$3.9M Housing Assistance Application Submitted to HUD
This week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care (CoC) submitted the FY2017 CoC Program NOFA application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for approximately $3.9 million in federal assistance for housing programs and services like permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, coordinated entry and data collection in our community. The CoC is charged by HUD to submit a community-wide application for homeless assistance funds. The City of Charlotte serves as the CoC Lead Agency.
The funding request of approximately $3.9 million dollars is critical to moving people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing. Since 2010, the number of people experiencing homelessness on one night captured via the Point-in-Time Count has decreased by 26% during a time that the population in Mecklenburg County has grown by 17%. This has been possible because the supply of permanent housing beds has continued to increase substantially – 321% over the last 7 years.
Each year, competition for CoC Program funding grows. Our CoC is competing with over 400 other continuums of care across the country. The total amount of funding available is $2 billion. As part of the allocation process, HUD has integrated system performance and 2017 marks the first year that communities will be scored on improvements in performance using the system performance measures.
The CoC Program NOFA application consists of three parts:
CoC Application
This section includes information about the CoC planning body, governance structure, overall performance and the strategic planning process. This part is scored and determines the order in which CoCs are funded. HUD will look for whether the CoC application aligns with its policy priorities, including:
Ending homelessness for all persons
Creating a systemic response to homelessness (e.g. use of system performance measures and coordinated entry)
Strategically allocating and using resources (e.g. cost, performance and outcome data)
Using a Housing First approach
Project Application
This section consists of individual project applications for CoC planning, new and renewal project application requests. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has 14 renewal projects, one bonus rapid re-housing project and one planning grant project to support employment connections at coordinated entry. See the full list of projects here.
CoC Priority Listing
This section ranks the project applications and identifies any project applications rejected by the CoC. Planning grant applications are not part of the ranking process, but only one planning grant application may be submitted. Find the full section here. Projects were scored based upon a local scorecard developed by staff and volunteers, guided by HUD technical assistance and approved by the CoC committee.
SO WHAT?
To keep pace with the need in our community, we need to keep our existing permanent housing beds and increase supply where possible. If funded at 100% of the request, this CoC application funds:
- 9 Permanent Supportive Housing Projects, totaling 379 beds dedicated to individuals or families that meet the definition of chronic homelessness.
- 4 Rapid Re-housing Projects, totaling 240 beds (or 111 units) for individuals, families or youth (age 18-24)
- 1 Coordinated Entry Staff to triage and assess the needs of people experiencing homelessness
- Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) costs
- A Planning Grant to help the community incorporate employment strategies for adults experiencing homelessness into Coordinated Entry
Charlotte-Mecklenburg expects to receive award notification from HUD in 90 to 120 days.
Courtney Morton coordinates community posts on the Building Bridges Blog. Courtney is the Housing & Homelessness Research Coordinator for Mecklenburg County Community Support Services. Courtney’s job is to connect data on housing instability, homelessness and affordable housing with stakeholders in the community so that they can use it to drive policy-making, funding allocation and programmatic change.
