Stability Vouchers Will Incentivize Public Housing Agencies to Partner with Communities to Address Unsheltered Homelessness and Homelessness in Rural Areas
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today issued a notice that explains the department’s non-competitive allocation strategy and program requirements for the new Stability Vouchers. Under the program, HUD will award up to $43,439,000 to support approximately 4,000 new incremental vouchers with the goal of encouraging a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness through a coordinated, Housing First approach. Read HUD’s notice here.
“Along with the $322 million in Continuum of Care grants that HUD recently announced, the Stability Vouchers will enable communities to partner with health and housing agencies to coordinate their efforts to reduce homelessness and help thousands of people move off the streets into permanent housing,” said Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “These vouchers also offer housing agencies more flexibility to maximize families’ ability to find housing of their choosing. This flexibility has helped communities use Emergency Housing Vouchers from the American Rescue Plan to quickly meet housing needs. The Biden-Harris Administration is leading a historic expansion of housing vouchers, which includes permanent vouchers like these and Emergency Housing Vouchers. In the coming weeks, we look forward to announcing our further expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program to serve more families.”
The roughly $43 million for the 4,000 new incremental vouchers is part of a first-of-its-kind package of resources to address unsheltered homelessness and homeless encampments, including funds set aside specifically to address homelessness in rural communities. The package, announced by HUD in June, also includes $322 million in Continuum of Care Program to fund homeless outreach, permanent housing, supportive services, and other costs. HUD expects communities to partner with health and housing agencies to leverage mainstream housing and health care. The notice announced today is designed to direct Stability Vouchers to PHAs partnering with Continuums of Care and Victim Service providers to implement coordinated approaches to reduce the prevalence of homelessness, improve service engagement and promote housing stability while ensuring geographical need of assistance.
The Stability Voucher Program is similar to the successful Emergency Housing Voucher Program (EHVs), funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in that they include programmatic flexibilities to help families successfully secure a unit. In coupling Stability Vouchers with CoC-funded supportive services, families can be provided resources and services that will help them to obtain and maintain housing.
To be eligible to receive an SV funding allocation, a PHA must currently administer an HCV program. Non-profit agencies that only administer Mainstream vouchers are not eligible to receive an SV allocation. The non-competitive allocation formula will be based on estimates of household experiencing or at risk of homelessness by geography. The PHAs will be invited to apply for a specific number of Stability Vouchers once they have expressed an interest in the program by sending a response to StabilityVouchers@hud.gov.
In order to be eligible for an SV, a household must meet one of four eligibility criteria:
- Individuals and families who are currently experiencing homelessness;
- Individuals and families at risk of homelessness;
- Individuals and families fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, sexual assault; and
- Veterans and families that include a veteran family that meet one of the preceding criteria (a-c).
All Registrations of Interest must be sent to StabilityVouchers@hud.gov no later than 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on October 20, 2022.