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Presentation, discussion, and possible action on Program Year 2025 Emergency Solutions Grants Program Awards
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RECOMMENDED ACTION
recommendation
WHEREAS, the Department received an allocation of $10,308,471 in Emergency Solutions Grants Program (ESG) funds for Fiscal Year 2025 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of which $9,844,590 was made available in accordance with 10 TAC Chapter 7, Subchapter C, Section 7.33, Apportionment of ESG Funds;
WHEREAS, the Board authorized release of the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the ESG Program totaling $9,844,590 on May 8, 2025;
WHEREAS, HUD regulations require the Department to award ESG funds within 60 days of HUD’s execution of the grant agreement, anticipated to be received within the next 30 days;
WHEREAS, pursuant to 10 TAC §7.34, Continuing Awards, the Department evaluated 35 eligible Applications in accordance with established rules and criteria, and approved all 35 Applicants to receive Continuing Award offers totaling $6,805,427;
WHEREAS, the Department received 79 Applications from eligible Applicants under a Competitive Application cycle in response to the NOFA, with requests totaling $10,250,028;
WHEREAS, the Applications received under the NOFA have been reviewed and ranked in accordance with the requirements of 10 TAC §7.38(b); and
WHEREAS, the Previous Participation Review and Approval Process (PPRAP) has reviewed the compliance history of all Applicants, and recommends approval with conditions for Family Gateway, Houston Area Women’s Center, and Project VIDA, and recommends approval with no conditions for all other Applicants;
NOW, therefore, it is hereby
RESOLVED, that the Executive Director, his designees, and each of them be and they hereby are authorized, empowered, and directed, for and on behalf of the Department, to take any and all such actions as they or any of them may deem necessary or advisable to effectuate awards totaling $9,844,590 for ESG funding recommended under the ESG NOFA as detailed in Attachment B, as recommended by PPRAP.
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BACKGROUND
The ESG Program is a HUD-funded program designed to assist people experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness to regain stability in permanent housing quickly after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness. The program components under ESG include street outreach, emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, homelessness prevention, Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and administration. Rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention may be used for housing relocation and stabilization services and short-term and medium-term rental assistance.
On May 8, 2025, the Board approved the release of a NOFA notifying prospective Applicants of availability of PY2025 ESG funds; the NOFA closed on June 23, 2025. The NOFA resulted in 35 offers for a Continuing Award and 26 Award offers under the Competitive Application cycle. The distribution of the Regional allocation between the Continuing Awards and the Competitive Cycle is summarized in Attachment C.
Applicants were assigned a random number as a tiebreaker for use in case of a tied score, per 10 TAC §7.38(d). Applicants were ranked by score and then by tiebreaker number, with the high numbers ranking higher than lower numbers. Recommendation of a Continuing Award is not determined by a score, therefore these Applications will not note scores or a tie breaker number. The final scores were determined after a staff review, which when necessary and requested by staff allowed the opportunity for Applicants to provide clarification, correction, or non-material missing information. This information was requested to resolve inconsistencies in the original Application or to assist staff in evaluating the Application, per 10 TAC §7.37(b).
After completion of the scoring and ranking process, award recommendations were determined in accordance with the process outlined in 10 TAC §7.38 through two levels of funding. Level one of funding is for the highest ranked Applicants within each CoC region, until the funding is exhausted or until there is an offer of a partial award. Level two pools unused funds from level one of funding and offers the pooled funds to the highest ranked Applications statewide.
The Department received two appeals related to the 2025 ESG NOFA. Need A Break’s Application had been terminated for late submission and missing required volumes; the Applicant appealed citing unintentional omission and good-faith efforts to comply. After review, staff confirmed the Application was incomplete and submitted after the deadline, the termination was upheld. Nortex Regional Planning Commission’s Application had been terminated for submitting its 2024 CAPER report after the required deadline. The Applicant argued that the threshold rule had not been adopted at the time of the report. The Department determined that, although 10 TAC §7.36(a)(13) was the governing rule at the Application deadline, it will not be applied retroactively to the 2025 ESG NOFA Applicants. The appeal was granted, and the Application was reinstated.
The total amounts available by CoC region, and the total requests received are listed in Attachment A. The requirements set forth in 24 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §576.100(b)(1) mandates that no more than 60% of the state’s ESG allocation be used for street outreach and emergency shelter. As a result, in some cases, higher scoring Applicants with emergency shelter or street outreach Applications were offered a partial award to ensure that the state would not exceed this cap. The Emergency Shelter and Street Outreach Cap per Region is summarized in Attachment A.
All Applications recommended for award under the NOFA and through direct award have undergone previous participation review. On August 25, 2025, the Previous Participation Review Approval Process (PPRAP) recommended conditional approval for Family Gateway, Houston Area Women’s Center, and Project VIDA. As a condition of award, each Applicant must submit a response to the Single Audit Management Letter for their respective fiscal year end by the specified deadline:
- Family Gateway – FYE December 31, 2022; response due September 18, 2025
- Houston Area Women’s Center – FYE March 31, 2023; response due September 16, 2025
- Project VIDA – FYE August 31, 2024; response due September 6, 2025
Depending on the results of the response letter, the Department may require additional information be provided within 30 days. Awards are contingent upon satisfaction of these conditions, and failure to comply may result in reallocation of funds. PPRAP recommended approval with no conditions for all other Applicants. The results of the NOFA, including funding recommendations, are included for approval as Attachment B for the Regional competition and Attachment D for the Statewide Competition.