Federal Homelessness Resource Guide

Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Here's What We Provide

• Emergency Shelter Grants Program

The Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG) program provides homeless persons with basic shelter and essential supportive services. It can assist with the operational costs of the shelter facility and with the administration of the grant. ESG also provides short-term homeless prevention assistance to persons at imminent risk of losing their own housing due to eviction, foreclosure, or utility shutoffs.

Grantees, which are State governments, large cities, urban counties, and U.S. territories, receive ESG grants and make these funds available to either local government agencies or private nonprofit organizations. The recipient agencies and organizations, which actually run the homeless assistance projects, apply for ESG funds through the governmental grantee and not directly to HUD. Feel free to view all Community Planning and Development (CPD) city, county and state grants, including the ESG grant, or contact your local field office for further assistance.

ESG funds are available for the rehabilitation or remodeling of buildings used as a new shelter, operations and maintenance of the facility, essential supportive services (e.g., case management, physical and mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling, child care, etc.), homeless prevention, and grant administration.

Grantees, except for State governments, must match ESG grant funds dollar for dollar with their own locally generated amounts. These local amounts can come from the grantee or recipient agency or organization; other Federal, State and local grants; and from "in-kind" contributions such as the value of a donated building, supplies and equipment, new staff services, and volunteer time.

• The Continuum of Care

The Continuum of Care approach helps communities plan for and provide a full range of emergency, transition, and permanent housing and service resources to address the various needs of homeless persons. HUD believes the best approach for alleviating homelessness is through a community-based process that provides a comprehensive response to the different needs of homeless persons. The fundamental components of a Continuum of Care system are:

• Outreach and assessment to identify a homeless person's needs
• Immediate (emergency) shelter as a safe, decent alternative to the streets
• Transitional housing with appropriate supportive services to help people reach independent living
• Permanent housing or permanent supportive housing

This Federal grant assistance program is administered by HUD's Special Needs Assistance Programs Office. Grants under the Continuum of Care are awarded through a national competition held annually. To learn how you can enter the national competition, please call your local HUD office or local Homeless Coalition.

Continuums of Care programs include Supportive Housing, Single Room Occupancy Housing, and Shelter Plus Care.

• Supportive Housing Program

The Supportive Housing Program (SHP) promotes the development of housing and supportive services to assist homeless persons in the transition from streets and shelters to independent living. The grants go to nonprofit organizations, local and State governments, and other governmental entities.

SHP features six approaches to help homeless people achieve independence. Applicants may choose the approach that best suits the needs of the people they intend to serve.

• Transitional Housing assists homeless persons with housing for up to 24 months with supportive services that help them move into independent living.
• Permanent housing for person with disabilities that enables special needs populations to live as independently as possible in a permanent setting.
• Supportive Services Only projects operate independently to link with housing from other sources.
• Safe Havens are a form of supportive housing that serves hard to reach homeless persons with severe mental illness and other debilitating behavioral conditions.
• Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) is data-collection software designed to capture information over time on the characteristics of persons experiencing homelessness.
• Innovative Supportive Housing enables the applicant to design a program outside the scope of existing programs. The project must present a unique approach that can be replicated elsewhere.
• Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Program

The SRO program provides rental assistance for homeless persons in connection with the moderate rehabilitation of SRO dwellings. SRO housing contains units for occupancy by one person. These units may contain food preparation or sanitary facilities, or both.

Under the program, HUD enters into Annual Contributions Contracts with public housing agencies (PHAs) in connection with the rehabilitation that when completed will contain multiple single room dwelling units. These PHAs make Section 8 rental assistance payments to participating owners (i.e., landlords) on behalf of homeless individuals who rent the rehabilitated dwellings. The rental assistance payments cover the difference between a portion of the tenant's income (normally 30%) and the unit's rent, which must be within the fair market rent established by HUD.

Rental assistance for SRO units is provided for a period of 10 years. Owners are compensated for the cost of some of the rehabilitation (as well as the other costs of owning and maintaining the property) through the rental assistance payments

Assistance provided under the SRO program is designed to bring more standard SRO units into the local housing supply and to use those units to assist homeless persons. The SRO units might be in a rundown hotel, a Y, an old school, or even in a large abandoned home.

• Shelter Plus Care (S+C) Program

The Shelter Plus Care Program provides rental assistance to homeless individuals/families with disabilities. Disabilities primarily include mental illness, chronic problems with alcohol and/or drugs, and HIV/AIDS or related diseases.

Eligible applicants are States, local government units, and Public housing agencies. These units of government may contract with a non-profit organization.

Eligible activities are restricted to rental assistance and administrative costs associated with administering the rental assistance. Supportive services must be available to meet participant's needs. The applicant or other sources may provide these services.

Here's Who To Contact

If you would like to know more, please call one of these offices and ask for Community Planning and Development (CPD):