Each year, HUD releases what’s called a “Notice of Funding Availability.” This event sends us into a high-speed race to help our local agencies apply for funding distributed by our federal government.
As the Continuum of Care agency, the Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness is responsible for recommending which agencies in our community receive funding. It’s a big task, and we do our best to make sure everyone has fair and equal access to fund the important projects we know you’re working on!
If you work for or volunteer with a local agency, here’s what you need to know about the process.
As of publishing, the 2021 NOFA has NOT yet dropped. This is simply informational.
Understanding the HUD Grant Application Process
- Each year, HUD releases new guidelines with new standards and primary aspects they want to focus on. We don’t know what these guidelines are until they arrive in our inbox.
- We NEVER know exactly when HUD will release those guidelines. We will make them available to you as soon as we have them.
- Once guidelines are released, we follow an organized process:
First we send you the same information we receive in full detail. This information can be long and cumbersome, but we want it in your hands ASAP.
Second we start deciphering and summarizing the information. We know it’s a time consuming process and you’re busy. So, we want to narrow down the most important aspects for you.
Next, we work with organizations throughout the grant application process. We email you regularly to remind you of upcoming deadlines, make ourselves available to answer questions, and review your applications once you send them in.
What you need in order to qualify for funding
All applicants must be government or quasi-government agencies, or non-profit organizations. You must attend mandatory CoC NOFA Training sessions (set up after we receive HUD’s guidelines). And, the project for which you are applying for funding must correlate with one of two categories: literal homlessness OR fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence.
Literal Homelessness involves people who are actively sleeping without shelter, are in an institution with no place to go once they are released, or are living in homeless shelters. Projects connected to this category of homelessness are generally permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing efforts.
There are other opportunities to fund projects relating to alternative categories of homelessness, but this grant opportunity is not one of them.
We want you to receive funding!
Even though we act as the first layer of review, we’re on your team. We want to support the projects that will be most beneficial to our community. Once we’re finished combing through every application, we will contact you to let you know your application has been approved and will be sent to HUD for further review.
At this point in the process, you will have a chance to make final changes before the application is officially sent off.
If you have questions about NOFA or if you’d like to be added to our list of contacts once the information is released, please let us know. We expect this year’s information to hit our inbox any day now.
