ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s housing network is scrambling to adjust to the federal government’s new grant stipulations in housing and homeless programs.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced changes Nov. 14 in its annual Notice of Funding Opportunity for Continuums of Care (CoC). Among them were a cap on permanent housing funding at 30%, requiring treatment in programs, and a ban on any program that recognises transgender individuals.

Co-Coordinator Patty Beech-Dziuk, who has been with the CoC since it started in the 1990s, said changing priorities with different administrations are expected, but that these shifts are particularly “drastic.”

“Our homeless response system has been built over like 40 years, through Republican and Democratic administrations,” she said.

See Full Page