42 U.S.C. § 11386a — Selection criteria

(a) In general. The Secretary^* must award funds to recipients through a national competition among geographic areas, using criteria the Secretary establishes.

(b) Required criteria. (1) The criteria must include—(A) the recipient’s past performance concerning homelessness, including performance with funds under section 11372. A recipient^* from an area that received no funds under this part or under parts C through F of subchapter IV as they existed before May 20, 2009, receives full credit for this item. The Secretary must announce the measures, and they must account for barriers faced by individual homeless^* people. They must include—(i) how long people and families remain homeless; (ii) how often people and families who leave homelessness become homeless again; (iii) how thoroughly grantees reach homeless people and families in the area; (iv) the overall reduction in homeless people and families; (v) job and income growth for homeless people and families; (vi) success in reducing the number who become homeless; (vii) other homelessness-reduction accomplishments; and (viii) for a collaborative applicant^* using section 11382(j) to serve families with children and youths defined as homeless by other Federal laws, success in meeting the goals and outcomes in subparagraph (F); (B) the recipient’s plan, describing—(i) how the community will reduce the number of people and families who become homeless; (ii) how it will reduce the time people and families remain homeless; (iii) how it will work with local education authorities to identify people and families who become or remain homeless and inform them of eligibility for services under part B of subchapter VI (42 U.S.C. 11431 et seq.); (iv) how much it will—(I) address all relevant subpopulations; (II) use comprehensive homelessness-reduction strategies, including the interventions in section 11386b(d); (III) set measurable performance measures; (IV) set deadlines for specific tasks; (V) identify funding sources for planned activities; and (VI) identify a person or body responsible for overseeing specific strategies; and (v) whether it proposes using section 11382(j), and if so, how it will meet the goals and outcomes in subparagraph (F); (C) the method used to prioritize local projects for funding under section 11382(c)(1), including whether the process—(i) periodically uses information and analysis to measure each project’s rapid return of people served to permanent housing^*, while considering the severity of their barriers; (ii) considers the full range of views from people or entities knowledgeable about or interested in preventing or ending homelessness in the area; (iii) uses objective criteria announced publicly by the recipient; and (iv) accepts proposals from entities that have not previously received funds under this part; (D) how much the assistance will be supplemented with public and private resources, including mainstream programs identified by the Government Accountability Office in the two reports described in section 11313(a)(7); (E) the recipient’s demonstrated coordination with Federal, State^*, local, private, and other entities serving people and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness^* in planning and operating projects; (F) for collaborative applicants using section 11382(j) to serve families with children and youths defined as homeless under other Federal laws, goals and outcomes including—(i) preventing homelessness among those at highest risk, as that term is defined for this subchapter; or (ii) achieving independent living in permanent housing, especially for families with histories of doubled-up or other temporary housing or who live temporarily somewhere because appropriate emergency shelter is unavailable, through eligible assistance directly contributing to those results, including help with chronic disabilities, chronic physical or mental health conditions, substance addiction, domestic-violence or childhood-abuse histories, or multiple employment barriers; and (G) other factors the Secretary considers appropriate for effective and efficient administration of this part.

(2) Additional criteria. The criteria must also include the area’s need for homeless services under these rules: (A) Notice. When the funding-availability notice is released, the Secretary must tell each collaborative applicant the estimated pro rata grant amount for its area. (B) Amount. (i) Formula. The Secretary must set those estimates by a regulation-based formula no later than two years after May 20, 2009. The formula must use factors appropriate for allocating money to meet this part’s goals. (ii) Combinations or consortia. For an applicant representing several cities or counties, the estimated need is the sum of the estimates for those cities or counties. (iii) Secretary’s authority. If appropriations are available, the Secretary must increase an area’s estimated need when necessary to provide one year of renewal funding for all its expiring contracts under this part.

(3) Homelessness counts. The Secretary may not require communities to conduct an actual count of homeless people other than the people described in paragraphs (1) through (4) of section 11302(a).

(c) Adjustments. The Secretary may adjust the formula in subsection (b)(2) as needed—(1) to give each collaborative applicant enough money to renew all qualified projects for at least one year; and (2) to avoid discouraging an applicant from replacing renewal projects with new^* projects that it decides would better serve this chapter’s purposes.