The big picture
The awards from the Department of Housing and Urban Development were part of $3.6 billion in total funding distributed to Continuum of Care, or CoC, homelessness response programs across the country. Austin and Travis County's CoC is led by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO, with oversight from a board that includes city and county representatives as well as other regional stakeholders.
The grants, announced Jan. 17, are meant to support local housing and social programs for people experiencing homelessness. The funding also includes support for youth homelessness and domestic violence programs.
The details
The largest of this year's federal awards was a $2.31 million grant to nonprofit Caritas of Austin for supportive housing, offering residents an affordable living space coupled with health and social services. Several other local permanent supportive housing, or PSH, initiatives were funded including at Community First Village, the tiny home development that's now expanding. Millions more are going to local rapid rehousing programs, shorter-term assistance meant to help move clients toward permanent housing.
Grants were also awarded to area housing authorities and domestic violence intervention organizations. South Austin's Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center received nearly $400,000 for its coordinated entry services that connect people with housing programs. And ECHO received hundreds of thousands of dollars for planning work and oversight of the Homeless Management Information System that tracks clients in the region.
Local organizations ended up getting about $2 million more from HUD's 2024 CoC distribution than was awarded last year, and the Austin area ranked 70th out of total CoC awards nationwide. Grant awards to all Texas CoCs, including the Austin and Travis County area, can be viewed here.
One more thing
The HUD awards were finalized in the late days of former President Joe Biden's administration, and it's unclear how a Jan. 27 directive from President Donald Trump's administration to freeze all federal assistance linked to his recent executive orders could affect the homelessness program funding. While that update was temporarily halted in federal court Jan. 28, Austin city staff are monitoring the funding's outlook.
"[Intergovernmental Relations Office] is working with City leadership to review the [Office of Management and Budget] directive, as well as future executive orders that may be issued. Staff will provide additional information as it becomes available," Intergovernmental Relations Officer Carrie Rogers wrote in a Jan. 28 memo.
