HUD’s Office of Policy Development & Research (PD&R) recently published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) titled Advancing HUD’s Learning Agenda through Cooperative Agreements with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions. Through this funding opportunity, PD&R seeks to fund quality research that contributes to knowledge on housing and community development and to support minority-serving institutions to conduct housing and community development research important to the communities and students the institutions serve. Applicants for funding must submit a research project proposal that addresses one of the specific research questions featured in the NOFO. The research questions are broadly organized under seven topic areas: (1) Community Development and Place-Based Initiatives, (2) Disaster Recovery, (3) Fair Housing, (4) Homelessness, (5) Homeownership, Asset Building, and Economic Opportunity, (6) Housing and Health, and (7) American Indian, Alaska Native, and/or Native Hawaiian Housing Needs.

This short white paper is designed to provide a high-level overview of the current state of research within the topic area of Homelessness, references to foundational studies related to Homelessness, and the general context for the research questions that are included in the NOFO. This paper is designed to provide potential applicants with a common grounding in the topic as they consider this new funding opportunity.

For more information on the NOFO and links to the other short papers, please visit the Minority-Serving Institutions Funding Opportunities page on HUD User.