HUD opens up funding to fight rising rural homelessness

"The Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened up millions of dollars in funding for groups serving unhoused people in rural areas — an unprecedented move by the agency, say housing advocates," Casey Quinlan reports for the Iowa Capital Dispatch. "Continuums of Care, the planning bodies that address homelessness within specific regions, have until Oct. 20 to apply for a portion of $54.5 million targeted at rural homelessness. HUD could not provide an estimate for how many organizations would benefit from this funding but said 127 of them are eligible to apply." HUD has $267.5 million targeted to unsheltered homeless in "non-rural areas."

The funding is targeted at people who are unsheltered, meaning those who sleep outdoors or in their cars, as opposed to those who couch-surf or stay at shelters, for example. According to a HUD spokesperson, unsheltered homelessnesses has increased nationwide, including in rural areas, Quinlan reports.

"According to the department’s January 2021 report to Congress, 2020 was the first year since it began collecting this data in 2005 that there were more unsheltered, unhoused people than people living in shelters," Quinlan reports. "The report also noted that 'largely rural [Continuums of Care] had the largest percentage of people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations' at 44%, compared to 39% in Continuums of Care that include major cities. From 2019 to 2020, there was an 8.3% increase in unsheltered homelessness in largely rural Continuums of Care."