Improving Tennessee's continua of care with flexible funding, better data, and greater collaboration across the state / Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

Abstract: Continuum of Care organizations (CoCs) are local or regional planning bodies of public and private service organizations established as part of a federal program overseen by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Tennessee’s CoCs confront an enormous, shared challenge with limited resources and less coordination than may be needed. As it is, CoCs are not able to fully meet the needs of every individual and family that becomes homeless, so greater coordination is essential to make the best use of the resources available. With the support of the state, the CoCs could achieve more on homelessness prevention, share data more easily, streamline the provision of services, and collaborate with outside organizations and government agencies to align on strategies and priorities.