FY 2020 Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program
The Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD)’s Fiscal Year 2020 Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program NOFO has completed OMB and OGC final review and approval and it is ready for publication.
The Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program was enacted to provide states and localities with the resources and incentives to devise long-term comprehensive strategies for meeting the housing needs of low-income persons with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and their families. Stable housing has been a major issue facing many persons living with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic. Achieving and maintaining stable housing can be a powerful structural intervention in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
As discussed in HIV Care Continuum: The Connection Between Housing and Improved Outcomes Along the HIV Care Continuum (2014), a resource created by HUD’s Office of HIV/AIDS Housing and available on the HUD Exchange, approximately half of all persons living with HIV in the U.S. will experience homelessness or housing instability at some point following their diagnosis. Economic disadvantages, episodes of poor health, and co-occurring health diagnoses make it difficult for many persons living with HIV to secure or maintain housing.
HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination add additional barriers to accessing and maintaining housing. To end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, persons living with HIV must have access to high-quality and culturally competent services including housing and supportive services that are non-stigmatizing, non-discriminatory, inclusive, and responsive to their needs. Issues such as discrimination and systemic racism that contribute to differences in access in housing and lead to ongoing disparities among racial, ethnic, and LGBTQ+ communities must be addressed. Reducing these disparities requires a focus on the needs of disproportionately affected populations, supporting racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, combating HIV-related stigma and discrimination, providing leadership and employment opportunities for people with or at risk for HIV, and addressing social determinants of health and co-occurring conditions to reduce health inequities and disparities.
HUD’s 2014 HIV Care Continuum report also found that housing has a direct, independent, and powerful impact on HIV incidence, health outcomes, and health disparities. According to the report, “Housing status is a more significant predictor of health care access and HIV outcomes than individual characteristics, behavioral health issues, or access to other services. People who are stably housed are more likely to be virally suppressed, more likely to have a reduced risk of HIV transmission, more likely to use fewer public resources, and more likely to return to care if not currently engaged, among other positive outcomes.”
Collectively, our local, domestic, and global communities have committed to ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic through strategies and initiatives including Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, the HIV National Strategic Plan, and Getting to Zero. With aggressive goals set to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic under each of these initiatives and strategies, all available resources must be used to achieve these goals. HOPWA has the opportunity to take part in these efforts by using housing as an effective structural intervention to end HIV/AIDS epidemic. Grants funded under this NOFO will enhance local and federal efforts to end the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) is a federal initiative led by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with a goal to end the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years by reducing new HIV infections in the United States by 75 percent by 2025 and by 90 percent by 2030. EHE leverages critical scientific advances in HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and outbreak response by coordinating the highly successful programs, resources, and infrastructure of many HHS agencies and offices and providing a targeted infusion of new resources and support to the jurisdictions most heavily impacted. Phase I of EHE has a geographic focus on 48 counties plus Washington, DC and San Juan, PR and seven states where new HIV infections are highly concentrated.
The National HIV/AIDS Strategy was first released on July 13, 2010 and identified a set of priorities and strategic action steps tied to measurable outcomes for moving the Nation forward in addressing the domestic HIV epidemic. In July 2015, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States: Updated to 2020 was released, and it expired in 2020. In January 2021, the HIV National Strategic Plan was released as the nation’s third consecutive five-year national HIV strategy and covers 2021-2025. The HIV Plan focuses on four goals: (1) Reduce New Infections, (2) Increase Access to Care and Improve Health Outcomes for People Living with HIV, (3) Reduce HIV-Related Health Disparities and Health Inequities, and (4) Achieve a More Coordinated National Response to the HIV Epidemic. The HIV National Strategic Plan and the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative are closely aligned and complementary, with the EHE initiative serving as a leading component of the work by HHS, in collaboration with local, state, and federal partners, to achieve both the Plan’s and the initiative’s goal of reducing new HIV infections by 90 percent by 2030.
This NOFO announces the availability of funding under the authority for HOPWA Special Projects of National Significance at Section 854(c)(5) of the AIDS Housing Opportunity Act (42 U.S.C. 12903(c)(5)). This funding will provide communities an opportunity to create and implement new projects that align with initiatives aimed at ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and elevate housing as an effective structural intervention in ending the epidemic. HUD is seeking projects with exemplary and innovative qualities, including community-level coordination, data collection with emphasis on stable housing and positive health outcomes, culturally competent approaches to providing housing and services, and a systemic approach to advance equity in underserved communities that can serve as a national place-based model.
Each project must be designed for the Grantee to achieve the following six required project objectives:
- Implement and document housing and services models for low-income persons living with HIV and their families that are innovative and replicable in other similar localities or nationally;
- Increase alignment with new or existing local initiatives or strategies to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by elevating housing as an effective structural intervention;
- Improve coordination among local housing and service providers and use of available community resources;
- Increase the amount of quality data collected and used for data-driven decision making with an emphasis on stable housing, positive health outcomes, and racial equity;
- Assess and document replicable practices that ensure equitable access and culturally competent approaches to providing housing and services for populations of persons living with HIV experiencing service gaps; and
- Prioritize sustainable, effective, and equitable approaches to providing housing and services to persons living with HIV and their families that can be continued past the funded project’s period of performance.
Each successful applicant under this NOFO will received a one-time, non-renewable grant to fund housing assistance and supportive services for eligible beneficiaries, coordination and planning activities, and grants management and administration. Reporting requirements under this NOFO are more comprehensive than traditional HOPWA program reporting. Grantees will be required to collect client-level data to produce a programmatic HIV Housing Care Continuum Model at the end of each operating year. At the end of the grant period of performance, each grantee must also develop a Housing as an Intervention to Fight AIDS (HIFA) Model, consisting of promising practices for and lessons learned in using housing as a structural intervention to end the AIDS epidemic. Each HIFA Model will be shared with the public, and lessons learned through these grantee efforts will help inform national and community policy and actions.
Pre-Application Webcast: HUD will conduct a Pre-Application Webcast for anyone interested in submitting an application for a Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 HOPWA Competitive Grant. The webcast will cover the information contained in this NOFO. Viewing the webcast is optional. Interested applicants who do not view the webcast are still eligible to apply and will receive equal consideration for their grant applications. More information on the webcast will be provided through the HOPWA mailing list and posted online here: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/hopwa/listserv. To sign up for the mailing list, please visit: https://www.hud.gov/subscribe/signup?listname=Housing%20Opportunities%20for%20Persons%20with%20AIDS%20Program&list=HOPWA-L
Funding of approximately $41,000,000 is available through this NOFO. HUD expects to make approximately 18 awards from the funds available under this NOFO.
This NOFO offers no Preference Points.
Program Office: Office of Community Planning and Development
Funding Opportunity Title: Procedural Guidance for Fiscal Year 2021 HOPWA Permanent Supportive Housing Renewal and Replacement Grant Applications
Assistance Listing Number: 14 241
FAIN (FR) Number: 6500-N-11
OMB Approval Numbers: 2506-0133
Estimated Opening Date: 04/14/2021
Estimated Deadline Date:07/06/2021
Contact: HUD staff will be available to provide clarification on the content of this NOFO. Questions regarding specific program requirements should be directed to POC staff listed within the NOFO. Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339. Please note that HUD staff cannot assist applicants in preparing their applications.