Durham Continuum of Care

2025 HSAC Annual Report

The Homeless Services Advisory Committee’s account of what it decided, funded, and evaluated between January and December 2025 — the year before the Strategic Framework began.

City of Durham · Durham County · Homeless Services Advisory Committee

HSAC is the primary decision-making body for the Durham Continuum of Care. This report, dated January 21, 2026, covers the calendar year 2025 and runs six pages. It is published here as HSAC produced it.

What changed in 2025

The Continuum of Care’s administrative functions moved from the former Community Development Department to the Durham Community Safety Department, and HSAC is now staffed by the HOPE Team. In July 2025, the City and DCSD began a six-month strategic framework planning process with Community Solutions, with HSAC leadership represented throughout. That process produced the Strategic Framework now in the library.

The numbers HSAC reported

The gap between those first two figures drove a decision. In November, the PIT Count Planning Work Group recommended against conducting the traditional unsheltered point-in-time count in January 2026 — it is required only in every other odd-numbered year, and HMIS gives a fuller annual picture despite its flaws. The recommendation was to improve HMIS accuracy, run partial scans by outreach teams, and hold a community engagement event in January in place of the volunteer count. The unsheltered PIT count resumes in 2027 as HUD requires.

Funding decisions

• Durham CoC received its full entitlement of $173,005 in State Emergency Solutions Grant funds across three providers, for emergency shelter operations, street outreach, and rapid rehousing. The committee recommended prioritizing families and holding the existing 50/50 split between emergency shelter and housing stabilization.
• In May, the committee advanced a recommendation to put $4 million in HOME-ARP funds toward a housing development for which the Durham Housing Authority has committed 25 project-based vouchers.
• In December, the committee approved the HOPE Team’s recommended prioritization for the HUD CoC NOFO, shaped by a federal rule capping permanent housing projects at 30 percent of the budget: Tier 1 for permanent supportive housing serving seniors and people with disabilities, Tier 2 for transitional housing and supportive services–only projects.

Performance

A November report on HUD System Performance Measures showed Durham doing better than national averages on length of time homeless and on successful housing placements, and significantly worse on employment and income growth for people in CoC-funded projects. Of the projects evaluated in spring 2025, one scored below threshold; no Performance Improvement Plan was issued because that project had already reallocated its funds for the coming year.

Durham CoC also suspended its Housing First evaluation across all projects, having conducted it primarily to demonstrate alignment with HUD priorities that have since changed.

What HSAC named for 2026

• Implementation of the Strategic Framework, with official kickoff July 1, 2026
• Data integration, evaluation, and system performance
• Collaboration with DCSD, other City departments, and outside partners
• Federal and state funding competitions, including HUD CoC and State ESG
• Hosting the Durham Youth Action Board and tracking the regional youth system improvement approach