AUSTIN — Join ECHO and community partners to learn more about a new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding opportunity available to help Austin/Travis County address unsheltered homelessness through a Special NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity).

• When: Friday, July 22, 10:30a-12p
• Where: Virtual (please pre-register here)
• What: Discussion about this new NOFO, the related Plan to Serve People Experiencing Homelessness with Severe Service Needs, and Homelessness Response System needs & gaps

HUD released the Special NOFO, which comes on top of the regular annual NOFO, in June. In response to the NOFO requirements, ECHO is creating a “Plan for Serving Individuals and Families Experiencing Homelessness with Severe Service Needs.” Our community will be competing against other community Continuums of Care (CoCs) across the country for funding. HUD has allocated a maximum of the following funding for Austin/Travis County:

• $7,703,625 over a 3-year term
• $2,567,875 per year

During this presentation, ECHO will outline:

• Special NOFO specifics
• Community timeline to finalize Plan and open local application process
• Current system needs and gaps

While the timeline for development of this Plan is short, we are looking forward to this discussion. This Special NOFO strongly promotes partnerships with healthcare organizations, public housing authorities and mainstream housing providers, and people with lived expertise of homelessness. 

HUD expects applicant communities to partner with health and housing agencies to leverage mainstream housing and healthcare resources and ECHO will be working with health and housing agencies to identify those leveraged resources.