of federal, state, and local resources, several communities have taken advantage of federal COVID-19 relief funds to convert hotels and motels to housing. The following videos feature communities sharing their strategies for hotels-to-housing conversions, and the lessons their learned along the way.

It Works: Converting Motels and Hotels into Affordable Housing

National Housing Conference Webinar. June 17, 2021

Hotels to Housing: A Race Against Time to Add New Housing Stock

National Alliance to End Homeless conference session. March 10, 2021

 

Smart & Strategic Collaboration: Services for EHV Recipients

Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) offer an overdue opportunity to greatly reduce and even end homelessness in many communities, and pairing vouchers with services can help ensure housing stability for tenants that need greater supports. This webinar, featuring Alliance staff and Dr. Marcella Maguire from CSH, offered important considerations for strategically maximizing additional community resources across sectors and funding streams to ensure adequate stabilization supports to pair with EHV.

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Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) and Homelessness Diversion

While not targeted specifically to the homelessness system, many pandemic-related federal funding resources can help improve a community’s response to homelessness. Particularly, the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program can be a powerful potential resource for homelessness diversion. This webinar will provide an overview of ERA, diversion, and the role the homelessness system can and should play in the roll-out of ERA.

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