Legal Assistance Enhancement Program Grants

The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program is designed to:promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness;provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, Indian Tribes or Tribally Designated Housing Entities [as defined in section 4 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4103) (TDHEs)], and local governments to quickly rehouse individuals and families experiencing homelessness, persons experiencing trauma or a lack of safety related to, or fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and youth experiencing homelessness while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused by homelessness;promote access to, and effective utilization of, mainstream programs and programs funded with State or local resources; andoptimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.The goal of the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) is to support the development and implementation of a coordinated community approach to preventing and ending youth homelessness and sharing that experience with and mobilizing communities around the country toward the same end. The population to be served by the demonstration program is youth ages 24 and younger who are experiencing homelessness, including unaccompanied and pregnant or parenting youth.

The Wilson Fish Bridge to Employment Program (WF B2E) provides funds to ensure recipients of Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) can access required employment services as outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Act. ORR"s primary strategy for ensuring access to these required services in most states is through the Refugee Support Services (RSS) program. Beginning in FY 2027, RSS will no longer be available in select states. The WF B2E program provides required employment training and placement services, as well as English language training, to recipients of RCA in the states where RSS will no longer operate. Services provided under this program are only available to individuals within the first 36 months after they either arrive in the United States or within the first 36 months they receive an ORR-eligible status. Approved projects will fund required services either directly or through subawards. Details on the states in which this program will operate will be available in the forthcoming NOFO.

1. NOFO HighlightsThe Youth Homelessness NOFO provides competitive awards to eligible applicants under two different programs-Youth Homelessness System Improvement (YHSI) grants- Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 14.277Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP)- ALN 14.276Under the YHSI grants, HUD will make awards to selected communities to support them in establishing and implementing a response system for youth homelessness or for improving their existing response system. HUD will select approximately 49 communities for YHSI grants.Under the YHDP, HUD will provide funding to communities to implement housing and supportive services projects. HUD anticipates selecting between 26 and 50 communities, with a priority for communities with substantial rural populations in up to sixteen locations.Separate from this NOFO, technical assistance will be available to assist selected communities implement and improve their YHSI and YHDP projects. HUD expects communities to fully participate in any evaluation activities conducted by HUD beginning no earlier than the award announcement.See Section III for additional information about this NOFO.

As President Trump said in his Executive Order on Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction (March 13, 2026), The American dream of homeownership depends on a dynamic housing market in which a varied inventory of new homes is built and renovated each year. Layers of unnecessary regulatory barriers, slow permitting processes, and onerous mandates at all levels of government have delayed construction, restricted development, and driven up the costs of new housing. These constraints have made housing less affordable for many Americans.It is the policy of my Administration to reduce regulatory barriers to building homes and to steward taxpayer dollars in a manner that promotes housing affordability.HUD's PRO Housing program rewards communities that have taken steps to remove regulatory barriers to building and preserving homes by providing funding to further expand affordable housing, particularly homeownership opportunities and housing located in Opportunity Zones and rural communities.HUD is issuing this Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) PRO Housing NOFO under the authority of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, which provided $50 million for competitive grant funding for state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and multijurisdictional entities. The Appropriations Act requires HUD to award grants using the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) framework. As with all CDBG assistance, the priority is to serve low- and moderate-income people and households. HUD shall select applicants that demonstrate: (1) progress and a commitment to eliminating local barriers to facilitate the increase in affordable housing production and preservation, through enactment or implementation of less restrictive zoning, land use, or permitting laws and regulations; (2) an acute need for housing affordable to households with incomes below 100 percent of the area median income; and (3) a commitment to create new homeownership units before the expiration of the funding performance period.Applicants and grantees are reminded of the President's Executive Orders on Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (January 221, 2025) and Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferences (January 20, 2025) and their applicability to PRO Housing funding. PRO Housing funding may not be used to fund "illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name 'diversity, equity, and inclusion.'"In addition to thoroughly reviewing this NOFO, applicants are strongly encouraged to monitor HUD's PRO Housing website for information about general updates, Frequently Asked Questions, and PRO Housing webinars.HUD has four goals for this competition:Decrease the cost and increase the supply of affordable housing, especially in Opportunity Zones and rural communities.Remove barriers to affordable housing, removal of which will lead to constructing or rehabilitating more units, reducing time to produce units, and unlocking land that can be used for affordable housing units.Reward jurisdictions that have enacted laws and regulations that will lead to more affordable housing production and preservation.Increase opportunities for affordable homeownership by reducing administrative and structural barriers.

This program will fund projects focused on technology-enabled strategies that improve adoptive matching, placement, and permanency for children in foster care awaiting adoption. The funds, awarded to four regional centers, will be used to design, implement and evaluate these strategies.These centers will focus on children with an adoption permanency goal or who are legally free for adoption due to child welfare involvement. Centers will partner with state, territorial, tribal, and local child welfare agencies and courts to develop secure, accessible technology solutions that improve how families are matched with children in need of permanent homes. Proposed solutions must be interoperable with existing systems and may include tools such as data-informed recruitment support, AI-assisted matching, and predictive analytics.Each center will strengthen data infrastructure, support continuous quality improvement, and develop scalable resources that jurisdictions nationwide can adopt. ACF will define four national service regions to ensure full U.S. coverage. Centers will provide regional innovation support, training, technical assistance, and dissemination of best practices while collaborating nationally on shared learning.Applicants will be expected to demonstrate measurable improvements in match timeliness, placement stability, and adoption finalization outcomes.

The Runaway and Homeless Youth Training, Technical Assistance, and Capacity Building Center (RHYTTAC) provides direct training and technical assistance to existing RHY award recipients and subrecipients to enhance their efforts to successfully implement FYSB-funded projects. FYSB expects to award one cooperative agreement to strengthen and build the capacity of runaway and homeless youth and other youth-serving professionals and service providers across the nation by:Developing relevant and interactive training products for in-person and virtual adaptation.Disseminating evidenced-based, evidence-informed, and best practices related to issues impacting youth who have runaway from home, youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, and youth and young adults at risk of becoming homeless.Providing targeted technical assistance to RHY award recipients and youth-serving organizations to address current and potential needs.Leading coordination activities among RHY award recipients and other RHY funded partner organizations.

Under this particular DRRP priority, applicants must propose a development project that is aimed at improving community living and participation outcomes of individuals with disabilities. In carrying out a development project under this program, a grantee must use knowledge and understanding gained from research to create models, methods, tools, applications, and devices beneficial to the target population, including design and development of protypes and processes. NIDILRR's field-initiated DRRP awards in the community living and participation domain will be (1) research projects, (2) development projects, or (3) a combination of research and development projects, depending on the ranking of applications provided by the peer review panel. The grants will have a 36-month project period, with three 12-month budget periods.

Under this particular DRRP priority, applicants must propose a research project that is aimed at improving community living and participation outcomes among people with disabilities. In carrying out a research project under this program, a grantee must identify one or more hypotheses or research questions and, based on the hypotheses or research questions identified, perform an intensive, systematic study directed toward producing (1) new or full scientific knowledge or (2) understanding of the subject or problem studied. NIDILRR's field-initiated DRRP awards in the community living and participation domain will be (1) research projects, (2) development projects, or (3) a combination of research and development projects, depending on the ranking of applications provided by the peer review panel. The grants will have a 36-month project period, with three 12-month budget periods.

N/A

To carry out Section 216 of the Older Americans Act, ACL will award one cooperative agreement to administer the National Resource Center on Women and Retirement (NRCWR). The goal of NRCWR is to provide tools that promote financial literacy and help identify and prevent financial exploitation. The Grantee will be responsible for developing targeted outreach strategies, developing partnerships and collaborations, and providing technical assistance to State agencies and other public and non-profit organizations. The Grantee will also disseminate a summary of outreach activities annually including user-friendly consumer information and public educational materials.