Advocacy Alert:

Homelessness Funding at Risk

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding federal funding that we would like to address as best as we can. You may have seen that HUD (The Department of Housing and Urban Development) released what is called a NOFO: a notice of funding opportunity. This NOFO has significant programmatic changes that would have serious implications for services provided by Housing First agencies like Willis Dady Homeless Services.   

As a Housing First provider, we believe, and research supports, that people are more likely to overcome barriers when they have the stability of a place of their own. We see housing as a human right, meaning each person is inherently worthy of a safe home regardless of their mental health, sobriety, employment status, etc. All of Willis Dady’s housing programs prioritize gaining housing in combination with intensive case management to address their individualized needs. Case management and connection to additional resources is critical to our mission of empowering individuals and their families to build futures of self-sufficiency. 

With the changes proposed by this NOFO, Willis Dady's housing programs would need to change our priorities away from Housing First, or we will lose this funding source. This totals $600,000 for our agency. As we understand it, these changes would impact us in 2027, as our funding is already under contract for next year.   

Other agencies across Iowa and the country are in jeopardy for 2026 funding. In alignment with other Housing First agencies, The National Alliance to End Homelessness has additional resources and ways to advocate on their website at: https://endhomelessness.org/action/stophudnofo/  

Regarding Willis Dady’s housing programs; we are actively exploring options that will best suit our agency and the clients that we serve. This includes talking with our statewide CoC (Continuum of Care) and fellow homeless service providers. Honestly, we don’t know what this will look like for us as an agency. We are anticipating that this likely will result in a budgetary gap for our agency in 2027. We are committed to being transparent throughout this process and will share more as this situation progresses.