Alaska Balance of State Continuum of Care Grant Program

 

About

  • The CoC Grant Program is a HUD-funded initiative that provides grants to direct service providers to assist individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families experiencing homelessness move into transitional and permanent housing, with the goal of long-term stability.

    The role of the CoC Lead Agency is to

    • administer the CoC Grant Program,

    • promote region-wide planning and strategic use of resources to address homelessness,

    • coordinate and integrate with mainstream resources and other programs targeted to people experiencing homelessness,

    • improve data collection and system performance measurements, and

    • allow each community to tailor its programs to the strengths and challenges in assisting individuals and families within that community.

    The Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (AKCH2) is the CoC Lead Agency for the Alaska Balance of State CoC region, which encompasses all communities in Alaska outside of the Municipality of Anchorage.

  • Each year, HUD releases a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that details the amount of funding available for the upcoming year’s CoC Grant Program.

    Organizations may submit applications to renew their existing CoC grants or apply for new projects (based on funding availability).

    Applying for the CoC Grant Program is a multi-stage process:

  • If you have questions or would like to learn more about the Alaska Balance of State CoC Grant Program, email Helen Renfrew, Program & Grants Manager at helen@alaskahousing-homeless.org.

 

CoC Grant Prep

The Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (AKCH2) carries out the day-to-day management of the Alaska Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC). The Balance of State CoC geographic area covers all of Alaska, outside of the Municipality of Anchorage, and is the largest geographic CoC region in the United States. Please note: to participate in the Anchorage CoC Program, visit the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness website. The amount of funding available for Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FFY24) is limited and will be determined by HUD. The process is very competitive, locally and nationally.

AKCH2 is inviting applications for new projects and will be providing technical assistance for both renewal and new applicants. We strongly encourage you to review the full NOFO once it becomes available.

NOFO prep sessions will be scheduled and will include valuable information for both renewal and new project applicants, such as:

  • specifics of the upcoming year’s HUD NOFO cycle

  • what steps your organization should take right now, if you haven't already

  • changes you can expect to see in this year's local applications

  • a draft timeline for the NOFO cycle, based on the information we currently have

  • a schedule of AKCH2 "office hours" where we'll be providing TA for anyone who would like to join

There are some things that everyone should do NOW to get ready to submit a new or renewal project application:

  • Register or confirm your existing registration with the System for Award Management (SAM.gov)

  • Receive or confirm your organization’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), which will be required for submission

  • Establish or verify registration in and access to e-snaps, HUD’s online grant application submission portal

In addition, renewal project applicants should:

  • Clean up your data! Need help? Have questions? The AKHMIS Knowledge Base may have the answer, or email the AKHMIS Help Desk at akhmis@icalliances.org

  • Draw down funds in eLOCCS. Regular drawdowns and expenditures are a threshold requirement.

  • Review the application you submitted last year. Have you done the things you said you would?

Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects (YHDP):

  • Project renewals will be non-competitive this year

  • Project replacements are available - if interested reach out to AKCH2 staff for a discussion

  • Projects must still meet threshold requirements

For Renewal Project Applicants, the following steps should be completed annually prior to HUD’s NOFO release:

  • Review the Grant Inventory Worksheet (which will be linked here when it is available)

  • Double check all of the information listed for your grant(s). If anything is NOT accurate, reach out to AKCH2 staff immediately.

  • Clean up your data! Numerous questions in the applications will be answered using numbers from AKHMIS. If your project has missing or incomplete data, it will impact application scores and could, therefore, impact our system funding. System funding directly correlates to available project funding. Data quality contacts received data quality reports on 6/6/23. These reports include specifics about corrections needed in AKHMIS on tabs three and four. Need help? Have questions? The AKHMIS Knowledge Base may have the answer, or email the AKHMIS Help Desk at akhmis@icalliances.org

For New Project Applicants, the following steps should be taken in preparation for the NOFO release:

  • Review last year’s FFY23 Collaborative Application for information on the work that has been and is being done by the Alaska Balance of State CoC.

  • Review the FFY24 HUD CoC NOFO to understand what type of information HUD is looking for and the types of projects that are funded through this program

  • Determine your project’s scope, subpopulation, budget (including identifying the required 25% match), and other details in preparation for putting together your application

You can also reach out to the AKCH2 Program & Grants manager, Helen Renfrew via email helen@alaskahousing-homeless.org to discuss your project and the needs of the statewide homeless system.

CoC Grant Local Competition

The Alaska Balance of State CoC Grant Program Local Competition for FFY24 has officially launched.

Download the Pre-Submission Agreement below as a Word .docx. In order to select an answer, double click the box and press the “A” key. That will replace the box with a checkmark.

The Pre-Submission Agreement form is NOW AVAILABLE for all applicants

Alaska Balance of State FFY24-25 FAQs

Click on the links below

Link for Local Competition TA Sessions HERE - Wednesdays from 2pm to 3pm: August 14, 21, 28, and September 4

Link for e-snaps TA Sessions HERE - Wednesdays from 2pm to 3pm: September 25, October 2, 9, and 16

CoC Grant Resources

Click HERE to access the recording of AKCH2’s initial esnaps TA session on 10/2/24 (you may need this Passcode: 0U$E@TSp)

.Click HERE for a link to the 8/5/24 kickoff video - Slides

Download the Pre-Submission Agreement below as a Word .docx. In order to select an answer, double click the box and press the “A” key. That will replace the box with a checkmark.

The Pre-Submission Agreement form referenced in application instructions is ready!

Sample template MOU for Healthcare partnerships

Helpful Resources will be available (as soon as they are released by HUD) by clicking on the links below:

CoC Grant Funding Recommendations

The Alaska Balance of State CoC Grant Program Local Competition for FFY24 is now closed.

The AK-501 CoC Board of Directors met on September 25, 2024, and is recommending the following slate of projects to HUD for funding in the FFY24 CoC Grant Program. The Alaska Balance of State CoC received more than $3.2 million in funding requests and will be awarded between $1.9 and $2.3 million in funding. The actual amount will be determined by HUD. In addition to the projects awarded in the local competition, Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program project renewals and the CoC Planning grant were also accepted by the Board and will be forwarded to HUD for funding.

Because the AK-501 CoC could not recommend all applicants for funding they relied on recommendations by the rank and review committee, as well as AK-501 CoC-adopted priorities to determine project prioritization. These priorities included CoC Programmatic Activities, Maximizing CoC Funding, Maximizing Collaborative Application Points, Geographic Diversity, and Balancing Renewal & New Projects.

By clicking on the image below, the table will open in another window.

Color-coded table of the results of all applications received by AK-501 during the FFY24 CoC Local Competition.

CoC Grant Collaborative Application

HUD requires each CoC to post their CoC-approved collaborative application and priority listing for comment prior to submitting to HUD. You can download the FFY24 Consolidated Application and Project Priority Listings below:

CoC Grant Funding Awards

On January 17, 2025, HUD released the results of the Continuum of Care (CoC) grant program awards. The Alaska Balance of State received an 18% increase in total programmatic funding amounting to $2,373,562. These funds are primarily used to support operating costs of housing first programs across the Alaska Balance of State in additional to support to operate the homeless prevention and response system.

Congratulations to our partners for their hard work securing funding for these needed projects!