This funding builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to coordinated efforts to addressing unsheltered homelessness and homelessness in rural areas
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is announcing communities to receive housing vouchers to address homelessness among people in unsheltered settings and in rural communities. HUD is awarding $45 Million for 3,379 Stability Vouchers to 135 public housing authorities (PHAs) and partnering Continuum of Care (CoC) communities across the United States. The full list of PHAs to receive funding is available here.
On April 17, 2023, HUD announced that 62 CoC communities are receiving $486 million in grants to address unsheltered and/or rural homelessness, and invited the PHAs who partnered with these CoCs to receive Stability Vouchers. Together, these grants and vouchers comprise a first-of-its-kind package of federal resources to help communities make continued progress in reducing homelessness.
“HUD is committed to making sure that people in unsheltered settings and in rural housing have access to housing and to help them deal with the affordability crisis,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “These vouchers will enable communities to partner with health and housing agencies to coordinate efforts to reduce homelessness and help thousands of people move off the streets into permanent housing.”
In 2022, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) launched House America, a national initiative in which HUD and USICH partnered with 105 communities led by mayors, county leaders, governors, and tribal nation leaders to place over 100,000 households from homelessness into permanent housing and add over 40,000 units of affordable housing into the development pipeline. In late December, USICH released All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which set forth President Biden’s ambitious goal to reduce all homelessness by 25% by 2025.
The Stability Voucher Program makes Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) assistance available through a competitive process to PHAs who are partnering with local Continuum’s of Care (CoCs) and/or Victim Service Providers to assist households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, those fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, and veterans and families that include a veteran family member that meets one of the proceeding criteria. HUD gave first priority to PHAs that formally partnered with CoCs in responding to HUD’s Special Notice of Funding Opportunity to Address Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness.
Background on Award
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260) (2021 Act), makes available $43,439,000 for new incremental voucher assistance under Section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 for use by individuals and families experiencing or at-risk of homelessness; those fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking, and veterans and families that include a veteran family member that meet one of the proceeding criteria.
On August 16, 2022, HUD published Notice PIH 2022-24: Stability Voucher Program. The Notice describes procedures for PHAs to express interest during the Registration of Interest process and SV operational requirements, including optional waivers.
The Stability Voucher Program Registration of Interest closed on October 20, 2022, with 367 unduplicated PHAs registering interest. Of these, 139 PHAs were deemed eligible in Prioritization Category 1 outlined in Notice PIH 2022-24. To determine the allocation strategy and formula, Senior Leadership agreed to take an approach to use a formula with a guaranteed minimum allocation of five (5) Stability Vouchers to all PHAs eligible under Prioritization Category 1. Those PHAs received invitation letters to accept an allocation of Stability Vouchers on April 17, 2023. The deadline for them to respond and submit a Funding Application, HUD-52515, was Friday, April 28, 2023.
