What new HUD guidelines mean for Cuyahoga Homeless Services

Welcome and opening remarks

The Office of Homeless Services Advisory Board (OHSAB) is an organization created to advise the Office of Homeless Services in the development and implementation of the Community’s Homeless Plan through advocacy, policy review, technical assistance, priority setting, linkages and coordination, provision of financial and other resources, and the continued articulation of the vision of the Community’s Homeless Plan.

The board said farewell to Cleveland-Cuyahoga Office of Homeless Services Advisory Board Member Shajuana Gaston, with an attendee later thanking her for representing youth and young adults as a board member.

New members

The board voted to approve four new members: Rep. Sean Brennan (Ohio House of Representatives, District 14), Transit Police Chief Deirdre Jones (Greater Cleveland RTA), Arin Miller-Tait (director of Cleveland’s Community Development Department), and Angeline Sulak (crisis manager for homeless and foster care students, Cleveland Metropolitan School District).

Policy updates

Here is the agenda. The board adopted a new set of Emergency Shelter Performance Standards. Unlike other OHS programs, the Emergency Shelter program did not have defined performance standards, according to Matt White, who presented during this section of the meeting. These new standards were created by studying emergency shelters in the county and across the country as a whole.

White said the new standards will include targets for utilization (full occupancy of shelters so long as there is demand), average length of housing stay, and rates of return to homelessness. The idea is to monitor the programs and these standards for a year and potentially adjust them after that year depending on results. 

The board also adopted updates to its Program Policy Committee (PPC) Governance Charter. The changes align with the Continuum of Care (COC) Charter recently adopted by the board’s Governance Committee, White said. Specifically, the PPC member selection process is more explicitly defined. The annual application process will be managed by OHS.

HUD to prioritize transitional housing and workforce-focused programs

New supportive service requirements were adopted to align with HUD’s planned changes to its Continuum of Care NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity). According to Government Market News, the changes mean HUD will prioritize “transitional housing, treatment services and workforce-focused programs” instead of permanent supportive housing. White said the new supportive service requirements will better position local programs to compete for federal funding. He also said notice of the NOFO changes was released in November, then rescinded. Then it was released in December and rescinded again, before being pushed to May 29.

The board’s new supportive service requirements will require that projects provide customized supportive services and that project participants engage in those services. White said this will help projects to earn points towards limited federal funding, since HUD plans to favor projects with wraparound services.

White added that the new supportive service requirements broadly define customized services. They include case management, counseling, employment and education services, life skills, housing skills, physical health, mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment or recovery support. 

Participants will be required to participate for 40 hours weekly in these services, aligning with expected HUD requirements, White said. He said the support services requirements will not be punitive, but failure to participate can lead to involuntary termination. Participants will work on a compliance plan if they fail to comply before termination. There are exceptions that allow for non-involvement for people with disabilities and people age 62 or older. Additionally, the 40 hours are prorated to account for hours spent working a job.

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How monitoring, tracking and staffing will work is hard to determine before the new NOFO is released, White said. There will be some flexibility at the local level to decide what implementation looks like (potentially allowing for volunteering). For substance use disorder treatment services, HUD has indicated that only 10 of 40 hours will need to be clinical treatment, according to White.

Questions were raised about the feasibility of these plans and their implementation. How will the 40 hours be measured: On average or by individual participants? Will transportation/wait times factor into the 40 hours? Some attendees said that for many people (those with full-time jobs, with kids, etc.), 40 hours seems unrealistic; they wondered about exemptions for employment, childcare, and other situations.

An attendee said the board’s plan is to make the community guidelines as broad as possible so that they can be participant-centered, meet currently unclear NOFO requirements, and decrease costs simultaneously.

Another attendee said more supportive services must be backed by HUD grants – especially if funding for housing decreases.

The board also adopted new minimum practice standards for Cuyahoga/Cleveland CoC programs. An attendee explained that these affect how projects are operated, and this update creates practice standards for transitional housing. The standards for transitional housing are not new; rather, they are preexisting, vetted standards now being applied to transitional housing, they said. Language was also updated to reflect that participants in HUD-funded projects must participate in support services, as referenced above.

Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management (CCOEM)

Presentation (Mark Christie/Kevin Friis)

Christie, director of CCOEM, and Friis, planning manager of CCOEM, recommended the implementation of Emergency Action Plans into OHS programs, emphasizing preparedness, planning, response and mitigation to natural and human-caused emergencies. The CCOEM connects different groups (charities, police/fire/etc., schools, government entities) and makes sure they’re all on the same page in the case of an emergency.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) contains a hierarchy of groups that organizations can request assistance from; federal assistance must be requested by the state, and state assistance must be requested by the county. The CCOEM hosts and coordinates NIMS and Incident Command System (ICS) training countywide. It also plans and conducts All-Hazards Exercises and assists in operations both preemptively and as needed in relation to emergency preparation and mitigation.

According to the presentation, Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) include, amongst other things: Knowing building specifics; how staff and residents will be trained; where they will be relocated if needed; their familiarity with the plan, exits, fire alarms/extinguishers; and chain of command in emergency scenarios. EAPs also consider participants with disabilities, access and functional needs, and limited English proficiency (LEP). The office has already translated guidelines into the most-spoken languages in the area, a presenter said.

Continuity of Operations Plans (COOPs) are an effort to ensure that mission-essential functions still occur during and after emergencies, especially to comply with governmental standards. For example, Christie and Friis mentioned that a medical facility was forced to shut down after a mass shooter, despite no damage to the building, because the trauma of the event made staff unable to return to work.

CCOEM instructs people to use titles rather than names in plans, and to update the plan if titles change. Alternate facilities and locations are recommended in case an incident occurs at the primary site. Alternate facilities are classified as either hot, warm, or cold sites, depending on their preparedness for transfer. 

Learn more from the presentation.

Public comment open on Equal Access Rule changes

By Howard Burchman, attendee.

The federal government intends to issue the NOFO on or before May 29, with a due date for grant applications of Aug. 26. Three new HUD application periods are supposed to be issued: For youth homelessness (not yet issued, was supposed to be by May 15), a reissue of CoCBuilds NOFO, and the CoC NOFO.

Regarding the CoC NOFO, Burchman said HUD still hasn’t awarded the bulk of all the fiscal year 2025 funds, nor has it given a grant inventory worksheet (outlining grants that are eligible for renewal, thus clarifying agencies’ demand for this upcoming application period).

If HUD puts a cap on permanent housing grant renewals, it’ll be 30% of the annual renewal amount, Burchman said. The 30% cap is going to be an issue in securing adequate funding, and there will be more competition for funding, Burchman said. There may be legal challenges toward the NOFO, he added.

Burchman said that in the past, renewing funding for already-existing plans/programs has been the priority. But HUD’s changes mean that the focus will now be on securing funding for new projects.

He also spoke about HUD’s plan of “basically reversing” the Equal Access Rule. It protected people’s access to critical housing and homelessness resources regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. This plan coincides with legislation across the country weakening protections against discrimination, in particular for trans individuals. Public comment on the changes is open until June 29. Burchman encouraged members of the board to comment in opposition to the changes.

OHS Updates (LeVine Ross, director for the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services): There were 22 expressions of interest (from current groups and new) for new transitional housing or supportive services, but progress still can’t really be made until the NOFO is issued.

First-time homelessness rate down, continuous homelessness up

Annual Reporting Review

Presented by Nick Butina, administrator for OHS/Amanda Larson, with the county.

In 2025, 8,795 households and 12,516 people were served (compared with 8,612 and 12,073 in 2023). The number of days spent homeless by household type has been relatively consistent, though there has been a decrease in the number of days homeless for families, Butina said. The average length of time participants stay homeless has been consistent across 2024 and 2025. The time spent homeless for disabled households has gone up, but Butina attributed this to better reporting of disabilities rather than a worsening of care.

The largest statistical age group in shelters is 55+, Butina said. About 30% of exits from OHS services are to permanent destinations. The rate of people who return to homelessness within six months of leaving OHS projects went up to 13% (7% in 2024, 11% in 2023). Age and race demographics haven’t substantially shifted in five to six years, Butina said.

System engagement: The first-time homelessness rate has gone down. Continuous homelessness has gone up. The number of out-of-county homeless people dropped.

System performance measures: The number of permanent housing exits has increased, but the return rate has stayed the same. Non-employment cash income is down (which Butina said may be a reporting issue).

The number of people served who are chronically homeless increased every year from 2022 to 2025. See the full presentation for more details.

Veteran homelessness, rapid rehousing reports

Ending Veteran Homelessness report.  Presented by Luke Drotar, program manager of emergency housing services for FrontLine Services, and Shawna Gurley, director of emergency housing services for FrontLine Services.

The majority of project participants sheltered from February to April have remained sheltered, according to Gurley. Outreach to veteran services organizations is a priority.FrontLine Services offers housing interventions every 14 days. Average time to attain permanent housing has gone down, Gurley said. In the last quarter, 67 veterans entered the program, and 48 other veterans are permanently housed; the inflow of new participants is not matching the outflow into permanent housing. About 39% of newly identified veterans are first-time homeless. Reported a slowdown in housing placements from March to April.

Rapid Rehousing report, presented by Board Member Elaine Gimmel, executive director of Emerald Development and Economic Network (EDEN). EDEN is currently accepting referrals for regular rapid rehousing and survivors of domestic violence rapid rehousing. There has recently been an increased number of complaints about case management, which Gimmel said is due to staff turnover, insufficient staffing, and high caseloads. A two-part case management plan was discussed, dividing the first six months from the second six, to prioritize self-sufficiency skills that aren’t currently being developed enough. There are not enough vouchers — nor do enough people qualify for vouchers — for that to be a solution at the end of 12 months.

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Unsheltered Homelessness report. Presented by Chelsea Horvath-Black from NEOCH. The bulk of people leaving the unsheltered list go MIA. There were 23 people added to NEOCH’s unsheltered list between March and April, though the number of unsheltered homeless people is generally going down; there was a “big drop” from February to March after an effort to clean up the list. With the closing of the seasonal shelter after April 15, there was a worry that many would become unsheltered homeless again, but there was not much of an increase, thanks in part to Cleveland’s Home for Every Neighbor program, which Horvath-Black said placed people almost immediately. 

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at cledocumenters@gmail.com with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

These notes are by Documenter Carly Elliott. Audio recorded by Documenter Stephanie Manning.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcleveland.org  with “Correction Request” in the subject line.