Grant Details

The Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program supports the Department's strategic goal of increasing economic opportunity for HUD-assisted families. FSS provides grants to Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to support the salaries and training needs of FSS Program Coordinators who assist participating families receiving housing assistance through the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV/PBV) and Public Housing (PH) programs. FSS Program Coordinators develop local strategies to connect participating families to public and private resources to increase their earned income and financial empowerment, reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance, and make progress toward economic independence and self-sufficiency. In the context of the Self Sufficiency account, self-sufficiency” is defined as a household's ability to maintain financial, housing, and personal/family stability. To achieve self-sufficiency, individuals in a household move along a continuum towards economic independence and stability; such movement is facilitated by the achievement of educational, professional, and health/mental health and financial empowerment-related goals. For the FSS program, self-sufficiency is further defined as a work-able -family's ability to maintain itself free from income-based public safety net programs such as TANF, SNAP, Medicaid and housing assistance.

Eligible Use of Funds:

• Funds awarded to FSS grantees under this Notice of Funding will be used to pay the salary and fringe benefits of full-time and part-time FSS program coordinators. You may include a training stipend in your calculation of fringe benefits.”
• The funds awarded per eligible FSS coordinator position may be used to pay for more than one staff position i.e., to job-share, meaning the funds may be spread across more than one staff position. However, please note that each position granted is for a FullTime-Equivalent (FTE) with a maximum of 40 hours per week, so if a position is job-shared, the number of hours billed to the grant for that position may be no more than cumulative 40 hours (or whatever full-time” is for the grantee entity.)

Some changes from previous notice of funding include:

• Multifamily Housing (aka Project Based Rental Assistance or PBRA) Applicants. This NOFO will accept applications from Multifamily Housing Owners for the first time due to now being included as eligible entities for funding in the FSS Final Rule.
• Funds awarded under this NOFO may be used to serve residents of Project-Based Rental Assistance (multifamily) regardless of whether they were RAD affected.
• In the previous NOFOs we offered three funding priority categories, which were Category 1: Renewal Funding for Eligible Applicants; Category 2: Increases from Part-time to Full-time Positions; and Category 3: Increases in Funding Amount. In this NOFO, for FY22, subject to your eligible request and available funds:
  • Category 1 – Renewals - will be to fund you to the amount to which you were last funded for your Baseline Positions;
  • Category 2 – Renewals - If you serve at least 25 participants (according to the PIC report in Appendix C) and you are currently only funded for a part-time Coordinator, this NOFO will increase your part-time position to a full-time position (from 0.5 to 1), unless you submit a Part-Time Loss Acknowledgement letter with this NOFO application.
  • Category 3 – Renewals - will be to increase your funding, up to your Maximum Annual Award (or approved Exception Request) or Eligible Funding Request, whichever is less. See
  • Category 4 will fund New grantees (applicants not funded in FY19, FY20 or FY21).