The North West Florida Continuum of Care (CoC) is designed to promote community wellness and coordinate efforts in the homelessness response. One of the CoC’s primary responsibilities is to apply for and allocate funds to support provider efforts, along with notifying and educating providers on available funding opportunities.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

There are some upcoming federal and state grant opportunities. Here is how you can prepare: NOW is the time to begin planning a project application if you would like to participate in upcoming funding opportunities! Once the funding opportunity is released there is typically a very short turnaround time to get your project applications in, evaluate and rank them, and assemble the consolidated application. Don’t wait until the funding opportunity is released to start planning! The more you do now, the easier the process will be for all of us.

Currently, we do not have any specifics on the funding that will be available, so make sure your project is scalable. Then once the funding opportunities are released, you’ll only have to adjust your budget and deliverables. (For example, you might plan a $150,000 project to serve 10 families – what would that same project look like if you could have $250,000? or only $75,000?) To plan for your project, you’ll need the following information: project narrative including target populations and services that you will provide, detailed project budget, number of individuals or families that the project will serve with that budget, narrative describing your organization’s experience with this kind of project.

What types of projects can you fund? For the last several years, federal funding has been available for Rapid Rehousing and/or Permanent Supportive Housing only. State funding has been more flexible with types of projects allowed, but still must be tied to reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness in our CoC (so funding for a new water heater in a facility would probably not be approved). Of course, we don’t know if that trend will continue, but it’s probably a safe bet. As soon as we have more information, we’ll get it out to you. Good luck!

If you have any questions, please feel free to Contact Doorways director@doorwaysnwfl.org.

DCF Challenge & ESG Request for Proposal (RFP)

Challenge funds are used locally to assist homeless individuals or households at risk of becoming homeless. This grant is used to implement the local homeless assistance plan and obtain the goals outlined in the CoC plan through housing, program, and service projects. ESG funds provide funding to engage those experiencing homelessness through Street Outreach, support Emergency Shelter operations and provide services to residents, prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless, and rapidly re-house literally homeless individuals and families.

The RFP is expected to be released by July 31st 2024 and will provide greater detail regarding the scope of the Challenge grant and the FL515 RFP process .

Additional Grantee Resources

• Emergency Solutions Grant Regulations: eCFR :: 24 CFR Part 576 — Emergency Solutions Grants Program
• ESG Guidance: ESG: Emergency Solutions Grants Program – HUD Exchange
• Rapid Rehousing Guidance: Rapid Re-Housing: ESG vs. CoC Guide – HUD Exchange
• Continuum of Care Program Competition Information
• Search for more funding opportunities on Grants.gov
• Grants Learning Center