No Place Like Home Program

Background Information

On July 1, 2016, Governor Brown signed landmark legislation enacting the No Place Like Home program to dedicate up to $2 billion in bond proceeds to invest in the development of permanent supportive housing for persons who are in need of mental health services and are experiencing homelessness, chronic homelessness, or who are at risk of chronic homelessness. The bonds are repaid by funding from the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). In November 2018 voters approved Proposition 2, authorizing the sale of up to $2 billion of revenue bonds and the use of a portion of Proposition 63 taxes for the NPLH program.

Key features of the program include:

• Counties will be eligible applicants (either solely or with a housing development sponsor).
• Funding for permanent supportive housing must utilize low barrier tenant selection practices that prioritize vulnerable populations and offer flexible, voluntary, and individualized supportive services.
• Counties must commit to provide mental health services and help coordinate access to other community-based supportive services.

Purpose

To acquire, design, construct, rehabilitate, or preserve permanent supportive housing for persons who are experiencing homelessness, chronic homelessness or who are at risk of chronic homelessness, and who are in need of mental health services.

Population to be Served

Adults with serious mental illness, or children with severe emotional disorders and their families and persons who require or are at risk of requiring acute psychiatric inpatient care, residential treatment, or outpatient crisis intervention because of a mental disorder with symptoms of psychosis, suicidality or violence and who are homeless, chronically homeless, or at risk of chronic homelessness.

At risk of chronic homelessness includes persons who are at high risk of long-term or intermittent homelessness, including persons with mental illness exiting institutionalized settings with a history of homelessness prior to institutionalization, and transition age youth experiencing homelessness or with significant barriers to housing stability.

Assistance Type

Loans to counties*, or their housing development sponsors.

Eligible Applicants

Counties*, either solely or with a housing development sponsor.

*Under the NPLH program, the definition of "counties" includes the City of Berkeley and the cities of Pomona, Claremont, and La Verne.

Validation Action

• Notice of Validation Action (PDF) - 9/27/2017

Anticipated Program Timeline*

Issue Second Round Competitive Allocation NOFA	September 2019
Applications due under Second Round Competitive Allocation NOFA	January 8, 2020
Issue Second Round Competitive Allocation Awards	June 2020
Deadline for counties to submit project applications to HCD utilizing their Noncompetitive Allocation	Rolling application deadline — no later than February 15, 2021

*The disbursement of funds under the Program is contingent on the sale of bonds by the California State Treasurer's Office, and the proceeds of any such bond sales being made available to HCD for disbursement pursuant to all Program requirements.

Funds Available

Noncompetitive Allocation ($190 million)

Distributed by formula allocation to each county based on their 2017 homeless Point-In-Time Count with a minimum allocation per county of $500,000.

Competitive Allocation (up to $1.8 billion for multiple funding rounds)

Second Round Funding: Anticipated minimum of $622 million.

Counties will compete for funding with counties of similar size:

• Los Angeles County*
• Large counties (population greater than 750,000)*
• Medium counties (population between 200,000 to 750,000)
• Small counties (population less than 200,000)

*Counties with five percent or more of the state's homeless population may be designated by HCD to receive and administer their own allocations of NPLH funds under their own HCD-approved method of distribution.

Program Forms

Program Guidelines  

• New! Round 2 No Place Like Home Program Guidelines (PDF)
• New! Round 2 Guideline Amendments in Tracked Changes (PDF)
• New! Explanation of Round 2 Amendments (PDF)
• New! Responses to Round 2 Guideline Amendment Public Comments (PDF)

Get Funding

Counties designated as Alternative Process Counties

Counties with five percent or more of the state's homeless population may be designated by HCD to receive and administer their own allocations of NPLH funds under their own HCD-approved method of distribution.

• 2018 NPLH Alternative Process County Designation Form (DOC)
• No Place Like Home, Alternative Process County Designation Requirements (YouTube) - 7/12/2018
• 2018 Alternative Process County Contact List (XLS)
• Alternative Process County Disbursement of Funds Request Form (XLS)

Current NOFAs

Competitive Allocation

• Competitive Allocation Awards by County Size Groupings Memo (PDF) - 4/2/2019
• New! Round 2 Competitive Allocation NOFA (PDF)
• New! Supplemental Project Application (XLS)
• New! Competitive Allocation County Project Resolution Template (DOC)
• New! Competitive Allocation Development Sponsor Project Resolution Template (DOC)
• New! Universal Application (XLS)
• STD 204 - Payee Data Record (PDF) — For non-governmental entities.
• Government TIN Form (PDF) — File may need to be opened using Internet Explorer.
• Loan limits (PDF) — The NPLH per unit subsidy limits begin on page 106 of this document. See NOFA for more information.
• New! 2019 NPLH Workshop Presentation Slides (PDF)

Noncompetitive Allocation

Applications for projects of five or more units utilizing only Noncompetitive Allocation funds from NPLH administered by HCD may be submitted at any time using the NOFA and Applications below.

All project applications utilizing Noncompetitive Allocation Funds, whether alone or with Competitive Allocation Funds, shall be submitted no later than February 15, 2021. Alternate Process Counties and counties approved to administer their Noncompetitive Allocation funds for Shared Housing may establish and earlier application submission deadline.

2018 NPLH Noncompetitive Allocation Funds Memo (PDF)

Application due date: Rolling application deadline.

Fiscal Year 2018-2019 (Round 1)

• Noncompetitive Allocation NOFA (PDF) – Amended as of 10/30/2018
• Supplemental Project Application (XLS) — For project applications submitted to HCD not also utilizing Competitive Allocation Funds.
  • Authorizing Resolution Template for Noncompetitive Allocation Project Applications (County) (DOC) — Amended as of 11/02/2018
  • Authorizing Resolution Template for Noncompetitive Allocation Project Applications (Development Sponsors) (DOC) — Amended as of 11/02/2018
• New! Universal Application (XLS)
• STD 204 - Payee Data Record (PDF) — For non-governmental entities.
• Government TIN Form (PDF) — File may need to be opened using Internet Explorer.
• Guidelines
• Noncompetitive Allocation NOFA and Application Workshop Presentation (PDF)
• Noncompetitive Allocation Workshop Webinar (YouTube) - 08/24/2018
• Loan limits (PDF) — The NPLH per unit subsidy limit begins on page 106 of this document.

Workshop Dates and Locations

Location	Date and Time
Ventura City of Ventura City Hall Community Meeting Room 501 Poli Street Ventura, CA 93001	October 18, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Riverside Home Front at Camp Anza Officer's Club 5797 Picker Street Riverside, CA 92504	October 22, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Redding Redding City Hall 777 Cypress Avenue Redding, CA 96001	October 25, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Oakland Elihu M. Harris State Office Building 2nd Floor, Room 2 1515 Clay Street Oakland, CA 94612	October 29, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Sacramento Department of Housing and Community Development Room 402 A/B 2020 West El Camino Avenue Sacramento, CA 95833	November 1, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Fresno Fresno Council of Governments Sequoia Conference Room 2035 Tulare Street #201 Fresno, CA 93721	November 4, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register
Webinar	November 6, 2019 8:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. Register

Advisory Committee

The role of the NPLH Advisory Committee is to assist and advise the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) in the implementation of the NPLH Program, review and make recommendations on HCD’s guidelines, review HCD’s progress in distributing moneys, and provide advice and guidance more broadly on statewide homelessness issues.

• NPLH Member Roster (PDF)
• Homelessness Initiatives Updates Slide Presentation (PDF)
• Proposed Program Guideline Amendments Slide Presentation (PDF)

Training and Technical Assistance

• NPLH Homeless Plan template (PDF)
• NPLH County Contact List (PDF)
• NPLH FAQs (PDF)