The awards will provide funding to communities to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness move into permanent housing with access to supportive services, with the overarching goal of long-term stability.
“Access to stable housing is a basic necessity – the safety of a home is essential, especially as we continue to fight the COVID-19 virus,” HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a release. “These Continuum of Care program grants, coupled with the historic resources in the American Rescue Plan, will deliver communities the resources needed to ensure that every person in a respective community has the equitable opportunity to a safe and stable home.”
The CoC program is designed to promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness. The program is the largest source of federal grant funding for homeless services and housing programs servicing people experiencing homelessness. The 2021 awards include approximately $102 million for new domestic violence support projects. The awards also fund new projects that focus on adding permanent housing to communities including new permanent supportive housing, new rapid rehousing, and projects that provide transitional housing to households and then shift them to rapid rehousing.
On Aug. 18, 2021, HUD issued the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the FY 2021 CoC competition awards. The NOFO was the first CoC Program NOFO of the Biden administration.
Meanwhile, for the first time, the NOFO invited Indian tribes and Tribally Designated Housing entities to apply for grants through the CoC program. Specifically, HUD sought projects that:
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