September 2026 Newsletter
Spotlights
CoC Program Director Shaundell, as well as 7 Youth Action Board and People with Lived Experience Action Board members will be attending the 2026 National Lived Experience Leadership Conference on September 28th - September 30th in San Jose, CA! Three PLE and Shaundell will be leading a workshop on centering community voices, titled "'Nothing About Us Without Us': A Community-Led Training Toolkit". In a 90 minute session, they will present a condensed version of their 2024 Nothing About Us Without Us training (available on our TalentLMS here) before providing attendees with tips, outlines, and tools so they can bring such a training back to their community.
Project Updates
A ribbon cutting was held on July 29th in Greenfield for CSO's new shelter and permanent housing. The space will can hold up to 42 shelter beds and 36 housing units. Individuals were referred through Coordinated Entry for the units and will move in before the end of September.
CoC Updates
Summer Cooling Kits & Point in Time Count
This summer, CoC staff and the PLE Action Board held their 3rd annual Summer Cooling Kit collection drive. The purpose of this collection drive was to gather essential items for our unhoused community members, to ensure they are safe and comfortable during the summer heat. We would like to thank the following for their donations:
From these local organizations, as well as our four in person collection drives and online registry, some of the donated items included:
T-shirts
Shorts
Sneakers
Bombas socks
Shampoo and conditioner
Soap
Body wipes
Sunscreen
Toothbrush kits
Tents
Tarps
We distributed over 100 “cooling kits” with items—identified by our PLE Action Board and YAB—such as Mylar rain ponchos, umbrellas, sunscreen, electrolyte packets, water bottles, hygiene products, and bug spray. We were also able to distribute some tents, backpacks, shirts shorts and underwear, and solar chargers.
These items were distributed during our summer Point in Time (PIT) Count, which aims to count the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on a single night. It is important to remember that the PIT count is a snapshot of a single night. To be counted, people have to agree to be surveyed. Therefore, we recognize that our numbers do not capture every single person who is unsheltered in our area, but rather serves as a minimum figure.
On July 26th, 2026 there were at least 112 people sleeping in places not meant for human habitation—36 in Berkshire County, 33 in Franklin County, 35 in Hampshire County, and 10 who did not share which county they were in.
Huge thanks for the following organizations for completing & submitting surveys:
We are so grateful to everyone who supported this important effort. We would especially like to highlight the work of our PLE. Through meetings, tabling at collection drives, and conducting point in time count surveys, PLE spent 89.5 hours on the cooling kits and PIT count.
NOFO Updates
HUD released the FY26 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on June 1st with a submission deadline of August 26th. They anticipated awarding funds by December 1st, which they were required to do per Congressional legislation. This NOFO represented a significant departure from prior years, and included substantial changes to funding priorities, project eligibility, scoring, and the treatment of permanent housing, transitional housing, and supportive services.
The Three County CoC conducted its local competition, soliciting applications for new and renewal projects from local organizations. All existing projects submitted renewal applications, and we received six new project applications.
However, on August 7th, a federal judge ruled that the NOFO had violated the Administrative Procedure Act and vacated the funding opportunity. The August 26th deadline was no longer in force, and no CoCs have been able to submit applications. A legal battle is ongoing and we will share more once we have more information.
Legislative and Advocacy
State-level
On June 30th, the House and Senate Conference Committee released their version of the FY27 budget, and sent it to the Governor who signed it into law on July 9th. The table below shows the final appropriations for the homelessness programs we included in our March and May newsletters.
Program | Final FY27 budget |
EA Family Shelter EA Diversion | $259.9 million $5 million |
RAFT | $209 million |
Individual Shelter Winter beds | $114 million $0 |
HomeBASE | $82.3 million |
Unaccompanied Homeless Youth | $10.5 million |
Rapid Rehousing | $5 million |
Federal-level
On June 3rd, the FY27 bill that contains CoC funding was introduced to the House Appropriations Committee. The Senate has not introduced their version of this bill to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Once both bills pass their respective chamber, Senators and Congressmen have to come together to create one final bill that can pass both the Senate and the House. It is almost guaranteed that the numbers in the House's FY27 bill will not be identical to the numbers in the final FY27 bill that becomes law. However, it is worth noting that the House bill allocates $3.77 billion for CoCs, while the final FY26 bill allocated $4.01 billion.
On September 2nd, a Continuing Resolution (CR) was signed into law. This CR extends the Congressional appropriations deadline to December 12th instead of September 30th.
Upcoming Trainings & Events
Thursday, September 17th, 10:00am-11:00am: EOHLC CoC Compliance Update Info Session
EOHLC will be discussing a few changes to the scope of services for state-funded programming that may have an impact on CoC systems. Those changes are:
1. The contractor shall participate in their local CoC’s coordinated entry system and remain in compliance with the CoC’s Coordinated Entry standards. This includes emergency shelters and outreach programs, ensuring that their clients are enrolled according to the local system’s standards and processes.
2. Stabilization and supportive services to be provided by all state-funded programs serving homeless households without children are required to have active staff engagement with any local or CoC By-Name-List processes.
3. Monthly data reports for state-funded projects, submitted with invoices, shall be APRs or CAPERS generated from the local Continuum of Care’s HMIS.
Thursday, September 17th, 1:00pm-2:30pm: Coordinated Entry Evaluation Overview and Recommendations
Join us for an overview of our CE Evaluation, which was conducted by Technical Assistance Collaborative. The goal of the evaluation is to identify practical opportunities to improve access, consistency, and communications for those navigating the homelessness response system. The presentation will include TAC's findings, recommendations, and proposed next steps. All are invited to attend!
Clarity HMIS New Interface Training
Our CoC's HMIS database, Clarity, is getting a new look and user interface by the company which builds and maintains it- Bitfocus, Inc. In order to prepare for this new design, we will be holding three training sessions to help familiarize everyone with the new layout and workflows. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to Michele Lafleur: mlafleur@communityaction.us
Tuesday, September 29th, 11:00am-12:00pm: Join here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84661208777?pwd=vsqyPlaZqH4c5bDh3JJLvXt2auI3GJ.1
Wednesday, September 20th, 10:00am-11:00am
Thursday, October 1st, 12:00pm-1:00pm:
Hiring
Many of our community partners are hiring!
-CSO: many positions, including Housing Navigators in Greenfield and Northampton!
-Craig's Doors: Case Manager, Low Threshold Housing and Services
-Cooley Dickinson: Community Health Worker - HIV Care (A Positive Place) and Community Health Worker - Health Access (A Positive Place)
-CoC: We will be hiring for our Coordinated Entry system! More info available soon.
