The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, in response to comments, has posted a fourth allocation option for consideration regarding the 2017-2018 Emergency Solutions Grant Allocation Formula. The fourth option is a four factor test which considers the following:

  • Point-in-Time (“PIT”) counts – annual counts of sheltered and unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness within the last two weeks of January required by HUD for Continuum of Care (“CoC”) agencies.
  • Number of persons in poverty — from the five-year estimates of the American Community Survey (“ACS”) as released by the U.S. Census Bureau
  • Renter cost burden for households with incomes less than 30% Area Median Family Income (“AMFI”) – HUD releases the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (“CHAS”) datasets
  • 2016 ESG funding — the amount of ESG funding received both by federal and state funding streams in the past year.

The comment period for considering this option is open from November 21-30, 2016. Comments can be made and reviewed on the TDHCA message board.