Each year the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) awards funding to organizations that support HUD initiatives to address homelessness, for programs that provide rental assistance, supportive housing and services. 

These funds come through what we call “NOFO,” short for the annual Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) application and competition. This funding is competitive and awarded through HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, which is the largest source of federal grant funding for homeless services and housing programs nationwide. A Continuum of Care (CoC) is HUD’s term for a local homelessness response system. Nearly 400 CoC’s across the country participate in this competition, which gives them the opportunity to renew existing projects, apply for new ones, and to reallocate resources from lower-performing projects.

In some ways, the NOFO competition is like the FIFA World Cup. To begin the collaborative application, partners of The Way Home submit individual applications to the committee, which reviews and scores the project applications based on several factors including project performance and resource utilization — like how athletes in each country have to qualify to secure a spot on their national teams. 

After the local review, we submit the final list of projects to HUD for consideration , along with a written narrative of our CoC’s overall performance. This makes us like a coach, coordinating and leading the team throughout the competition. 

Then, just like a soccer team would compete against other countries in the World Cup, HUD evaluates applications from CoC’s across the country based on specific guidelines. They consider factors such as quality of application, CoC performance, and national policy priorities.

We count on this annual funding to allow us to sustain existing permanent housing slots. It plays a crucial role in keeping existing programs and individuals housed with the supports needed. Any new potential funding is made available through reallocation or from new projects dollars assigned by HUD.

In 2022, The Way Home was awarded over $46.2 million in funding for homelessness programs in the Houston area — including one new Permanent Supportive Housing project — further propelling our goal to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in our region! We are proud to score a win for the homeless response system!