Local Florida agencies that serve the homeless receive much of their funding through grants administered by the Department of Children and Families. The agencies are known as Continuums of Care, or COCs. Last year the department limited grant applications for emergency shelters to four per agency.
But Charlotte County Homeless Coalition director Angela Hogan says the policy doesn’t reflect the sizes and resources of different agencies.
“We’re not looking at what counties or how big of an area a COC is serving but at the same time we’re telling COCs we want you to merge, and we want you to have an economy of scale and take on more area, but if you do that we’re going to cut your ability to access resources,” Hogan says.
Many other COC representatives voiced similar concerns. Department officials say they’re likely to do away with the four application limit.
