Durham staff outline HOPWA spending plan and vendor transition after contractor collapse

Durham City staff on Thursday gave a detailed briefing on how the city manages Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) funds for the five-county Durham eligible metropolitan statistical area, explained why some HOPWA activity is temporarily being run by the city, and described next steps to put the rest of the funding under contract.

The city’s HOPWA administrator, Reginald J. Johnson, director of the Community Development Department, opened the presentation and then turned the report over to Colin Davis, manager of the Homeless System. Davis said HOPWA “is the only federal program that is dedicated to housing for people living with HIV and AIDS.” He described what activities are eligible and how the city prioritizes limited funding for lower-income households.

The nut of the presentation: the city is contracting tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA), short-term rent/mortgage/utility (STRMU) assistance, supportive services and one-time permanent housing placement costs; staff will issue an RFP to select project sponsors to administer most of this work going forward. Davis said the city expects to release an RFP funded from existing grant agreements (the 2023–24 allocations) and to also use a portion of the awards for a HOPWA strategic needs assessment and system planning.

City staff provided recent spending and program figures. From 2020 through Dec. 31, 2024, the city reported about $1.07 million spent on tenant-based rental assistance supporting 28 unduplicated households; STRMU assistance for 18 households…