Continuum of Care funding

2024 Continuum of Care Competition

2024 Governance

Homelessness Prevention RFP

2023 Continuum of Care Competition

2023 Governance

2022 Continuum of Care Competition

2022 Governance

FY22 Supplemental Unsheltered NOFO

2021 Continuum of Care Competition

2021 Governance

2020 Continuum of Care Competition

2019 Continuum of Care Competition

2019 Governance

2018 Continuum of Care Competition

Final documents


Community Prioritization Event on August 24, 2018

The following documents are required to complete the 2018 Fillable CoC Performance Scorecard.

What is a Continuum of Care?

A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a collaborative funding and planning approach that helps communities plan for and provide, as necessary, a full range of emergency, transitional and permanent housing, along with prevention and other services to address the various needs of homeless persons. HUD also refers to the group of community stakeholders involved in the decision making process as the “Continuum of Care.”

Strategies to End Homelessness serves as the lead agency for our local Continuum of Care (OH-500) and is under contract with the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to facilitate the work of the community related to homelessness including:

  • Shelter Diversion
  • Outreach programs
  • Emergency shelter programs for singles and families
  • Transitional housing programs
  • Service-enriched permanent supportive housing programs including Shelter Plus Care
  • Specialized services-only programs

The Continuum of Care process

  • Involves all agencies and programs who receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Assesses capacity and identifies gaps
  • Develops proactive solutions
  • Increases competitive advantage for receiving funds
  • Facilitates the allocation of funding to these agencies
  • Serves as an inclusive vehicle to promote best practices
  • Facilitates access to mainstream resources and services for the homeless
  • Works to develop policies and procedures to assist homeless persons directly

The tangible product of this process is the annual Continuum of Care grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Continuum of Care membership

As defined in our CoC’s Governance Charter, membership is determined by fully participating in the most recent Large Group Scoring Process.

See archived CoC information

Continuum of Care downloads and resources

Current CoC policies

ESG funding

2023 ESG Funding Application

To receive the ESG Shelter funding, applicants must attend the Prince of Peace Allocation Meeting (link above).

In collaboration with the City of Cincinnati, Strategies to End Homelessness is requesting Applications for Shelter and Rapid Re-Housing projects to serve the needs of the homeless population in Cincinnati through Emergency Solution Grant (ESG) funds.  Agencies wishing to apply for Shelter funds must please complete and return the Notice of Intent to NOFAS@end-homelessness.org by Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 4:00 pm and attend the Allocation meeting on January 6, 2023 from 11AM-Noon via Microsoft Teams.  Agencies wishing to apply for Rapid Re-Housing funds must complete and return the Notice of Intent to NOFAS@end-homelessness.org by Wednesday, December 28, 2022, at 4:00 PM.

What is ESG?

On December 5, 2011, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published an interim rule for the new Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). This program replaces the former Emergency Shelter Grant, which was originally established by the Homeless Housing Act of 1986, in response to the growing issue of homelessness among men, women, and children in the United States. The change in the program’s name, from Emergency Shelter Grants to Emergency Solutions Grants, reflects the change in the program’s focus from addressing the needs of homeless people in emergency or transitional shelters to assisting people so they can quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness.

ESG funds are used in multiple ways in our community.  As a continuation of the HPRP Homeless Prevention, ESG funds support a Shelter Diversion Program and ESG funds continue to fund the operating and essential service expenses at the emergency shelter facilities.

The emergency shelter providers who currently receive City of Cincinnati ESG funds are: Bethany House Services, Center for Respite Care, Shelterhouse, Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati, Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center, Lighthouse Sheakley Center for Youth, the Salvation Army, and the YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter.

The City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County contract with Strategies to End Homelessness for coordination and planning of homeless housing and services including ESG funds. The emergency shelter portion of the ESG funds are allocated in an inclusive process of the provider network. Providers gather annually to review the needs within the community and to allocate the funding. The ESG shelter allocation is presented to the City of Cincinnati for final approval.

Read the Emergency Solutions Grant Program Interim Regulations.

Please contact Jamie Hummer at Strategies to End Homelessness for questions.

HOPWA funding

2023 HOPWA Application

2021 HOPWA Application

What is HOPWA?

Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) is federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that is distributed to Eligible Metropolitan Statistical Areas (EMSA’s) using a statutory formula that relies on AIDS statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HOPWA funding provides housing assistance and related supportive services as part of HUD’s Consolidated Planning initiative that works in partnership with communities and neighborhoods in managing Federal funds appropriated to HIV/AIDS programs.

The HOPWA Advisory Committee oversees the allocation of HOPWA funding in a process designed to be inclusive of multiple stakeholders within the HIV/AIDS community. The Committee is comprised of: state HOPWA officials, Ryan White representatives, provider applicants, consumers, and advocacy organizations. The Committee reviews applications for HOPWA funds and makes allocation recommendations, which are subsequently forwarded to the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Budget and Evaluation for inclusion in the annual budget presented to the City Council for final approval.

The City of Cincinnati contracts with Strategies to End Homelessness to oversee sponsor grant management and project activities.

HOPWA funding is awarded to the City of Cincinnati as the Formula grantee for the Cincinnati area EMSA. This area includes the following 5 counties in Ohio: Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren; 7 Kentucky counties: Boone, Bracken Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton; and 3 Indiana counties: Dearborn, Franklin and Ohio.

Please contact Suzanne Brownchurch at Strategies to End Homelessness for more information regarding HOPWA.

The following agencies were awarded funding to operate HOPWA Programs in 2018:

Caracole, Inc.
Center for Respite Care
Northern Kentucky Health Department
Shelterhouse

HOPWA downloads and resources

Resources