Washington, DC – Today, Representatives Scott Peters (CA-50), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), and Sara Jacobs (CA-51) led 52 of their colleagues to urge the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to finish processing and disbursing Fiscal Year 2024 homelessness funds that have yet to be sent out. While the Trump administration rescinded a previous order to freeze all unspent grant funding, the administration continues to withhold funds which hurts the ability of local service providers to provide shelter and care for homeless people. The members’ letter also calls on HUD to adhere to the recent congressionally-approved two year homelessness funding cycle. Allowing providers to solicit two years of funding instead of one would allow them to focus more time on addressing homelessness than chasing federal dollars. 

In their request to Secretary Turner, the members wrote, “We write to you today to express our concern that Continuum of Care (CoC) funding recipients may not receive funding already appropriated by Congress. We urge you to take action to ensure the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will finish processing FY2024 funding.”

They go on to push HUD to comply with the Congressionally authorized two-year Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for CoC funding. They state, “Because an annual funding process can take over six months, requiring extensive community input around funding priorities, reallocation processes, and renewal evaluations, funding recipients lose critical time and resources that could otherwise be used to implement housing solutions in our communities. A two-year NOFO cycle more efficiently and effectively utilizes taxpayer dollars and staff resources.”

Homeless service providers help vulnerable individuals access housing, counseling, and other supportive services. Any uncertainty in federal funding causes fear and chaos and may prevent providers from serving our communities and working to reduce homelessness. And implementing a two-year homelessness funding cycle would allow recipients to spend less time planning their applications and more time solving homelessness.

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) is leading a similar letter to HUD in the Senate. The letter is supported by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), the San Diego Housing Commission, and San Diego’s Regional Taskforce on Homelessness.

“Communities nationwide – in red states and blue states alike – are still in doubt about whether they will receive the vital, lifesaving FY24 homelessness funds that have already been lawfully appropriated by Congress and properly awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),” said NAEH CEO, Ann Oliva.  “All Americans who are determined to help their relatives, friends and neighbors who are living in shelters or on the streets greatly appreciate the strong leadership of Representatives Peters, Jacobs, and Bonamici in alerting their Congressional colleagues and in particular the HUD Secretary to the serious consequences of continued inaction.”

“Failure to deliver these crucial Continuum of Care funds to the San Diego region would result in more people experiencing homelessness in shelters or on the streets,” SDHC President and CEO Lisa Jones said. “At a time when seniors and women make up a greater proportion of the record-high number of people vulnerable to or experiencing homelessness, and our efforts are showing some improvement, now is not the time for critically needed funds to sit idle in Washington. We thank Congressman Peters and his colleagues for leading the effort to secure these funds.”

“Newly confirmed HUD Secretary Scott Turner recently said, ‘Homelessness has no party,’ and I would add it has only one solution: Housing,” said Tamera Kohler, CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness in San Diego. “This is why we are asking the Secretary to ensure the release of CoC FY24 funding that Congress has already approved. These funds are dedicated to housing. In San Diego County alone, the funds pay for permanent housing for more than 2,600 people. That’s 2,600 people with disabling conditions, many of whom are seniors or families. Turning away from them is not only wrong but returning them to homelessness will also end up costing us more money in the long run to meet their needs. We can’t allow that to happen.”

Full text of the letter can be found here and below:

Dear Secretary Turner,

We write to you today to express our concern that Continuum of Care (CoC) funding recipients may not receive funding already appropriated by Congress. We urge you to take action to ensure the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will finish processing FY2024 funding and comply with the two-year funding cycle.

As you know, the CoC program is the core federal funding stream to help communities address homelessness. On January 17, 2025, HUD announced $3.6 billion in CoC program awards for nearly 7,000 projects across the country. Most of this funding is for existing projects, and without the grants, these projects will expire in Calendar Year 2025. These projects enable homeless service providers to help veterans, families with children, youth, seniors, and vulnerable individuals access permanent and temporary housing, crisis counseling, and other supportive services.

In the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memo M-25-13, the authors made clear that grant awards that have not yet been obligated were at risk of reversal or withdrawal by the Administration. Although the memo on the federal funding freeze was later rescinded, it is evident that the Trump Administration is still withholding funds. On February 10, a federal judge in Rhode Island acknowledged that the Administration failed to comply with a January 31-issued Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and that funding pauses persist. The judge ordered the government to immediately restore frozen funding. However, given the Administration’s documented refusal to comply with the TRO, we are concerned that HUD will continue to delay or fully withdraw CoC awards that have not yet been obligated.

Further, in FY2024 Appropriations, Congress granted HUD the authority for a two-year Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for CoC funding in an effort to enhance efficiency in the program. Previously, CoC funding recipients engaged in an annual funding process. Because an annual funding process can take over six months, requiring extensive community input around funding priorities, reallocation processes, and renewal evaluations, funding recipients lose critical time and resources that could otherwise be used to implement housing solutions in our communities. A two-year NOFO cycle more efficiently and effectively utilizes taxpayer dollars and staff resources. We are concerned that HUD, following the OMB memo’s direction, will withdraw the two-year funding commitment in the middle of the FY2024/FY2025 funding cycle. This would create an undue burden on funding recipients and would directly work against the Administration’s stated goal of increasing the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar and promoting efficiency in government.

Though the OMB memo is now rescinded, its publication created panic and uncertainty among funding recipients actively providing critical services in their communities. Large and small homeless service providers alike – across rural, suburban, and urban communities – are largely funded by the Continuum of Care program, and this lack of financial certainty is actively causing them to reevaluate their ability to provide services to their communities. This, in turn, has the potential to increase homelessness across the country. We urge HUD to finish processing FY2024 homelessness funding and comply with the two-year funding cycle authorized by Congress. We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Sincerely,

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