Every community in the US has a Continuum of Care, or CoC. A CoC is the local planning body responsible for coordinating housing and services for people experiencing homelessness in a shelter or living on the street.

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There are almost 400 CoCs across the country and 24 in NYS. CoCs apply for federal funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), manage shelter and housing programs, collect data through HMIS (Homeless Management Information Systems), and report outcomes to the Congress.

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​If you work in homeless services, your CoC likely shapes almost everything about how your community operates. It decides who gets prioritized for housing. It defines how success gets measured. It's the mechanism through which billions of federal dollars flow every year. And yet most people, including many who work adjacent to this system, are not familiar or do not understand their purpose and role.

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If you want to understand homelessness in your community, you start with your CoC.