Homelessness prevention agencies weren’t supposed to compete for federal funding this year.
Usually, the competition for federal grants occurs every year. But last year, after much advocacy, agencies were able to lengthen the application cycle, which means applications open every two years. That would’ve left staff free to focus on providing services to people vulnerable to homelessness.
But now, the future of federal funding is unclear.
The Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC) oversees local homelessness prevention and assistance programs. It also manages the application process for federal funding.
When President Donald Trump took office, CoC Director Courtney Guntly said she was surprised by a notice she received, alerting her agency to a new round of competitive grants. Instead of having projects automatically renew this year, some projects might run out of funding before applications are processed.
Guntly received that letter in July. It’s now the end of October and she said she hasn’t received any more information from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about funding. That delay in communication has been further exacerbated by the government shutdown.
“We are running out of time, if not past the point where we have run out of time.”Courtney Guntly, director of Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care
“We are running out of time, if not past the point where we have run out of time,” Guntly said.
That means some programs might face months of operating without federal grant funding.
The Balance of State CoC distributes over $8 million for various housing programs across Iowa. Local agencies operate on a reimbursement-based system.
“They can’t spend any of this money before they have a contract in place, so they would have to be paying for their staff from other funds outside of this grant funding,” Guntly said.
Agreeing to conditions in exchange for federal funding
While the application for all HUD funding still hasn’t been released, Guntly said she’s concerned by the requirements listed in an application for a separate pot of money.
That grant process specifically funds building permanent supportive housing. Those buildings are needed for programs that provide long-term rental assistance for people with disabilities.
HUD revised that application three times this year. For the third revision, Guntly said HUD included a list of conditions the agency must meet, or it would not be eligible for funding. HUD gave agencies one week to respond.
Some of the criteria include:
- Affirming that the project is located within a city, county or state that prohibits public camping
- Affirming that the city, county or state cooperates with federal immigration enforcement
- The project is a “medical respite project” housing people with at least one physical disability and/or people over 62 years old
Guntly said she’s especially concerned about limiting permanent supportive housing to the elderly and people with physical disabilities because it drastically restricts the number of people CoC can serve.
In an internal report prepared by the Institute for Community Alliances and cited by Guntly, around 36% of individuals self-identify as having a physical disability. The new criteria would disqualify nearly two-thirds of households from accessing housing.
Because people seeking medical respite only need housing for the short term, Guntly said that doesn’t align with the current mission of permanent supportive housing.
According to reporting by Politico, anonymous HUD workers said the Trump administration is planning to cap the percentage of money that can go towards permanent supportive housing at 30%. Guntly said around 80% of the Balance of State CoC budget goes towards that effort.
“It just was very clear in the questions that we were asked to sign-off on of what the administration's priorities were,” Guntly said.
For Guntly, she's concerned the change in priorities means drastic changes to how much funding programs in Iowa will see next year.
