THIS SPECIAL EDITION of e-news highlights today's announcement by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of $1,010,000,000 in competitive homeless assistance funds in two categories. McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants of approximately $1 billion are available, with applications due June 10, 2005. In addition, $10 million is available under the Housing for People who are Homeless and Addicted to Alcohol competition for 10 2-year grants of approximately $1 million each. Applications are due May 19, 2005. Below are highlighted changes for 2005 which include, but are not limited to, the following. The NOFA itself and the Questions and Answers document should be thoroughly reviewed for details. HUD will host a Webcast on this competition on April 7, from 11am to 2 pm EST.

Samaritan Housing Initiative. Formerly referred to as the Permanent Housing Bonus, this special incentive to promote permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless is provided to Continuum of Care systems that place an eligible, new permanent housing project in the number one priority position on the priority list. If the number one priority project qualifies as an eligible, new permanent housing project exclusively serving the chronically homeless, then the full amount of that project's eligible housing activities, up to a maximum 15 percent of the Continuum of Care's preliminary pro rata need, will be added to the pro rata need amount for the Continuum. The only eligible activities that will be counted toward this bonus are housing activities and for Supportive Housing Program (SHP), case management, and administration. Applicants may use no more than 20 percent of this bonus for case management costs. Please note: any amount of the proposed project that exceeds the limitations described above will be applied against the pro rata need for the Continuum of Care. For the SHP program, housing activities are acquisition, new construction, rehabilitation, leasing of housing and operating costs when used in connection with housing. S+C and SRO rental assistance are defined as housing activities and are eligible under the incentive as well. HMIS costs will be excluded from this calculation as either a housing or supportive service cost.

Continuum of Care (CoC) Hold Harmless Amount. This is the total of the one-year amount of all SHP projects eligible for renewal. A Continuum shall receive the higher of: (1) the preliminary pro rata need (PRN) or (2) the CoC hold harmless amount. In the past, HUD awarded a renewal adjustment when the amount needed to fund all eligible renewals for one year exceeded the preliminary pro rata need. An unintended consequence of this policy resulted in CoCs having to request renewal of projects that in their judgment did not best reflect the current needs of the community. CoCs receiving the CoC hold harmless amount will now have the opportunity to reallocate their PRN funds in order to create new permanent supportive housing projects. This will provide them with the same flexibility that CoCs without excessive SHP renewals have.

Participant Eligibility for Permanent Housing. The only persons who may be served by permanent housing projects (both new and renewal) are those who come from the streets, emergency shelters, or transitional housing. People who are currently housed but may become homeless within seven days, remain eligible for transitional housing and emergency shelters.

Grant Terms. The grant terms for all newly proposed SHP projects are two (2) or three (3) years. Scoring Changes. The "Housing Emphasis"' scoring has been increased from 10 to 12 points. See Section V.A.2.a.(5) for additional information on this subject. The "Performance Measurement'' scoring has been increased from 5 to 8 points . The "Leveraging Supplemental Resources'' scoring has been reduced from 13 to 8 points.

ALSO announced today is a new $10 million competition for Housing for People who are Homeless and Addicted to Alcohol. Eligible applicants are States, local government, other government agencies, and public and private nonprofit organizations that are part of a Continuum of Care in jurisdictions that have at least 100 people who are chronically homeless and unsheltered. Eligible activities are limited to leasing of housing and limited housing search and administrative expenses. For the purpose of this NOFA, housing activities include only leasing and housing search.

The new program is designed to provide supportive housing assistance to chronically homeless persons who have been living on the streets for at least three hundred sixty-five (365) days over the last five (5) years and have a long term addiction to alcohol, otherwise known as serial inebriates. Clients served by these funds will have been living on the streets at the time of initial contact and will have no history of living in transitional or permanent housing over the last five years. Grantees will partner with local law enforcement and court systems and other relevant institutions to identify eligible clients for this program. Grantees will demonstrate existing relationships with service providers, including grassroots community- based organizations including faith-based organizations, to ensure the comprehensive supportive services needs of the clients are addressed (through other funds). The project must be located within a Continuum of Care that has at least 100 people who are chronically homeless and unsheltered, according to the Continuum of Care or a recent official count.

It is the intent of Congress that funds awarded under this NOFA support innovative solutions, which frequently result when local community organizations work together. Building upon existing collaborations, grantees are expected to work in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies and courts, including the police department, sheriffs department, superior court, city attorney, and/or city council, to identify and refer eligible clients to projects funded by this program. After clients are identified as having a long- term addiction to alcohol and having lived on the streets for at least 365 days over the last five years, the provider will determine, on a case-by-case basis, if they need to be stabilized in programs (not funded through this initiative), such as a residential treatment center, detoxification center or other jail diversion program, for up to six months prior to being placed into permanent supportive housing (funded through this initiative). Following this demonstration period, funded projects may be eligible to apply, on a competitive basis, as a renewal project through the Continuum of Care for Supportive Housing Program-- Permanent Housing (SHP-PH).

Once the grantee, working in conjunction with the relevant supportive service providers and the homeless client, determines that the client is ready, grant funds for this initiative may be used to provide permanent supportive housing for the client. Up to five percent of the funds are available for providers to help clients identify and obtain permanent supportive housing. HUD expects that approximately half of the projects awarded will provide grants for leasing that are project-based projects, and the other half will provide grants that are tenant-based projects. Comprehensive alcoholism treatment services, along with other relevant services, must be provided in a manner deemed appropriate by the grantee and are subject to requirements of the Supportive Housing Program regulations and other applicable laws and regulations. Clients must be assisted in accessing relevant mainstream service delivery systems, Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid, for example.

This program was authorized by Public Law 108-7, approved February 20, 2003 (111 Stat. 494) as a two-year demonstration program. The Supportive Housing Program is authorized by Title IV, Subtitle C, of the Stewart B. McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento Act), 42 U.S.C. 11381.