Lowcountry Continuum of Care

Background

The Lowcountry Continuum of Care (CoC) plans, develops, and implements comprehensive and coordinated strategies to address homelessness in Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton, and Jasper Counties. The Lowcountry CoC is governed by a Governing Council comprised of individuals representing our Continuum’s diverse geography and homeless services focus. Various members of this Council, excluding members representing HUD CoC-funded agencies, make up the Project Selection Committee, the committee responsible for reviewing and selecting applications to be submitted as part of the community’s Collaborative Application to HUD.

Overview

On July31, 2024, HUD released its annual Notice of Funding Availability (NOFO) for the Continuum of Care Program.  Approximately $3.5 billion is available under this NOFO, including at least $52 million available for Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Bonus (DV Bonus). The full NOFO and accompanying documents can be found here: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/coc/competition

Project Review and Ranking

Project Applications submitted to the CoC for inclusion on the FY24 CoC Priority Listing as part of the CoC Consolidated Application must be reviewed and either approved and ranked or rejected by the CoC. All project applications approved by the CoC must be listed on the CoC Priority Listing in rank order.

To ensure a comprehensive and coordinated community effort to address homelessness and HUD’s Policy Priorities the Lowcountry CoC will score and rank higher projects and organizations that:

·         Demonstrate the ability to identify, engage and effectively serve homeless individuals. This includes subpopulations (veterans, youth, families, those with disabilities, chronically homeless) and those living in unsheltered locations.

·         Demonstrate the ability to locate and engage homeless people with the highest barriers, including those living in encampments, and connecting them with health and housing resources.

·         Have established relationships with healthcare providers.

·         Demonstrate a commitment to advancing equity through identifying and addressing the needs of subpopulations who are disproportionally more likely to experience homelessness, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals.

·         Utilize evidenced-based approaches to providing housing and supportive services to homeless individuals, including those with histories of unsheltered homelessness.

·         Correctly implement a Housing First Approach and demonstrate how the project will maintain fidelity to the evidence-based model.

·         Incorporate the viewpoints of those with lived expertise of homelessness in program design, implementation, and operation, preferably through paid employment.

·         Have a plan to accurately collect and report data to help the CoC identify characteristics of those with the highest needs and longest experiences of homelessness. All organizations currently using HMIS must be in good standing with the Lowcountry CoC’s HMIS Committee.

·         Demonstrate the ability to build and sustain relationships with landlords and property owners and leverage non-CoC or ESG-funded housing resources.

The Lowcountry CoC’s Rating and Ranking Tool will be available at https://lowcountrycoc.org/funding

Application Process

1.       Carefully read the NOFO released by HUD (General and Program sections).

2.       Prepare and submit a Project Application for each project in e-snaps. Applicants should review the NOFO for eligible project types and eligible expenses and ensure their e-snaps submission responds to the Rating Factors for New Project Types as outlined in the NOFO.

Instructions on how to register for e-snaps and set up the required applicant profile can be found here: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/e-snaps/#general-resources.

a.       There are several steps to this process.

                                                   i.      Register for e-snaps and create an applicant profile if you are not an existing user,

                                                 ii.      Register for the funding opportunity,

                                               iii.      Create a project, and

                                               iv.      Complete the submission.

Do NOT wait until the last minute to begin this process. Please note that all Project Applicants must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and active SAM Registration. This process may take several weeks to complete.

3.       Export and save the project application to a PDF file.  Please follow all directions in e-snaps.

4.       Email the PDF of the Project Application to  hcarver@lowcountrycoc.org  by September 20, 2024 at 5:00 PM. Organizations who have not been a recipient of HUD CoC funding within the past three years must submit the following additional information, along with the PDF of the Project Application, as outlined above.

a.       Application Supplement, available at https://lowcountrycoc.org/funding

b.       Current list of board of directors with affiliations

c.       Most recent audit