FUNDING COMPETITIONS COMING SOON: EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS GRANT & HUD COC PROGRAM

Mecklenburg County Community Support Services serves as the Collaborative Applicant, Coordinated Entry Lead & HMIS Lead for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care (CoC). The Collaborative Applicant is responsible for supporting the CoC Governing Board in the development of its strategies, convening and staffing CoC committees and workgroups and submitting applications for funding on behalf of the community. HUD requires that communities collaborate on solutions to end and prevent homelessness.

What are the funding opportunities?

There are two main funding opportunities that the Collaborative Applicant is responsible for coordinating: NC Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and Housing & Urban Development (HUD) CoC Program. 

NC DHHS EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS GRANT (ESG)

The North Carolina Emergency Solutions Grant Office is a grant funder for local government entities and non-profit organizations located across the state. The State of North Carolina receives an annual Emergency Solutions Grant Program (ESG) grant award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The State subsequently allocates these funds to qualified local governments and non-profit organizations which provide assistance, shelter or services to individuals & families experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

The Emergency Solutions Grants Program (ESG) provides funding to qualified local governments and non-profit organizations to:

• Improve the number and quality of emergency shelters.
• Provide essential services to shelter residents.
• Re-house homeless individuals and families.
• Prevent families and individuals from becoming homeless.

Allowable Program Activities

• Street Outreach
• Emergency Shelter
• Prevention
• Rapid Re-Housing

The NCDHHS ESG Office requires that each of the 12 CoCs make recommendations for how this funding should be allocated in each CoC. The Collaborative Applicant is responsible for administering a transparent process to determine which agencies will be recommended for this funding. At its May 23, 2024 meeting, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg CoC Governing Board has set its priorities for this funding locally. Our CoC will receive $496,300. The CoC Board will allocate 60% or $297,780 to Homelessness Prevention & Rapid Rehousing projects and 40% or $198,520 to Street Outreach and Emergency Shelter projects. The opportunity to submit a Letter of Interest if your agency is interested in applying for this funding will tentatively open on Friday, June 14, pending the release of the opportunity from the State. The CoC Ranking Committee will review the LOIs received and invite agencies whose projects are eligible to submit a full application. The CoC Ranking Committee will then utilize a scorecard to score applications received and ultimately recommend projects for the CoC Board to approve. Once submitted to the NCDHHS ESG Office, they will further evaluate the projects and move forward with contracting. Agencies that receive this funding must operate their designated projects as outlined in the CoC Written Standards.

HUD COC Program Competition 

Each year, HUD releases the CoC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the CoC program competition. The CoC Program is designed to assist individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families experiencing homelessness and provide the services needed to help such individuals move into transitional and permanent housing, with the goal of long-term stability.

Allowable Program Activities:

• Permanent Housing:  Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Rapid Re-Housing (RRH), Joint Transitional Housing-Rapid Rehousing
• Homeless Management Information System (HMIS–Only Collaborative Applicant can apply)
• Supportive Services Only (Coordinated Entry–Only Collaborative Applicant can apply)

Similar to the process outlined above, HUD requires that the CoC submit one application for funding on behalf of the community. In the most recent funding competition, HUD awarded agencies in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg CoC a total of $6,788,103. The breakdown of this funding is below:

• $691,392 or 10.2% to infrastructure projects (Coordinated Entry, HMIS & Planning)
• $4,687,868 or 69.1% to Permanent Supportive Housing projects that serve individuals & families experiencing chronic homelessness
• $887,109 or 13.1% to Rapid Rehousing projects serving survivors of Domestic Violence
• $308,492 or 4.5% to a Rapid Rehousing project serving families
• $213,242 or 3.1% to Rapid Rehousing projects serving unaccompanied youth

At its May 23, 2024 Board meeting the CoC Governing Board voted to approve its funding priorities for this funding for the upcoming competition year. The process for applying for this funding will be announced via the CoC Weekly Digest email. If you do not receive this email, please subscribe here. If you are interested in discussing a project idea for this funding, please contact: charmeckcoc@mecknc.gov. HUD requires that communities work collaboratively to ensure its funding supports the strategies the CoC has identified to end and prevent homelessness. HUD evaluates CoCs on their progress utilizing the System Performance Measures. The CoC carries out its work through various committees and work groups. If you are interested in partnering in this work, please subscribe to the CoC Weekly Digest.

SO, WHAT

Both ESG & HUD CoC funding are crucial components in our communities work to end and prevent homelessness, but this funding alone will not solve homelessness. It is important for all funding dedicated to homelessness and housing instability seek to support programs that improve the System Performance Measures. In the coming months, the ESG Office and HUD will announce that the funding competitions have opened. Be on the lookout for more information regarding our local process and timeline and how to submit a letter of interest for each funding competition.