At a meeting of the Athens City Affordable Housing Commission, Rose Freck of Integrated Services told commissioners that a recent Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) would have dramatically reduced funding for permanent supportive housing and redirected most Continuum of Care (CoC) dollars toward transitional housing and street outreach.

"For the second year, we want a 30% cap on permanent supportive housing," Freck said, describing the guidance HUD briefly released and then withdrew after legal challenges. She said HUD’s change, if reissued in similar form, would constitute a rapid and significant shift away from longstanding housing‑first priorities.

Freck said Integrated Services receives just over $3,000,000 in CoC funds and operates permanent supportive projects in the region, including family housing on Charles Place and Graham Drive; she said the provider also manages roughly 150 portable permanent supportive vouchers that could be affected if regional priorities shift. "We're coming right up on the end of the first year of a two‑year grant cycle," she said, and the abrupt guidance left projects and lease obligations in uncertainty.

The guidance Freck described would replace a funding mix that in Ohio currently directs about 90% of CoC dollars to permanent housing; under the proposed NOFO, permanent supportive housing would be capped at 30% with the balance directed toward transitional programs that Freck said typically include a two‑year time limit and heavy community‑engagement or work‑participation requirements.

"Transitional housing has a two‑year time limit," Freck said, and she described draft guidance that would require extensive weekly participation—her summary of the guidance described an expectation of about 40 hours per week of work, volunteer service or training—which she and commission members warned is difficult to meet in rural areas with limited employment and transportation options.

Freck said multiple lawsuits were filed challenging the NOFO on grounds that the change would cause displacement and hardship; HUD later pulled the notice and indicated it would issue a revised NOFO, but providers remain uncertain whether the 30% cap or other major changes will return. Freck urged local advocacy and said providers are working with congressional staff to press HUD for revisions.

Commission members asked about impacts on other local providers, such as SAOP; Freck said she could not speak for other organizations but that Integrated Services would prioritize protecting project‑based family housing while acknowledging that some portable vouchers may be lost or repurposed if funding priorities change.

Freck and members emphasized the operational burdens the shift would impose on providers—both in meeting new program participation verification and in reconfiguring capital‑funded projects and leases that were designed around a housing‑first approach.

The commission did not take any formal action on the HUD matter during this meeting; members instead discussed the need for continued advocacy, monitoring of HUD’s reissued guidance and coordination among regional providers.