What is NOFO and How Do PIT Counts Influence Local Funding?
Part of our role as the leader of the local Continuum of Care (CoC) is to facilitate applications for federal funding opportunities. With limited aid available to projects at the local level, programs and organization must submit competitive applications to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We are currently facilitating the HUD CoC Program Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) Process for our local CoC.
Loosely speaking, NOFO is a broad “competition” for federal funding dollars between Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs that serve unhoused folx in our area. Local organizations submit their renewal grants and new projects to be reviewed locally before being submitted to HUD.
To ensure equity, this structured process involves our team but relies on an independent review committee (IRC) to rank program applications on performance which impact their overall scores. Once the IRC completes their ranking, they submit their results to us. Since we are the Collaborative Applicant for our CoC, we compile this information into a Community Application (up to 200 pages!) to send to HUD for consideration and approval.
Across all programs, the NOFO process brought a total of $5.8 million in funding to support CoC programs in 2023 across Douglas, Sarpy and Pottawattamie counties. Generally, a CoC expects to receive the same amount year to year—provided all renewals are approved—but can also earn “bonus” funding in areas such as domestic violence prevention and survivor support.
Why is all this important?
We conduct two Point-In-Time (PIT) counts each year. The goal of PIT counts is to understand the current climate of homelessness. This data factors into all of the funding processes we facilitate.
PIT data must go through a stringent verification process, so data from January is often not available until August or September. In homelessness prevention, we typically expect summer numbers to be higher for a variety of reasons. Here’s a snapshot of where our numbers as of late July 2024:
We encountered 376 unsheltered people, and of those:
· People were encountered in all three counties of our CoC
· 293 (78%) reported having a disabling condition
· 200 (53%) identified as being chronically homeless
These numbers speak to a need for more preventative support and affordable housing which is how NOFO funding can be utilized and make a difference in our community. With the real data about homelessness across our community, NOFO applicants identify strategies, programs and initiatives that funding will impact unhoused folx.
If you or a neighbor are facing housing instability, please connect with one of our Access Points and/or attend our Project Connect event on Wednesday, October 9th at Baxter Arena.
Our CoC’s network of resources helps prevent individuals and families from facing housing insecurity and gain access to safe, quality housing. If you are able, please support our work to make a direct impact in homelessness prevention.
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