42 U.S.C. § 290aa–5 — Grants for the benefit of homeless individuals

(a) The Secretary must award grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements to community-based public and nonprofit private groups. The money pays for mental health and substance use disorder services for homeless people. The Secretary must consult with the Interagency Council on the Homeless, set up under section 11311 of this title. (b) When picking who gets these awards, the Secretary must give preference to: (1) groups that offer combined primary health care, substance use disorder care, and mental health care to homeless people; (2) groups that show they are good at serving runaway, homeless, and street youth; (3) groups with experience providing substance use disorder and mental health services to homeless people; (4) groups with experience providing housing for people being treated for, or recovering from, mental illness or a substance use disorder; and (5) groups that show they are good at serving homeless veterans. (c) When awarding grants, contracts, and agreements, the Secretary must not: (1) stop a group from serving homeless people who have a substance use disorder but do not have a mental health disorder; and (2) pay any group that has a policy of (A) keeping people out of mental health services just because they have or might have a substance use disorder, or (B) keeping people out of substance use disorder services just because they have or might have a mental illness. (d) No group can get a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement under this section for more than 5 years. (e) Congress authorized $41,304,000 for this section for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027.