On December 19, Judge Mary S. McElroy of the Rhode Island District Court ruled in favor of the National Alliance to End Homelessness (plaintiff) in a hearing challenging HUD’s recent actions regarding the most recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for FY 2025 and the previous NOFO for FY 2024-2025: these are procedural grant documents for the Continuum of Care (CoC) programs nationwide. CoCs provide housing for people and families with disabilities, older adults, and previously chronically homeless people. Those HUD actions threatened the housing of 3,800 individuals and families with disabilities in MA. It’s a complicated series of events, and if you have some time to dig into this, I guarantee you’ll find the recording of the hearing—even just the verbal ruling of the judge at the end—interesting. Her written court order is here (it’s only three pages). For a useful summary of this litigation, read this press release from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. While this ruling is a win for residents of permanent supportive housing and their advocates, uncertainty looms. For now, the previous FY2024-2025 NOFO has been put back into effect (this is good), and the recently issued FY2025 NOFO has been temporarily paused (also good).
