Purpose

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 people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and their families. Stable housing has been a major issue facing many people with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic. Achieving and maintaining stable housing can be a powerful structural intervention in ending the HIV epidemic.

Collectively, our local, domestic, and global communities have committed to ending the HIV epidemic through strategies and initiatives including Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE), the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and Getting to Zero. With aggressive goals set to end the HIV epidemic under each of these initiatives and strategies, all available resources must be used to achieve these goals. HOPWA grantees have the opportunity to further these efforts by using housing as an effective structural intervention to end HIV epidemic. Grants funded under this NOFO will complement local and federal efforts to end the domestic HIV epidemic.

HIV-related stigma and discrimination add additional barriers to accessing and maintaining housing. To end the HIV epidemic, people with HIV must have access to high-quality and appropriate 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 to housing and lead to ongoing disparities among racial, ethnic, and LGBTQI+ communities must be addressed. Reducing these disparities requires a focus on identifying the underlying barriers to participation and challenges faced by these subpopulations, addressing those barriers and the needs of disproportionately affected populations, supporting racial justice, LGBTQI+ 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.

This NOFO announces the availability of funding under the authority for HOPWA Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) 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 epidemic, and elevate housing as an effective structural intervention in ending the epidemic. HUD is seeking projects with exemplary and innovative qualities, including incorporation of Housing First principles, community-level coordination, data collection with emphasis on stable housing and positive health outcomes, the use of cultural humility in 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 a low-barrier model using Housing First principles to provide housing and services to low-income people with HIV and their families that is innovative and replicable in other similar localities or nationally;
• Increase alignment with new or existing local initiatives or strategies to end the HIV epidemic by elevating housing as an effective structural intervention;
• Improve use of available community resources and coordination among local housing and service providers;
• Increase the amount of quality data collected and used for data-driven decision making with an emphasis on stable housing, positive health outcomes, and equity;
• Assess and document replicable practices that ensure equitable access and cultural humility in providing housing and services for populations of people with HIV experiencing service gaps; and
• Prioritize sustainable, effective, and equitable approaches to providing housing and services to people with HIV and their families that can be continued past the funded project’s period of performance.

Each successful applicant under this NOFO will receive a one-time, non-renewable grant to fund housing assistance and supportive services for eligible individuals and families, 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 SPNS Grant Model, consisting of promising practices for and lessons learned in using housing as a structural intervention to end the HIV epidemic. Each SPNS Grant Model will be shared with the public, and lessons learned through these grantee efforts will help inform national and community policy and actions.

Funding of approximately $50,000,000 is available through this NOFO. HUD expects to make approximately 20 awards from the funds available under this NOFO.

Program Office: Office of Community Planning and Development
Funding Opportunity Title: Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Competitive Grant: Housing Interventions (HINT) to End the HIV Epidemic
Funding Opportunity Number: FR-6700-N-11
Assistance Listing Number: 14.241
OMB Approval Number: 2506-0133
Opening Date: September 15, 2023
Deadline Date: January 31, 2024

Program NOFO

FONSI