Continuum of Care
CoC Program
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) set up the CoC program to distribute housing funds to communities across the U.S. Service providers in Austin and Travis County received about $14 million in CoC funds for FY 2024. This is one of several sources of funding providers use to help end homelessness in our community.
FY 2026 CoC Competition
IMPORTANT UPDATE: On June 1, 2026, HUD announced the publication of the FY 2026 Continuum of Care Competition and YHDP Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): CPD-2600-DC-0025
Read the full NOFO on grants.gov
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About the FY26 CoC NOFO
There several notable changes and themes included in the FY2026 NOFO from previous the previous CoC NOFO released in December 2025 and past years CoC NOFOs:
- No cap on Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)
- Permanent housing program renewals can utilize a year transition grant to move to a different program type
- Increased emphasis on competition and project performance
- Tier 1 funding is limited to 60% of the CoC’s Annual Renewal Demand (ARD), resulting in a larger portion of funding being evaluated through the national competition process than previous years.
- Continued availability of CoC Bonus and DV Bonus funding opportunities.
- Increased emphasis on self-sufficiency, employment income growth, and long-term housing stability outcomes.
- Increased emphasis on behavioral health, substance use treatment, recovery, and community partnerships.
- Stronger focus on Transitional Housing (TH), Supportive Service Only (SSO), and Street Outreach.
- Continued importance of data quality, HMIS participation, coordinated entry participation, and measurable project outcomes.
All renewal and prospective applicants are encouraged to carefully review the FY2026 NOFO and local competition materials.
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Local Competition Materials
All links in this section are PDFs unless otherwise specified.
View the FY 2026 CoC NOFO Applicant Webinar hosted on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 2pm CST
Local Competition Timeline (Posted 6/17/2026)
Sign-up for CoC NOFO Office Hours with ECHO NOFO team
(if you are a Transitional Housing project type please email NOFO@austinecho.org to be added to a separate invite to discuss project design specific to TH).
Transitional Housing Office Hours will be
Thu, 6/25/2026, 3pm-4pm (CST)
Thu, 7/2/2026, 3pm-4pm (CST)
Thu, 7/9/2026, 3pm-4pm (CST)
FY 2026 CoC NOFO Review, Scoring, and Ranking Revised Policy (posted on 6/24/2026)
- Policy revised to clarify no new PSH or new RRH projects will be accepted in this year’s local competition except for new RRH projects allowable under the DV Bonus funding.
FY 2026 CoC NOFO Reallocation and Deobligation Policy (posted on 6/18/2026)
FY 2026 CoC NOFO Community Funding Priorities (posted on 6/18/2026)
FY 2026 CoC NOFO NEW Project Application (New, Transition, and Expansion Applicants use this)
FY 2026 CoC NOFO NEW Project Scoring Guide (New, Transition, and Expansion Applicants use this)
FY 2026 CoC NOFO RENEWAL Project Application
FY 2026 CoC NOFO RENEWAL Project Scoring Guide
CoC Expectations Form (NEW project applicants must complete)
Link to ZoomGrants Portal to enter your local application coming soon!
Get updates in your inbox
Sign up to receive the CoC News newsletter to receive updates on the FY26 NOFO process
Find previous years’ NOFO application materials here.
Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP)
The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), the lead agency for the Austin/Travis County Continuum of Care, will be opening a local competition for the FY2024 & FY 2025 Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) released on June 10, 2026 for new YHDP project applications.
Read the full YHDP NOFO
PDF
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About the FY24 & FY25 YHDP NOFO
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the FY 2024 & FY 2025 YHDP NOFO on June 10, 2026. Nationally, HUD expects to select approximately 12 YHDP Community Recipients from the FY 2024 funds, and approximately 12 YHDP Community Recipients from the FY 2025 funds and approximately 120 total YHDP project awards.
YHDP projects fund direct housing and services for homeless youth. More than one project can be selected by ECHO to submit in a Priority Listing.
Application Process
ECHO will hold a local competition to review and rank projects submitted much like the annual CoC NOFO competition. Projects will need to follow local competition deadlines projects not the deadline for submission to HUD.
The Collaborative Application for the YHDP project(s) chosen for the priority listing by must be submitted by ECHO to HUD by August 10, 2026. The local competition deadline will be a date PRIOR to this.
What You Can Do Now
1) Read the FY 2024 & FY 2025 YHDP/YHSI NOFO carefully.
2) Ensure your SAM.gov registration is active
3) Ensure registration in e-snaps (All project applications will need to be entered into e-snaps.
4) Reach out to NOFO@austinecho.org with any questions (goodness of fit, project design, etc.). The ECHO NOFO team will work to get your question answered.
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Local Competition Materials
Application materials for the Austin/Travis County local competition will be posted here as they’re available. In the coming weeks, we anticipate uploading the following:
- Local competition timeline
- YHDP specific local funding priorities and a review and ranking policy
- Applicant Webinar
- Local application with questions specific to our community priorities
- Scoring Guide
CoC Program
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Overview
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About our CoC
Our local CoC (designated TX-503 by HUD) encompasses Austin and Travis County. CoC partners agree to share data and follow common strategies, best practices, policies, procedures, and standards. This ensures agencies are working from the same blueprint in building a sustainable rehousing system. In addition, many agencies that are not directly funded through the CoC program also participate in the community’s data-sharing network (HMIS) and follow the same standards.
Information on our community’s most recent CoC grant awardees can be found on the HUD Exchange website.
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ECHO’s Role
ECHO does not operate housing programs or provide direct services. Our role is to help coordinate the organizations who do.
ECHO is the Lead Agency and Collaborative Applicant of Austin/Travis County CoC. HUD requires that communities pick a single agency to apply for federal grant funds through the program. The agency is responsible for collecting and evaluating project applications from partner organizations (like those listed on our partners page) and submitting a single collaborative grant application on behalf of the community. The CoC Lead Agency is also responsible for conducting the biennial Point in Time (PIT) Count of people experiencing homelessness.
ECHO is also the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Lead for the Austin/Travis County CoC. HMIS is a centralized, person-level database that providers across our community use to connect people with the services and resources they need to end their homelessness. Most providers in our community use this database. Our HMIS and Research & Evaluation Teams examine this data regularly to inform our system’s work.
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Oversight
Each CoC across the country is required to have a governing board. Our local board, Leadership Council, is comprised of people who’ve experienced homelessness, service providers, government leaders, community equity advocates, funders, and others invested in the work to end homelessness. Leadership Council receives staff support from ECHO but operates independently.
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CoC Program Scorecards
Policies, Procedures, & Written Standards
Documents & Forms