Shelter Plus Care

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Purpose

The Shelter Plus Care (S+C) Program provides rental assistance in connection with supportive services. The program provides a variety of permanent housing choices, accompanied by a range of supportive services funded through other sources.

Beneficiaries

S+C assists hard to serve homeless individuals with disabilities and their families. These individuals primarily include those with serious mental illness, chronic problems with alcohol and/or drugs, and HIV/AIDS or related diseases.

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are States, local government units, and public housing agencies (PHAs).

Program components

S+C includes four separate components. Eligible applicants may apply for any or all of the four components, but a separate application for each component is required.

Single Room Occupancy Component — Moderate Rehabilitation for Single-Room Occupancy Dwellings

Applicants must subcontract with a publc housing agency (PHA) to administer the rental housing assistance.

This component is designed to add standard SRO units to the local housing supply and to use them to assist homeless persons with disabilities. The units to be used must be in need of moderate rehabilitation. They may be located in a rundown hotel, a vacant motel, a YMCA, or even a large, abandoned home. Applicants are encouraged to be creative in searching out suitable SRO dwelling units—both large and small structures. SRO must complete a minimum amount housing contains units for occupancy by one person. These units may contain food preparation or sanitary facilities, or both.

Rental assistance for SRO units is provided for a 10 year period. Owners are compensated through the rental assistance payments, some of the rehabilitation costs, as well as the other costs of owning and maintaining the property. Resources to initially fund the cost of rehabilitating the dwellings, however, must be obtained from other sources.

Sponsor-based Rental Assistance (SRA) Component
Applicants must subcontract with a private nonprofit organization or a community mental health agency established as a private nonprofit to provide rental assistance.

Under the SRA component, an applicant may request a 5 year grant to provide rental assistance through a contract with a nonprofit organization or sponsor. The nonprofit organization may be a private nonprofit organization or a community mental health center established as a public nonprofit organization. The housing units to be used must be owned or leased by the sponsor.

After a grant is awarded, the sponsor may substitute one site for another to accommodate changing needs, provided the sponsor continues to own or lease the property and the grantee continues to serve the overall number of persons indicated in the approved application.

Project-based Rental Assistance (PRA) Component
Applicants must subcontract with a building owner for the entire period of assistance.

Applicants under this component may request grant funds to provide rental assistance through a contract with a building owner for an existing structure. An applicant must enter into a contract with the building owner for the full 5or 10 year assistance period. The building owner must agree to accept eligible S+C participants during this time. Participants must live in an assisted unit on a specified property, and do not retain the rental assistance if they move.

Grantees may use ready-to-rent units or ones that need rehabilitation before they can provide a decent, safe, and sanitary place to live. In order to qualify for 10 years of rental subsidies, applicants of rehabilitation to each unit. Otherwise, assistance will extend through 5 years.

Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) Component
An applicant under the TRA component may request funds to provide rental assistance on behalf of participants who choose their own housing units. In order to deliver supportive services in a convenient manner, applicants may require participants to live in specific structures or areas for part or all of their term of assistance. This assistance is provided for 5 years.

Applicants must contract with unit owners directly.

Eligible Activities

Eligible activities for each of the four components are restricted to rental assistance for program participants and administrative costs associated with administering the rental assistance. With the exception of SRO, under which participants must reside in SRO or efficiency units, assisted units may be of any type, ranging from group homes to apartments. The applicant may also design a flexible program in which participants reside in a group setting with intensive supportive services and then progress to another setting, such as a shared apartment.

Under all components, supportive services must be available to meet the needs of participants. These must either be provided by the applicant or funded by the applicant and provided by a third party. Other Federal, State, or local sources, as well as private sources may fund the supportive services.

Requirements and Responsibilities

To ensure that the neediest of the homeless population are being served, grantees must provide needed supportive services—matching rental assistance with an equal amount of supportive services from other sources. Other Federal, State, or local sources, as well as private sources may fund the services. In addition to recordkeeping and evaluation that grantees may conduct for their own purposes, they must adhere to HUD-required recordkeeping plus a formalized annual project review (the Annual Progress Report).

Availability

Grants under the S+C Program are awarded through a national competition held annually. A notice of funding availability, published in the Federal Register, establishes submission dates for applications. S+C projects should be submitted through the community Continuum of Care system

Additional Information

For more detailed information about the S+C Program, please visit the following sources: