On Monday, May 2, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made its FY2015 Continuum of Care Program Competition Tier Two grant awards announcement. The Way Home Continuum of Care (CoC) will receive funding for all of its Tier Two new project requests made during the FY 2015 CoC competition. When combined with Tier One renewal and planning awards (which were announced in March 2016), our system will receive $32,098,014 in federal funding for 45 local homeless housing and service programs in Houston, Pasadena, Harris County, and Fort Bend County. This is an $8.4 million increase in funding from 2014, and every project that applied for funding in the 2015 competition was awarded.

An announcement from HUD regarding today’s announcement described the Tier Two FY 2015 CoC grant competition as the most competitive ever, both locally and nationally; and as being consistent with HUD’s policy goals and with Congressional direction to stringently review performance and make investments in communities that are using evidence-based best practices such as Housing First and Rapid Re-housing. HUD strongly encouraged applicants to prioritize their funding requests very carefully, using a mix of performance measurement data and local needs assessment. Nationally, local CoCs reallocated a combined $124 million in renewal funding from lower performing projects to apply for new housing projects that will provide Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and Rapid Re-housing (RRH) solutions for those experiencing homelessness.

The Way Home CoC heeded HUD’s guidance and submitted an incredibly competitive application, reallocating $2.6 million of its own renewal funding to focus on new projects. The funding awarded today for new projects will bring 295 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing for chronically homeless individuals, a new Rapid Re-housing program for homeless young adults (ages 18-24), and a new Rapid Re-housing program for survivors of Domestic Violence.

Congratulations and thank you to all the partners working together in our community. Our strategies and results to date are being recognized and rewarded at the national level!