August 2025 Newsletter
- The Three County CoC
- Aug 18
- 12 min read
Three County CoC Team Updates
On June 30 through July 2, three of our staff were in Washington, DC at the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference. It was a great few days of trainings, workshops, and networking.
The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is our CoC annual funding process. In 2024, we were informed that the NOFO would cover two years—meaning we would not have to do a whole application in 2025. This was an incredibly welcome development for CoC staff and our funded partners, since the NOFO is a very time-consuming endeavor. Knowing we would have more capacity in the summer than usual, we decided to conduct our Summer Point in Time Count.
On July 3, the Special Needs Assistance Program Office sent an email to all CoCs, informing them that “HUD intends to publish a NOFO for 2025 Continuum of Care (CoC) awards. HUD invites CoCs to prepare for an application focused on treatment and recovery, reducing unsheltered homelessness, reducing returns to homelessness, and increasing the earned income of participants.” We have received no further information. As soon as we know more, we will share with you all.
Finally, we are excited to welcome our new DV/EMERG Coordinator, Emma Coles! Emma has been with the CoC for the past 2.5 years, but was working part-time while completing her Master’s in Public Policy and Administration from UMass Amherst. In this position, Emma will be coordinating the EMERG Coalition—which promotes and facilitates humane, evidence-based, collaborative responses to unsheltered homelessness—and the CoC’s programmatic work related to domestic violence.
We are so happy to have her on the team full time, fulfilling a vital role in the community!
Community Update & Thank You - 2025 Summer Point in Time Count
The Three County CoC carried out the Summer Point in Time (PIT) Count of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on the night of July 20th in Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire Counties.
The Point in Time Count is a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirement for Continuums of Care to conduct surveys to create a census of how many individuals are experiencing literal homelessness every year on one night in January. This data is used to determine allocation of funding to the effort to end homelessness and is a measure of progress made.
The Three County CoC decided to conduct a summer Point in Time Count in order to document data that may differ from the HUD required winter Point in Time Count.
Our preliminary Point in Time Count Numbers for those experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire Counties on the night of January 29th compared to July 20th are below:
July 20th, 2025 | January 29th, 2025 |
Berkshire County: 63 individuals | Berkshire County: 26 individuals |
Franklin County: 23 individuals | Franklin County: 29 individuals |
Hampshire County: 57 individuals | Hampshire County: 52 individuals |
TOTAL: 143 individuals | TOTAL: 107 individuals |
A more detailed summary of this count will be shared soon, including sheltered counts.
Thank you to our Community Providers
The Three County CoC would like to say a big thank you to our partners who completed PIT Count surveys with individuals experiencing homelessness!
The Point in Time Count would not be possible without these providers:
The Wildflower Alliance, Northampton Division of Community Care (DCC), Center for Human Development (CHD) Outreach, Louison House, ServiceNet, Craig's Doors, Clinical Support Options, Eliot CHS, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Hilltown Community Health Center (HCHC), and the Resilience Center of Franklin County (formally NELCWIT)
Are you a community provider that would like to be involved next year? Take a look at our website for more information: https://www.threecountycoc.communityaction.us/pitcount2025
People with Lived Experience (PLE) Action Board Summer Cooling Kits
In tandem with the summer PIT Count, our PLE Action Board collaborated with agencies and individuals to gather donations for summer cooling kits and survival supplies to give out to those experiencing homelessness. Please see our announcement below.
Legislative & Advocacy Updates
State Updates
On July 4th, Governor Healey signed the FY26 budget into law. The $61 billion budget includes increased funding for sponsor based PSH. However, many critical housing programs, such as RAFT, HomeBASE, and MRVP, did not see their funding increase. And funding for some programs, like the Housing Consumer Education Centers and the Shelter Workforce Development Initiative, decreased. Additionally, no state funding was allocated to the Tenancy Preservation Program, the Healthy Homes Program, and the Office of Fair Housing and Fair Housing Trust. We invite you to check out the great summaries and analysis done by MHSA and CHAPA.
The budget passed but the advocacy is just getting started! A hearing on H.2261, “An Act ending the criminalization of homelessness”, was held on July 22nd. A week later, lawmakers heard testimony for more than 5 hours on “An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants” (S.1447). You can check out some of the Network’s written testimony here. And be sure to subscribe to their blog to stay up to date on what’s happening at the state and local level!
Federal Updates
On the federal side, the Administration released an Executive Order that challenges the current, evidence-based responses to unsheltered homelessness (note that an Executive Order, on its own, does not change existing law and policy). Among other things, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” would like to increase involuntary institutionalization, require CoC participants to attend substance use treatment, and potentially prioritize funding to communities that criminalize homelessness. For a more detailed understanding, we recommend checking out what the National Alliance to End Homelessness has published.
The federal fiscal year ends on September 30, 2025. Congress must pass their FY26 budget by this date, (or a Continuing Resolution); if not, the government shuts down. The Senate Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee introduced S.2465, which allocates $4 billion to the CoC program. The bill was approved by the full Appropriations Committee. The House THUD Appropriations Subcommittee introduced H.R.4552 but did not receive full Committee approval before beginning their summer recess in July. They will return to session in September.
Three County CoC Committee & Workgroups
Please see below for updates on what our Committees and Workgroups have been working on to address homelessness in our region and information on how to get involved! With some exceptions, these committees meet over Zoom during working hours.
People With Lived Experience Action Board
The People with Lived Experience (PLE) Action Board is a committee of individuals who have experienced homelessness or housing instability that work to address issues within the homelessness response system using their lived experience. The board is developing an overall action plan and has been working on a few projects, including the Summer Point in Time Count’s Summer Cooling Kits, and creating a ‘Homeless Utility Handbook’ with an accessible list of resources. The PLE Action Board often collaborates with other CoC’s across the country doing similar work. If you have experience with homelessness and would like to attend the meetings, please reach out to Shaundell Diaz at sdiaz@communityaction.us
Note: If you are a person with lived experience of homelessness, the Three County CoC encourages you to join any of the meetings listed below, as your input is vital to improving our housing systems.
Coordinated Entry Committee
The Coordinated Entry (CE) Committee serves as a space for evaluating the Three County CoC’s Coordinated Entry System. This includes evaluating the effectiveness of the CE Assessment, how case conferencing meetings are conducted, and overall system performance. The Committee is currently evaluating our CE system, with the assistance of a Technical Assistance Provider from HUD. While we are getting feedback from the TA provider and evaluating our system, it is incredibly important for the Three County CoC and our TA provider to hear from those who are conducting assessments, attending case conferencing meetings, or are people with lived experience. If you are interested in joining, please reach out to vjohnsonbouchard@communityaction.us
Domestic Violence Expansion Committee
The Domestic Violence (DV) Expansion Committee is working on various projects to better both the Three County CoC and regional response to the ever-growing need for more resources and access to housing for those that are survivors or fleeing DV. The Committee has been discussing how best to implement trauma informed practices in our Coordinated Entry system, how to better our relationships with victim service providers in the region, and the development of trainings to support providers in learning best practices when working with survivors. People with lived experience’s presence in these committee meetings are vital to the conversation. If you’re interested in attending these meetings, please reach out to Emma Coles at ecoles@communityaction.us
Community Success Committee
The Community Success Committee is a group designed to assess the Three County CoC’s policies and procedures, along with its data, to ensure that there are no disparities in our housing system or overall practices. The committee focuses on developing practices and policies for agencies in the region to better support both those experiencing homelessness and the service providers that are supporting them, and regularly solicits community feedback to inform initiatives. The committee strives to include the voices of service providers working with those experiencing homelessness and people with lived experience. If you are interested in joining the committee, please reach out to Shaundell Diaz at sdiaz@communityaction.us
Reimagining Interim Housing Workgroup
The Reimagining Interim Housing Workgroup is a part of a nation-wide initiative that is focused on addressing improvements to our emergency shelter and other temporary housing systems. The workgroup focuses on interim housing improvements, the stigma and community perception of the system, and how to best implement trauma-informed practices in the support given. The committee has been working on an action plan to address the issues that come up with interim housing, including training initiatives, mapping a workflow to identify the barriers that come up when navigating the system, and how to build better relationships between agencies supporting those experiencing homelessness. If you would like to join, reach out to Emma Coles at ecoles@communityaction.us
Data Evaluation Committee
This purpose of the Data Evaluation Committee is to discuss ways in which to improve the Three County CoC’s practices using data and analysis to ensure the Three County CoC and the services in the region are being effective in its efforts to end homelessness. The Committe uses results from the Gaps Analysis, the Point in Time Count, and the Housing Inventory Chart to inform these ideas. This spring, the committee created and sent out a survey which results informed this year’s gaps analysis to make recommendations for needed resources within Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire Counties.
The committee will soon be holding listening sessions for people with lived experience of homelessness to participate in an open-ended discussion around needed resources in the region. If you’d like to be involved, please reach out to Michele LaFleur at mlafleur@communityaction.us
Ranking and Evaluation Committee
This Committee meets on a by-need basis and will reconvene on August 29th. In the next meeting, they will be reviewing the committee’s current process for evaluating and ranking projects for funding and will be discussing a possible funding opportunity that will be coming up this year. If you are interested in being involved in the process, please reach out to Michele LaFleur at mlafleur@communityaction.us
Youth & Young Adult Homelessness Committee
The Youth & Young Adult Homelessness Committee is a collective of the Youth & Young Adult Action Board, the CoC’s Subrecipients working in our youth housing projects, and other youth housing stakeholders that meet to go over updates and to work on the YHDP Coordinated Community Plan to address and end youth homelessness. If you are a youth under the age of 25 or work with youth and would like to be involved, reach out to Shaundell Diaz at sdiaz@communityaction.us
Landlord Engagement Committee
The Three County CoC will be re-launching this committee to address the increasing need for collaborative landlord engagement. If interested in learning more and attending the committee’s first meeting, please reach out to Natalie Burtzos at nburtzos@communityaction.us
What are we reading?
“one of our primary challenges is not just developing a message about why housing is important, but developing a narrative around why we have this problem and putting a clear focus on which solutions work”
“I’ve been starting to hear people come around to say the message should be that housing, as a basic human need, shouldn’t be treated as a commodity. ... We must focus on policies that enable us to create and maintain housing that is a home, not an investment.”
The argument in this piece partially builds on the ShelterForce article above. It briefly explains why housing is treated as a commodity (the financialization of the housing market) and how that can be countered at the local level.
“In one [conversation], housing is shelter. It’s a human need. This is the language of advocates, reformers, and policy experts. In the other, housing is a financial product. It’s an asset, an investment, a lever for wealth-building. This is the language of lenders, underwriters, and major developers. When advocates call for lower prices, they’re thinking in terms of shelter. But in the finance world, falling prices are a warning sign, a trigger for pullback, not expansion. This is why a price drop doesn’t lead to more supply. It leads to less.”
“The goal is to keep housing prices elevated while offering token affordability for some through financial engineering. That’s what a fully financialized housing market looks like. You’re not the homebuyer; you’re the mortgage payer. The product that matters isn’t the home; it’s the decades of payments you have promised to make.”
“The market gap is clear. We don’t build starter homes anymore. We don’t build backyard cottages, garage apartments, or other small-scale dwellings. The only products that get built are big, expensive, and debt-dependent because that’s what today’s financing system demands. But cities can change this. They can build a more localized, supply-and-demand-responsive market by focusing on three key steps: reform regulations...support and grow an ecosystem of incremental developers...finance entry-level housing locally”
This pilot program, BAY-CASH, will provide 15 youth (18-24 year olds) in Boston with 24 months of guaranteed income—“that’s the equivalent of $1,200 a month, two payments of $600, and a one-time drawdown of $3,000”—as well as supportive services.
One of the participants, a Boston native who wants to become an architect, is excited to “’get fresh and clean clothes without having to necessarily go through donations’”, as well as pay for rent and utilities once he is housed.
Program Chair Matt Aronson explains that “this is about state-level policy change. We think this is something that the state has demonstrated they are capable of doing through the existing homeless youth grants.’”
There is a lot of evidence that direct cash assistance (to youth experiencing homelessness) works!! Check out Point Source Youth for reports, webinars, and more.
The takeaways: Counts of unsheltered and chronic homelessness are dropping, and permanent housing placements are at a record high
Full report available here for anyone interested
Upcoming Trainings & Events
August 20: Fiscal Office Hours 10:00-11:00
August 21: Coordinated Entry Process & Assessment Training 1:00—2:30
This training will focus the Coordinated Entry process. Specifically, it will go through step-by-step how to use the CE Assessment Tool in a trauma-informed way, and what to do after completing and submitting an assessment. We will discuss the By Names List, case conferencing meetings, eligibility for CoC funded housing programs, and answer any questions. Note that this is a recurring training and will occur on the third Thursday of the month.
August 28: Public Policy and Government in the Homeless Services Sector 12:00—1:30
This training provides an overview of how public policy shapes funding, regulation, and delivery of homeless services. Ideal attendees are staff seeking to better understand policy advocacy, systems change, and the role of government at local, state, and federal levels
September 4: Targeted Universalism 12:30—2:30
Description to come!
September 11: Trauma Informed Care & Mental Health in Permanent Supportive Housing 10:00—12:00
This training is designed to equip staff working in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs with a foundational understanding of trauma-informed care and practical tools to address mental health challenges among residents. Participants will explore how trauma impacts housing stability, develop strategies to build trust with clients, and learn ways to support their own well-being while preventing burnout. The Trainer Areliz O. Barbosa CHW, BS brings over 28 years of experience in healthcare, public health, and trauma-informed practices, currently serving as Clinical Assistant Professor at Bay Path.
September 17: Fiscal Office Hours 10:00—11:00
September 25: Effective Staff Management in Homeless Services 1:30—3:00
Designed for supervisors and program managers, this training covers strengths-based leadership, burnout prevention, trauma-informed supervision, and staff development strategies tailored to the complexities of homeless services.
October 9: Trauma Informed Care & Mental Health in Permanent Supportive Housing 10:00—12:00
This training is designed to equip staff working in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs with a foundational understanding of trauma-informed care and practical tools to address mental health challenges among residents. Participants will explore how trauma impacts housing stability, develop strategies to build trust with clients, and learn ways to support their own well-being while preventing burnout. The Trainer Areliz O. Barbosa CHW, BS brings over 28 years of experience in healthcare, public health, and trauma-informed practices, currently serving as Clinical Assistant Professor at Bay Path.
October 15: Fiscal Office Hours 10:00—11:00
October 16: DV 201 Training (part 1) 10:00—12:00
This training is still being developed so the exact content is TBD, but some topics that will be discussed are resources for survivors in Western MA, survivor involvement with law enforcement, coercive control, and the responses from the September focus groups.
October 23: DV 201 Training (part 2) 10:00—12:00
This training is still being developed so the exact content is TBD, but some topics that will be discussed are resources for survivors in Western MA, survivor involvement with law enforcement, coercive control, and the responses from the September focus groups.
October 30: Engaging Individuals Reluctant to Housing or Services 1:30—3:00
This session explores techniques for engaging clients who are ambivalent or resistant to services. It emphasizes empathy, trust-building, harm reduction principles, and practical field-tested strategies.