Historic Funding Opportunity to Address Unsheltered Homelessness as a Social Determinant of Health in Rural Communities
Date:
Duration: approximately
minutes
Featured Speakers
- Jana Reese, Funding Resources Specialist, Rural Health Information Hub
- J Helms, Training and Education Facilitator, Pathways Vermont
- Norman Suchar, Director of the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released a first-of-its-kind package of resources to address unsheltered homelessness, with a unique opportunity for rural communities. This Initiative for Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness being made available by HUD strongly promotes partnerships with health care organizations, public housing authorities and mainstream housing providers, and people with lived experience and expertise of homelessness.
This $365 million package will help communities pursue a public health approach and they can use this opportunity to coordinate and scale up efforts to sustainably solve unsheltered homelessness, create a unified approach with shared responsibility among local governments, homeless services organizations, health care providers and housing agencies.
Existing Continuum of Care programs can apply, and see Appendix B of the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the rural areas that are eligible for the $54.5 million rural set aside. We encourage health partners to check to see if their area qualifies and connect with the CoC partners. These grants will fund projects for three-years, after which they will be eligible for renewal through the annual Continuum of Care (CoC) program competition.