On July 5, HUD published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for fiscal year 2023 Continuum of Care (CoC) Competition and renewal or replacement of Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YHDP) grants. More than $3.1 billion is available in total for state and local governments, nonprofits, PHAs and tribal entities. Award amounts will range from grantee to grantee with a minimum award amount of $2,500 to a maximum amount of $15 million.

HUD will prioritize funding for CoCs that have demonstrated the capacity to reallocate
funding from lower to higher performing projects. Project applications for YHDP renewal and replacement must be completed in full and in accordance with the application processes outlined in the NOFO.

The application deadline for this NOFO is September 28, 2023, no later than 8 p.m. ET. The application can be found on grants.gov to apply and the full NOFO can be found here.

For more information on the NOFO, please see our next edition of The NAHRO Monitor on July 18th.

On July 11, HUD published allocation information for Housing Trust Fund (HTF) grantees. The notice lists the formula allocation amounts for each eligible HTF grantee–this covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands.

In total, more than $382 million has been allocated for HTF grantees. For the full list please see below:

Grantee	FY 2023 allocation
1. Alabama	$3,468,011.94
2. Alaska	3,066,413.23
3. Arizona	6,176,374.12
4. Arkansas	3,000,537.12
5. California	62,249,056.21
6. Colorado	5,587,889.02
7. Connecticut	4,510,424.81
8. Delaware	3,066,413.21
9. District of Columbia	3,066,413.21
10. Florida	18,860,872.74
11. Georgia	9,289,519.74
12. Hawaii	3,066,413.47
13. Idaho	3,066,413.21
14. Illinois	14,528,243.51
15. Indiana	5,391,554.02
16. Iowa	3,066,413.85
17. Kansas	3,066,413.77
18. Kentucky	3,515,069.07
19. Louisiana	4,515,321.38
20. Maine	3,066,413.21
21. Maryland	5,428,248.81
22. Massachusetts	8,664,497.83
23. Michigan	8,567,551.32
24. Minnesota	4,881,842.62
25. Mississippi	3,000.537.07
26. Missouri	5,346,517.90
27. Montana	3,066,413.21
28. Nebraska	3,066,413.24
29. Nevada	3,992,364.65
30. New Hampshire	3,066,413.21
31. New Jersey	12,237,784.01
32. New Mexico	3,066,413.39
33. New York	34,734,754.63
34. North Carolina	9,349,938.86
35. North Dakota	3,066,413.21
36. Ohio	10,420,277.39
37. Oklahoma	3,066,414.20
38. Oregon	5,468,941.58
39. Pennsylvania	12,081,840.36
40. Rhode Island	3,066,413.21
41. South Carolina	4,254,877.71
42. South Dakota	3,000,536.58
43. Tennessee	5,290,023.02
44. Texas	22,394,218.80
45. Utah	3,066,413.40
46. Vermont	3,066,413.21
47. Virginia	7,563,731.52
48. Washington	8,377,579.86
49. West Virginia	3,066,413.21
50. Wisconsin	5,527,245.89
51. Wyoming	3,066,413.18
52. Puerto Rico	2,037,321.90
53. America Samoa	0
54. Guam	157,106.91
55. Northern Marianas	76,533.43
56. Virgin Islands	152,726.78
Total	$382,361,726.94

On June 28, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) welcomed applications to the $7 billion grant competition Solar for All, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to expand existing and implement new residential solar investment for low-income and disadvantaged communities. The program will award up to 60 grants to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofits.

The application deadline for submission is September 26, 2023. In addition, applicants are required to submit a Notice of Intent to be eligible by the following dates:

• July 31, 2023 for all states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
• August 14, 2023 for U.S. territories, municipalities and eligible nonprofits
• August 28, 2023 for Tribal governments and Intertribal Consortia

There are three award options that include awards for programs that serve a specific state or territory, awards for programs that serve American Indian and Alaska Native communities and awards for programs that serve communities in multiple states. Different sized award amount will be determined by the total number of households served.

The application can found on Grants.gov here.

 

On June 15, HUD officially updated the Community Planning and Development (CPD) Income Eligibility Calculator to incorporate income limits for fiscal year 2023. The calculator is used to determine income eligibility and assistance amount calculations for the following programs:

• Brownfield Economic Development Initiative (BEDI)
• Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG)
• CDBG Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)
• Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG)
• HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)
• Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA)
• Housing Trust Fund (HTF)
• Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP)
• Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program
• Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity (SHOP)

For current users of the calculator, calculations that have been made in a users dashboard and calculations moving forward will use fiscal year 2023 income limits for determining eligibility.

Data for calculations made based on fiscal year 2022 income limits are only accessible to those who have already downloaded and saved the information prior to the update. The Department notes that the calculator is designed to easily update income for the future and not as a means of storing past data.

The CPD Income Eligibility Calculator can be found here.

On June 8, HUD released the launch of a new initiative focused on better assisting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) youth experiencing homelessness. The initiative concentrates on partnering with stakeholders to address barriers to housing and access to shelters. The Department will work to encourage communities to develop solutions in meeting the needs of LGBTQI+ youth populations.

Technical assistance and recurrent training will be provided by HUD to shelters and service providers discussing resources and methods for better supporting LGBTQI+ youth. Additionally, listening sessions will be held by HUD with LGBTQI+ youth across the country in the near future.

Stakeholders should expect the release of a HUD toolkit focused on best practices in supporting LGBTQI+ youth and a FAQ about complying with the Equal Access Rule and Fair Housing Act in the coming months.

For new actions announced by the Biden-Harris Administration to protect LGBTQI+ communities, please see here.

On June 5, HUD announced that they will make $43,439,000 in funding available for 3,379 Stability Vouchers. The vouchers are targeted to address homelessness among people in unsheltered settings and in rural communities.  The vouchers will be made available to 135 public housing authorities (PHAs) and partnering Continuum of Care (CoC) communities within 34 States.

Funding for the Stability Vouchers was made available through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which emphasizes the purpose of assisting families at risk of homelessness and those experiencing or attempting to flee domestic violence and sexual assault. A notice of interest (Notice PIH 2022-24) for the Stability Voucher Program, which explained procedures and requirements of the program, was published by HUD in August of 2022 and ended in October 2022.

All recipients of the awarded vouchers received at a minimum five vouchers. The range of vouchers received varied from five all the way to 377 vouchers to a single PHA.

For the full list of PHAs and partnering CoCs to receive funding please see here.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness (the Alliance) released their 2023 State of Homelessness report on May 16. It provides an overview of homelessness within the U.S. in 2022 and uses data from HUD’s 2022 Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR) to analyze different trends.

According to their analysis, the Alliance estimates that 18 out of every 10,000 people experienced homelessness across the U.S. in 2022 based on the data taken from HUD. The report highlights rates of homelessness that have shown to rise since 2017 with a modest increase between 2020 and 2022 of nearly 2,000 people.

Most significantly, the report includes various charts and graphs highlighting the number of people experiencing homelessness by type, race/ethnicity, and gender. It also includes charts that display different data revolved around unsheltered homeless populations and rates/trends of homelessness by state.

For the full report, please see here.

On April 7, HUD released Notice PIH 2023-08, which clarifies policies, statutes and regulations that apply to agency regionalization implemented under the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration program. Regionalization is an optional approach that agencies may take to more efficiently provide housing assistance and services for low-income families.

As authorized in the 2016 Appropriations Act, MTW agencies who are interested in regionalization may request to HUD, with one or more adjacent PHAs, designation as a regional agency. These agencies have the authority to administer Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) and public housing assistance within their given region.

The notice lays out the various options and requirements of those options agencies would have to adhere to in pursuing regionalization.

There are two options in pursuing regionalization, which include:

1. Transfer/consolidation of programs, or;
2. Through a Management Agreement

All MTW agencies that apply for regionalization, no matter the option they choose, must submit responses to supplemental MTW regionalization questions listed in the notice. These questions range from “why is a Regional MTW agency is needed?” to “how would the proposed Regional MTW agency achieve the statutory objectives of the MTW Demonstration…?” There are also a number of other documents that must be submitted highlighted in the notice.

For more detail on the requirements of each option in pursuing regionalization, please see the next edition of the NAHRO Monitor on April 30, 2023.

To view the full notice on MTW Regionalization, please see here.

On April 17, HUD announced $171.2 million in funding for 115 new projects within 29 Continuum of Care (CoC) communities. Additionally, HUD will provide 3,362 Stability Vouchers to 139 PHAs who have partnered with CoC grantees totaling $43 million.

Allocated funds for CoCs will be used to address unsheltered and rural homelessness in 62 communities. The vouchers, which were by invitation only from HUD to certain PHAs, if accepted, would be for rental assistance for people experiencing or are at-risk of homelessness.

In total, HUD states they have now provided $486 million for CoC communities. The funding is in alignment with the goal of addressing unsheltered and rural homelessness, which has been a main focus of HUD and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).

For the full list of grant awards please see here.

On April 18, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development published a notice of change that removes the Three-Year Requirement, which specified that 80 percent of a Community Development Block Grant CARES Act (CDBG–CV) grant must be expended within three years of the grant agreement execution date. The notice maintains the Period of Performance requirement, which still requires grantees to expend all CDBG-CV funds within six years.

In response to member concerns of the Three-Year Requirement, NAHRO submitted a letter to HUD in February 2023 requesting that the requirement be waived. The removal of the Three-Year Requirement provides grantees the ability to expend all of their CDBG-CV funds in a reasonable amount of time.

The requirement, which was written into the CDBG-CV program rules notice in August of 2020, did not account for supply chain issues, prolonged shutdowns, and other issues that prevented funds from being used. The notice of change acknowledges this as their reason for the removal of the requirement and provides further detail of their evaluation.

To view the notice, please see here.

For the NAHRO’s letter to HUD please see here.