Continuum of Care Competition

The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program (24 CFR part 578) is designed to promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; to provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, states, Indian Tribes or tribally designated housing entities (as defined in section 4 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4103) (TDHEs)), and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals, families, persons fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and youth while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused by homelessness; to promote access to and effective utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families, and to optimize self-sufficiency among those experiencing homelessness.

FY 2026 CoC Renewal Evaluations: Rating & Ranking Process for the 2026 Continuum of Care (CoC) Competition

Publish Date: March 16^th 2026

Renewal Application materials are due by 5:00 pm on April 6^th, 2026

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that local CoC’s prioritize all renewal and new projects submitted in our consolidated application. As in previous years, CoC staff will work on the evaluation of existing projects, also called “renewal” projects, prior to the release of HUD’s Continuum of Care Program Notice of Funding Availability.

Project priorities will be generated by a scoring system, site visits and interviews by the CoC Competition Evaluation Workgroup, made up of impartial members of the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition Board, community partners, and those with lived experience of homelessness. Materials related to the Competition will be posted publicly as they become available on this webpage.

Based on information received to date, HUD will release the 2026 CoC Notice of Funding Opportunity on or before June 1, 2026.  Staff and CoC Competition Evaluation Workgroup members will begin the scoring and monitoring of renewal projects in April of 2026 but will not finalize the ranking of renewal projects until the Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) period opens. 

Final funding decisions, including decisions about Tier 1 & 2 funding, will be made by the Homeless Coalition Board.

Instructions and materials for renewal project 2026 evaluation are linked below.

In the 2026 Continuum of Care Competition, 10 projects with contract end dates in 2026 will be up for renewal. A list of renewal projects is linked below. Out of the 10 projects, 8 will be evaluated for the competition as the Homeless Management Information System contracts and the Coordinated Entry contracts are mandated projects. Project scoring will take place in three phases:

Phase One: Collection and Preliminary Review of Renewal Evaluations April 6^th  – Week of April 13^th  

Phase Two: Interviews and Site Visits to all Projects Week of April 27th

Phase Three: Final Scoring of New Projects and Renewing Projects Week of May 4^th

For more information on the 2026 Continuum of Care rating and ranking process of renewal projects please see the following attachments:

Renewal Evaluations Schedule of Events 2026 »

Sonoma County 2026 Continuum of Care Renewal Project Instructions »

Final 2026 Renewal Evaluation Application Questionnaire »

Final Renewal Scoring for the 2026 CoC Competition »

Renewal Application materials are due by 5:00 pm on April 6^th, 2026.

Questions? You may contact Karissa White, the Continuum of Care Coordinator, for clarification of any item at Karissa.White@sonomacounty.gov , and by phone at (707) 565-4080.