Homeless Resources
The City of Huntsville believes community-wide strategic partnerships, working in tandem, are the best way to help the unsheltered. Led by the Community Development Department, these partners are working to reduce and end homelessness through the support of the Continuum of Care (CoC), a consortium of community agencies in Madison, Morgan, and Limestone counties, identified as AL-503.
CONTINUUM OF CARE
The CoC is a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is led in Huntsville by the City’s Community Development Department. The purpose of the CoC is to promote community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness, quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families, promote access to and effective utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families, and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
| Coordinated Entry | Coordinated Entry is a process designed to quickly identify, assess, refer, and connect people in crisis to housing, shelter, and assistance. Coordinated Entry is a system-wide approach that serves to assess all persons experiencing a housing crisis to help identify, prioritize, and connect them with the appropriate housing and support service resources as quickly as possible. |
| Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) | The Homeless Management Information System is a web-based software application, managed by The North Alabama Coalition for the Homeless (NACH). It serves as Huntsville’s database for collecting critical data on households that are served by projects intended to prevent and end homelessness. Data is collected from community partners and service providers who provide support and services to unsheltered neighbors. |
| Point in Time (PIT) | As the CoC lead, Community Development partners with NACH to coordinate an annual Point-In Time (PIT) assessment of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in Madison, Morgan and Limestone counties. The assessment allows for the distribution of federal funding from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Acts Program. View the 2023 PIT assessment. |
| CoC Membership | AL-503 has over 40 members from Madison, Morgan, and Limestone counties who meet monthly to discuss community opportunities, concerns, service organizations, etc. related to homelessness. View the list of 2023 CoC Members. If you are interested in becoming a member as an organization or individual please complete the CoC Membership Application. |
EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS GRANT PROGRAM (ESG)
The Emergency Solutions Grant Program (ESG) is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). Organizations and agencies from Madison, Morgan, and Limestone counties are eligible to apply for ESG funds.
Eligible activities for grant recipients include:
| Emergency Shelter | Provides for shelter operations, essential services and shelter renovations. |
| Prevention | Housing relocation and stabilization services and short-and/or medium-term rental assistance as necessary to prevent the individual or family from moving to an emergency shelter or places not meant for human habitation. The assistance is necessary to help the program participant regain stability in their current housing or move into other permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing. |
| Rapid Rehousing | Housing relocation and stabilization services and/or short/or medium-term rental assistance as necessary to help individuals or families living in shelters or places not meant for human habitation move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing. |
| Street Outreach | Essential services necessary to reach unsheltered homeless individuals and families and to connect them with emergency shelter, housing or critical services, and provide them with urgent, non-facility-based care. Component services generally consist of engagement, case management, emergency health and mental health services and transportation. |
| HMIS | Pay for the costs of participating in and contributing to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) designated by the Continuum of Care for the area. |
2022 ESG Recipients
- AshaKiran, Inc.
- Community Action Partnership of Huntsville/Madison and Limestone Counties, Inc.
- Crisis Services of North Alabama, Inc.
- Disabled American Veterans, Inc.
- First Stop, Inc.
- Family Services Center of North Alabama, Inc.
- North Alabama Coalition for the Homeless
- New Futures
- Wellstone
PY24 Applications will be made available in Spring 2024.
HOMELESS OUTREACH INITIATIVE
The Homeless Outreach Initiative is a program administered by the City of Huntsville Community Development Department and Huntsville Police Department’s Community Outreach Unit to execute and deliver a multidisciplinary and community-wide approach to reducing and addressing unsheltered homelessness in the City of Huntsville. In partnership with this effort, many community service providers, agencies, and city departments provide case management, health care, mental health care, emergency shelter, legal services, emergency management services, substance recovery services, etc., and collaborate to identify solutions surrounding unsheltered homelessness in the community. View the list of 2024 Homeless Outreach Resource Partners.
