McKinney-Vento Appropriations

HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants fund a variety of programs and activities. Last year, almost $200 million was distributed to communities for the Emergency Shelter Grants program. Most of the remaining funds are distributed through the Continuum of Care process. Under this process, homelessness providers in a specific geographic area work together to describe their assistance, identify their needs, and rank the projects that they want funded. HUD ranks the applications and provides funding based on the quality of the application, the performance of the local homeless assistance system, the need for homeless assistance, and the local rankings of individual programs. Funding can be used for permanent and supportive housing, transitional housing, and services.

On February 4, 2008, the Administration released its fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget request. The Administration’s request for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants was $1.636 billion, a $50 million increase over FY 2008.

This proposal is insufficient to meet the emergency needs of the many families, veterans, individuals, and youth experiencing homelessness every night, and it leaves little funding for the advancement of solutions-focused programs. HUD estimates that the cost of renewals alone will be approximately $1.5 billion. A funding level of $2 billion is needed to renew existing projects while providing new resources for communities to address the unmet housing and service needs of millions.

Latest News: Advocates are urged to ask their Senators to sign a letter led by Senators Reed (D-RI) and Martinez (R-FL) to the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee in support of including $2 billion for HUD's McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Grants in the fiscal year (FY) 2009 appropriations bill. For more information, see the Alliance’s Advocacy Update sent April 2, 2008.