City of Denton Street Outreach Grant 2024-2026

The City of Denton's grant program supports critical homeless response tools, strengthening the county-wide Housing Crisis Response System. This initiative aligns with a broader mission to address homelessness by ensuring that individuals living on the street receive essential information, referrals, and pathways to housing. The program aims to divert people from homelessness through the Coordinated Entry assessment process, facilitating housing placement, crisis intervention, and follow-up supportive services. The City of Denton acts as the donor for this grant, with a grant duration of two years, running from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2026. The funding range for the grant is between $100,000 to $500,000, with a maximum annual request of $125,450. The primary beneficiaries of this grant program are people and households experiencing homelessness, particularly those living on the street. The impact goals are centered around providing comprehensive support to these individuals, ensuring they have access to housing and necessary supportive services. This includes diverting individuals from homelessness, providing crisis intervention, and offering follow-up care to maintain housing stability. The program's strategic priorities are to enhance street outreach efforts, facilitate seamless access to housing through coordinated entry, and address various housing barriers that prevent individuals from securing stable accommodation. The grant prioritizes several key areas to achieve its objectives. These include funding qualified salaries for staff, supporting services that address housing barriers such as critical documents, emergency medication, or medical treatment, and providing behavioral health services. Additionally, financial costs that support diversion from homelessness are also a focus. The eligibility criteria for applying agencies underscore these priorities, requiring them to be 501(c)3 organizations in operation for over two years, providing services to the homeless, and having staff trained in addressing housing barriers, behavioral health referrals, data collection, and trauma-informed outreach. Agencies must also be actively using HMIS and participating in Denton’s Coordinated Entry process, including monthly case conferencing, and operating a current Street Outreach program. Expected outcomes and measurable results include an increase in the number of people diverted from homelessness, successful housing placements through the Coordinated Entry process, and improved access to supportive services. The emphasis on data collection and HMIS utilization suggests a commitment to tracking these outcomes, allowing for a quantitative assessment of the program's effectiveness in reducing homelessness and improving the well-being of the target population. The City of Denton's strategic priority is to strengthen the overall Housing Crisis Response System, and this grant serves as a critical tool within that broader framework, operating under a theory of change that effective street outreach, coordinated entry, and comprehensive supportive services lead to sustainable housing solutions.