Much of the funding for homeless services in the Continuum of Care (CoC) comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HEARTH Act of 2009 authorizes the CoC competitive grant program and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program, which is a formula based grant.
CoC
The CoC Program funds permanent housing, transitional housing, supportive service projects, planning projects, and the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The City’s Department of Human Service Programs (DHSP) is the designated Collaborative Applicant for the CoC, and each year coordinates the CoC’s response to the annual funding competition.
Information and updates about the CoC competition can be accessed here.
Information from HUD about the CoC Program
Cambridge CoC Written Standards
ESG
The ESG Program funds street outreach projects, emergency shelters and drop-in centers, homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing. The City of Cambridge receives an annual formula grant from HUD for the ESG program, and subgrants ESG funds to nonprofit providers in the City.