Working together to solve homelessness in Greater Richmond since 1997.
Every day, 1,000 people are served by our region's collaborative, compassionate coalition of homeless service providers.
Over the last ten years, 11,410 people have found stable housing because of our collective work.
In 2023, we served 9501 people experiencing homelessness through our access, shelter, and housing programs.
In 2023, we received over $10 million in coordinated funding to support our collective work of solving homelessness.
About Us
The Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) seeks to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness through effective and coordinated community-wide efforts and services.
GRCoC coordinates homeless services and homelessness prevention across the City of Richmond, and the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover (including the town of Ashland), Henrico, New Kent, and Powhatan.
The federal government – through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – provides the largest amount of public funding for homeless services in the Greater Richmond region. For more than 25 years, the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) has coordinated federal funding locally. Recently, HUD announced changes to how it will award future money. HUD’s new approach and priorities will have major implications for our community. This blog post provides a high-level overview of the situation, what it means for the Richmond region, and how you can get involved. What’s Happening? HUD proposed drastic changes to federal funding for homeless services. Historically, the federal government has partnered with local communities to develop local programs to address homelessness in their area. These programs are tailored to the specific needs of the community and based on extensive community input. The proposed changes undercut that local community process. HUD is severely limiting how communities can spend federal funds on homeless services. What Does This Mean for Our Region? By changing how the Richmond region can spend federal money on homeless services, many programs that work will be forced to wind down. Two-thirds of housing programs for those experiencing homelessness in our region will be shut due to these abrupt changes in federal funding. Our region also wouldn’t be permitted to spend these federal funds on emergency shelter. This means that people will lose their current housing, have nowhere to go, and our community won’t be able to offer them the support they need. Ultimately, we’ll see a dramatic rise in unsheltered homelessness in our region, starting next winter. What Can I Do to Help? Congress can still act to stop these funding changes or at the very least give local communities more time to plan for the changes. Contact your U.S. Representative and Senators. Tell them that homelessness matters to you and you want our local community to continue to make decisions about homelessness locally. Sign up the GRCoC newsletter to stay engaged and updated on what’s happening. Want More Info? If you’d like to learn more about the changes to HUD funding and what our community is doing, attend an information session on Monday (11/24) from 3-4pm or Tuesday (11/25) from 9-10am . If you have additional questions or want further details, email GRCOC@homewardva.org . The National Alliance to End Homelessness has a number of resources on its website, including a helpful toolkit .
Combining Compassion and Accountability
Our region's collaborative network of homeless service providers, The Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) , supports solutions to homelessness that are focused on getting our neighbors off the street and on to pathways to a permanent home. Why is this approach considered a highly effective method for solving homelessness in our region and across the country?
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Note: Homeward lightly edits submissions to the GRCoC newsletter in order to conform to community-established GRCoC policies and procedures.