2022 Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) and Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA)

Grants to Georgia nonprofit organizations and local government agencies in eligible regions to address the needs of those who are experiencing homelessness. Applicants must complete the required registration prior to applying. Funding is intended to support programs in the following categories of service: Emergency Shelter, Homeless Prevention, Hotel Motel Vouchers, Rapid Re-Housing, Street Outreach, Supportive Services, and HOPWA.

The Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program provides street outreach, emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, homelessness prevention, and related services to persons experiencing homelessness or in danger of becoming homeless throughout the state. Sub-awards are provided to local government entities and non-profit organizations utilizing State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission (HTF) and Federal HUD ESG funds. These agencies then deliver program services at the local level. This program is principally designed to operate within a continuum of assistance that enables individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to move toward housing sustainability.

• ESG Emergency Shelter: In limited cases emergency shelter may include hotel/motel vouchers. Shelter stays should be avoided, if possible, and when not possible, limited to the shortest time necessary to help participants regain permanent housing. Emergency shelter projects should be closely linked to an array of projects within the community in order to accomplish this goal of stable permanent housing including, but not limited to, rapid re-housing, transitional housing, affordable housing placement, and employment. Linkages should also be made to applicable mainstream projects such as SOAR, SNAP, TANF, etc.
  
• Homeless Prevention: According to HUD ESG regulations, ESG funds may be used to provide housing relocation and stabilization services and short- and/or medium-term rental assistance necessary to prevent an individual or family from moving into an emergency shelter or another place described in paragraph (1) of the ‘‘homeless’’ definition in § 576.2. The costs of homelessness prevention are only eligible to the extent that the assistance is necessary to help the project participant regain stability in the project participant’s current permanent housing or move into other permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing.
  
• ESG Hotel Motel Voucher: Funds may be used for costs of providing homeless families and individuals with temporary shelter in hotels and motels for the duration of thirty days and associated case management. First and foremost, applicants must demonstrate that no other appropriate shelter is available to serve the proposed populations.
  
• Rapid Re-Housing: According to ESG regulation 24 CFR 576, ESG funds may be used to provide housing relocation and stabilization services and short- and/or medium-term rental assistance as necessary to help a homeless individual or family move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing.
• ESG Street Outreach: ESG funds may be used for costs of providing essential services necessary to reach out to unsheltered homeless people; connect them with emergency shelter, housing, or critical services; and provide urgent, non facility-based care to unsheltered homeless people who are unwilling or unable to access emergency shelter, housing, or an appropriate health facility. The term ‘‘unsheltered homeless people’’ is defined as -- (1) An individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, meaning: (i) An individual or family with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;… Recipients of these funds must utilize HMIS to capture client data to the maximum extent practicable.
• Supportive Services: Applicants are limited to one service project request per application. A project is defined by DCA to be a distinct initiative undertaken by an Applicant to provide supportive services directly to “homeless” persons (by HUD definition) who are directly connected to a housing project. Applicants for ESG Supportive Services funds must demonstrate that projects are not available through the mainstream. Services should be collaborative and available to a network of identified homeless service agencies in the service area. DCA’s expectation is that each project has a distinct operations policy, an identifiable budget, and identifiable personnel. Successful applicants are required to collect HMIS data including universal and project level data elements for each household served.
• Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA): Provides states and localities with the resources and incentives to devise long-term comprehensive strategies for meeting the housing needs of low-income persons with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or related diseases and their families. To determine funding, DCA will rely upon factors such as previous compliance, including capacity of the organization to carry out the proposed programs, past budget and performance history, current budgets, level of service provided, cost per person, and other considerations. Agencies applying for continued HOPWA funding must demonstrate the direct, positive impact their program has had on the availability of housing and support services.

For additional information on each of the categories listed above, see each application link in Contacts, below.