Grant Overview
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act) amended the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, revising the Emergency Shelter Grants Program in significant ways and renaming it the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program.
The change in the program’s name, from Emergency Shelter Grants to Emergency Solutions Grants, reflects the change in the program’s focus from addressing the needs of homeless people in emergency or transitional shelters to assisting people to quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness.
This program provides funding to:
These funds may be used for five program components: street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing assistance, and HMIS; as well as administrative activities (up to 7.5% of a recipient’s allocation can be used for administrative activities).
Through its Homeless Services Division, in coordination with other local efforts, the City will use The Emergency Solutions Grant for eligible activities to address strategies to combat and end homelessness outlined in the 2018 Chattanooga Community Action Plan.
The City participates in the local coordinated entry system and collaborates with the area’s Continuum of Care (CoC) lead agency and other local agencies that are committed to the goal of ending homelessness in Chattanooga and surrounding areas.