Federal funding for local homeless services came in sooner than expected, but still a month and a half late.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds the Continuum of Care program with services like permanent supportive housing, street outreach and rapid re-housing. The latest round of grant funding was due July 1.
The nonprofit Strategies to End Homelessness administers the program locally. President Kevin Finn says delays are common, but they expected it to be longer this year; that's why they went to the city and county for help.
"We're just glad that the funding wasn't delayed any further than it was, and we're also very lucky that the city and the county were willing to step up and provide gap funding because in many communities that would not be the case," Finn told WVXU.
Delays mean local organizations have to find other funding sources to cover rent for people who were previously homeless. Finn says that was possible for July and August, but September would have been more challenging. The HUD funding will reimburse those organizations and pay for services through the rest of the program year, through June 30, 2027.
"Even though we did not execute those contracts with the city and the county this year, we did a lot of good work to get those ready, and we can benefit from that work next year if there is a delay again," Finn said.
Judge blocks changes to continuum funding
Separately, a federal judge has once again blocked HUD's proposed changes to the Continuum of Care program, according to Politico.
As WVXU previously reported, HUD proposed rules that would limit how much Continuum of Care programs could spend on permanent supportive housing. The proposed 30% cap is a significant decrease from what the local Continuum of Care spends, which is about 95% of the current funding.
"Permanent supportive housing is where we get chronically homeless people back into housing, and then we surround them with services to address whatever their issues may have been. That is a proven solution," Finn told WVXU. "The current administration is moving to shift funding toward other housing options that do not have the same kind of research backing them up."
Politico reports the federal judge's ruling in early August is based on a finding that HUD violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Finn says he thinks the changes are inevitable, eventually.
"Elections have consequences, and the new administration has different priorities. That's fine, but local communities need to be given the opportunity to align with those priorities on a realistic time frame," Finn said. "We don't want to be kicking people who were chronically homeless out onto the street in order to achieve those shifts. We need a little more time and thoughtful response to make those changes."
Finn says typically the application for Continuum of Care funding would be due in August or September for awards that would begin July 1, 2027. But he says HUD still hasn't released information about the next round of funding.
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