The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds housing and services for people who are homeless through the annual SuperNOFA (Notice of Funding Availability) process.
The SuperNOFA is released by HUD in the spring of each year. For Chicago, HUD is the largest single source of funding for homeless services, totaling $50.1 million in 2007, and supporting over 130 programs.
Each June, on behalf of the Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness, the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness submits a lengthy application to HUD (totaling 3,300 pages in 2007) for the SuperNOFA funding. Included in this application is Chicago’s priority list for distributing the annual HUD funding. In order for a program to receive HUD funding, it must appear on Chicago’s priority list.
Chicago runs a local application process to determine which programs will be placed on the list to receive HUD funding. Since the number of applications far exceeds the amount of available funding, the Chicago process is competitive. This local process begins every fall and continues through the spring. The Chicago Alliance staffs this process, with oversight provided by the Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness. The Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness is a planning body made up of homeless service agencies, consumers of homeless services, government partners, private foundations, and members of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness. Its role is to establish the policies, principles, and priorities of Chicago’s SuperNOFA process.
For agencies applying for HUD funding in Chicago, the SuperNOFA process has two parts – the local evaluation process and the submission of HUD paperwork:
Part 1: The Evaluation Process
For the 2008 SuperNOFA, the local evaluation process began on November 20th, 2007 when the 2008 evaluation instrument was distributed to all Supportive Housing Project (SHP) renewals and new projects. This application was due on January 18th at 5pm to 205 West Wacker Drive, Suite 1321.
These applications will be scored by independent evaluators, and then prioritized for HUD funding. This prioritizing is done by using the ranking policies set each year by the Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness.
Part 2: Submission of All Required HUD Paperwork
Once HUD releases the SuperNOFA, which usually occurs in the spring of each year, a series of paperwork is required to be submitted. This paperwork includes: exhibit-2, SF-424, SF-LLL, logic model, and 40090-2.