Administrator
Martha N. Johnson
General Services Administration

CONTINUING PREPARATIONS FOR FY 2009 HOMELESS ASSISTANCE GRANTS COMPETITION, HUD ISSUES NOTICE ON ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS

July 16. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this week continued preparations for the FY 2009 Homeless Assistance Grants competition with the publication of a Notice for Continuums of Care on electronic registration procedures and also outlining some important changes from previous competitions.  This follows HUD’s December 29 publication, which was later amended on April 16, of its General Section providing policy requirements applicable to all HUD FY 2009 discretionary program applications. Still to come is the actual Homeless Assistance Grants Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) which HUD states will not be published before August 15. HUD will announce the release of this year’s NOFA via its Homeless Assistance listserv. To join HUD’s listserv, go to http://www.hud.gov/subscribe/mailinglist.cfm and click on Homeless Assistance Program. Again this year, HUD is using the e-snaps electronic registration and submission system rather than grants.gov for the Homeless Assistance Grants Program.

While some of the major Notice provisions are highlighted below, it is very important that all potential applicants read this week’s Notice in full.

• In an effort to streamline the renewal award process in 2009, HUD has modified the selection process. Eligible Supportive Housing Program (SHP) and Shelter Plus Care (S+C) renewal projects will be conditionally awarded as quickly as possible. New projects will be awarded after the project threshold review and the scoring of the CoC application have been completed. During a July 15 webcast on the Notice, HUD officials indicated that they expected that it would be sometime after the new year before the new project monies were awarded.

• In 2009, CoCs in hold harmless status (HHN) will not be able to reallocate funds to new projects. New project applications must be either new projects within FPRN (Final Pro Rata Need) for CoCs in PPRN or projects that will be funded with permanent housing bonus funds (described below).

• For 2009, the Samaritan Bonus Initiative will be replaced with a Permanent Housing Bonus. CoCs will be able to use funds for homeless disabled individuals and families or for chronically homeless individuals. As creating new permanent housing beds for chronically homeless individuals is still a HUD priority, HUD strongly encourages CoCs to use at least a portion of available bonus funds to create a project that will exclusively serve the chronically homeless.

Read more highlights