Continuum of Care Grant Renewals Worth $6.6 Million in Federal Homeless Services Funding Set for Committee Review

The Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee is scheduled to consider a recommendation on Wednesday, June 3, that would authorize the City Manager to enter into 15 one-year federal grant agreements with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development carrying a combined not-to-exceed value of $6,639,358 to fund local homeless services through the 2025 Continuum of Care program.

The committee will consider recommending that the City Council approve the agreements at its June 8 meeting. Because the Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee is strictly advisory, any action taken on June 3 would be a recommendation only; the City Council retains final authority and would make the binding decision on whether to authorize the City Manager to execute the agreements.

According to the staff report, the Department of Housing serves as the Collaborative Applicant and Lead Agency for the Pasadena Continuum of Care, also known as the Pasadena Partnership to End Homelessness. Federal Continuum of Care funding is awarded competitively on an annual basis rather than on a formula entitlement basis like the Community Development Block Grant and HOME programs.

The proposed 15 grants would support permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, coordinated entry, system planning and administration, and the Homeless Management Information System database. The grant agreements would include conditions similar to those in the previous round executed in 2025. The recommendation would also authorize the City Manager to execute five amendments to specified contracts, with each amendment adding the amount of annual federal funding and extending the term by one year.

The largest of the 15 grants would direct $1.5 million to a Housing Department-administered rental assistance and supportive services program, with services provided by Step Up On Second Street for formerly chronically homeless individuals with disabilities, serving 62 households. Other major awards include $1.1 million to Union Station Homeless Services for the Holly Street Housing permanent supportive housing project serving 40 individuals; $841,176 to Volunteers of America Los Angeles for rapid rehousing for survivors of domestic violence; $515,054 to Step Up On Second Street for its Step Up permanent supportive housing program serving 21 individuals; and $440,433 to Door of Hope for a separate rapid rehousing program for domestic violence survivors serving 10 families.

Additional grants would fund Pacific Clinics’ Hestia House transitional-aged youth housing ($360,539), Union Station Homeless Services programs at Centennial Place ($231,661), Euclid Villa ($252,150), Pasadena Rapid Rehousing ($253,078), Community Linkages ($163,547) and Coordinated Entry ($141,190), Housing Works’ Home First Pasadena ($169,759), and The Salvation Army’s Hope Center ($113,173), which serves 65 individuals, including 16 veterans. The city would also receive $253,558 for Continuum of Care planning and $257,310 for Homeless Management Information System database operations.

The staff report says all grants carry a 25% match requirement. Match obligations for grants passed through to subrecipients would be met by those agencies. For the city-sponsored rental assistance grant, in-kind match would be provided by a third party and documented in a formal Memorandum of Understanding. For city-administered grants, the staff report indicates the Homeless Management Information System match would be satisfied with $64,328 in federal Emergency Solutions Grant funds, and the planning grant match would be satisfied with $63,390 in General Funds, both included in the Department’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget.

According to the staff report, the recommendation responds to an extended federal procurement saga. On July 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a Notice of Funding Opportunity permitting communities to submit a single consolidated application applicable to Fiscal Year 2024 and Fiscal Year 2025 grants. Pasadena was awarded 15 grants through that notice. On Nov. 13, 2025, the department issued a separate Fiscal Year 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity that introduced a new requirement capping at 30% the portion of a community’s renewal funding that could be used for permanent housing — a sharp departure from the department’s longstanding policy that had resulted in Continuum of Care portfolios made up of roughly 90% permanent housing projects.

The staff report states that the 30% cap would have forced the defunding of existing permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs across the country, putting the housing of an estimated 170,000 formerly homeless households at risk. Two lawsuits followed in late November and early December 2025 — one from a coalition of 21 attorneys general and governors, and another from a group of 11 local governments and nonprofits. The Department of Housing and Urban Development rescinded the November Notice of Funding Opportunity on Dec. 8, 2025, ahead of a court hearing, and on Dec. 19 the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of both the new Fiscal Year 2025 notice and the department’s rescission of the two-year notice. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the lower-court injunction on April 1.

Congress separately addressed the issue in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, signed into law on Feb. 3, which required the department to non-competitively renew Continuum of Care grants expiring in the first quarter of calendar year 2026 and to extend those grants for 12 months. The department announced the first round of renewals on March 31, including two of Pasadena’s 15 renewal grants, and a subsequent announcement on May 21 covered the remaining 13.

Approval of the recommended actions would have no fiscal impact, according to the staff report, as the funds are included in the Department’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget. Staff also recommend that the City Council find the action exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, in the Council Chamber, Room S249, Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.