The Continuum of Care Program (CoC) is designed to assist individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families experiencing homelessness and to provide the services needed to help such individuals move into transitional and permanent housing, with the goal of long-term stability. More broadly, the CoC Program is designed to promote community-wide planning and strategic use of resources to address homelessness; improve coordination and integration with mainstream resources and other programs targeted to people experiencing homelessness; improve data collection and performance measurement; and allow each community to tailor its programs to the particular strengths and challenges in assisting homeless individuals and families within that community.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as amended by The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009, consolidated three separate homeless assistance programs administered by HUD under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act into a single grant program—the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program. These three programs include the Supportive Housing Program, the Shelter Plus Care Program, and the Moderate Rehabilitation/Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Program.