Homelessness

Continuum of Care

The City of New Bedford’s Office of Housing & Community Development (OHCD) coordinates a comprehensive response to homelessness through a Continuum of Care network. A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a community’s plan to organize and deliver housing and services to meet the specific needs of people who are homeless as they move to stable housing and maximum self-sufficiency. The CoC’s plan includes action steps to end homelessness and prevent a return to homelessness.

The New Bedford Continuum of Care (MA-505) has grown!

In May 2024 the adjoining Continuum of Care (CoC) known as the Greater Bristol County Attleboro Taunton Coalition to End Homelessness or “GBCATCH” merged into New Bedford’s CoC creating a much larger CoC. Reflecting all of Bristol County’s cities and towns with the exception of Fall River, the Bristol County CoC (BCCC) coordinates a comprehensive response to homelessness using a “Continuum of Care” approach through its active network of providers, members of the faith community, social service workers, state agencies, local non-profits providing a myriad of services, foundations, developers and those with lived experience and expertise.

The BCCC meets regularly to address the most pressing issues around the complexity of homelessness and works toward ensuring every individual and every family has access to appropriate, sustainable safe, decent and affordable housing.

The BCCC is a collective of over 70 organizations, agencies and individuals committed to working together in addressing both episodic and chronic homelessness. Their mission is:
“…to advocate on behalf of homeless individuals by enlisting the cooperation of homeless providers, to improve the accessibility of existing public resources, to maintain statistical data on the homeless population, and to provide supportive services and empowerment strategies to allow these individuals to be integrated into the community through a compassionate Continuum of Care. The BCCC is committed to the concept that each person is entitled to live in dignity”.

The OHCD convenes all CoC meetings and serves as its “Collaborative Applicant” in seeking federal funding as well as its Lead in the administration of the CoC’s “Homeless Management Information System or HMIS.” It works to produce reports and analysis of homelessness in New Bedford and throughout the geography of the BCCC while ensuring the development of services, resources and housing for those experiencing homelessness to ensure they find the assistance they need. The OHCD also spearheads a collaborative effort on behalf of the CoC to maintain and develop a comprehensive planning process around the issues of homelessness that includes:

• Point in Time Count: A Homeless Point-in-Time Count each January to determine the nature and extent of homelessness in the CoC. Surveys are conducted of all sheltered and unsheltered homeless and an annual report is produced and provided to the community.

• Street Sheet: The StreetSheet, unique to New Bedford, is a comprehensive compilation of all service providers contact numbers, and websites to direct individuals and families to critical services. The StreetSheet is available online at: https://www.bristolcountycoc.com/nbhspn-street-sheet/.

• Continuum of Care Housing Inventory: The BCCC maintains an updated inventory of emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing beds for homeless families and individuals. These Housing Inventory charts are a valuable tool for tracking resources and needs along the continuum.

• 2024 Homeless Plan: The City of New Bedford contracted with the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) to produce a report focusing on New Bedford’s efforts to end homelessness particularly as it merged with the balance of Bristol County. The product of that work, “Homelessness in New Bedford: Assessing the MA-505 Continuum of Care’s Response to Homelessness” was published in 2024 and is available here.

Emergency Solutions Grant
The City of New Bedford receives an allocation of Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds each year. This money is a federal entitlement that provides limited assistance to non-profits for emergency shelter, homeless prevention, street outreach, rapid rehousing, HMIS, and administration for those who are homeless and for those who are on the brink of homelessness.
The ESG program provides funding to:

• Engage homeless individuals and families living on the street;
• Improve the number and quality of emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families;
• Help operate these shelters;
• Provide essential services to shelter residents;
• Rapidly re-house homeless individuals and families; and
• Prevent families and individuals from becoming homeless.

HUD Continuum of Care Funding
The Bristol County CoC competes annually for the Continuum of Care Program funding by responding to a NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity). The OHCD is the administrative entity (collaborative applicant) responsible for applying for this funding and oversees the majority of projects awarded funding through this process. In 2024’s application cycle the OHCD submitted a competitive application for just over $4.6 million on behalf of the CoC under the Continuum of Care Program both new and renewal programs.

If you are interested in more information about these efforts, check out the work the BCCC is doing in Bristol County at https://www.bristolcountycoc.com.