Homeless Case Management Services Grant​ (HCMS)

​​​​​The Homeless Case Management Services (HCMS) grant program was created through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program and through Wisconsin Act 59.  As such, all funding provided via the HCMS grant is subject to TANF rules and regulations.  Each year up to 10 annual grants of $50,000 each will be awarded through the HCMS grant program. 

The HCMS grant has a narrow definition of who can be served and how they can be served.  The grant is focused on providing families experiencing homelessness intensive case management including at least one (1) of the following areas:

Families are defined by TANF regulation as one of the following:

1. Homeless adults (age 18 or older) accompanied by minor children (under age 18 for whom the homeless adults are legally responsible, or under 19 but a full-time student in high school, working on an equivalency degree, or enrolled in basic vocational or technical education); or
2. Homeless pregnant women; or
3. Homeless adults, unaccompanied by children, who are non-custodial parents of children under the age of 18; or
4. Homeless adults, unaccompanied by children, who are over age 18 but younger than age 25 and accompanied by another person related by blood or marriage. 

Please note, families headed by a person under 18 cannot be served.  Preference is given to servicing the first two types of families, however all families as defined above can be served.​

Each HCMS grant is divided into two categories: case management funds and administrative funds.  Administrative funds can be 0% to 15% of the total grant with the balance being case management funds.  

Case Management Funds 

Case management funding should be used for social workers, case managers and associated case management services needed to directly provide intensive case management to homeless families.  

Caveats: Costs for staff to be on call to provide services are not eligible for reimbursement.  Case management supervisory costs are also not eligible for reimbursement using case management funds however they are eligible for reimbursement using administrative funds.

Administrative Funds

Can pay for administrative costs such as, but not limited to, the cost of office space, computers, office supplies, and salaries for agency wide functions such as accounting.  Please note these costs will need to be prorated to reflect the percentage of the staff person's time or the percentage of the resource dedicated to the HCMS program.  

The percentage allocation between program funds and administrative funds will be specified in the grantee's contract. 

Applicant Eligibility

Eligible applicants are limited to shelter facilities, defined as temporary places of lodging for homeless individuals and families.  Further, to be eligible applicants are required to use either the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database or an HMIS comparable database. 

Please see the 2022 HCMS Program Manual_Updated Oct 2022.pdf ​for further information, rules and guidelines.

2022 Application Materials & Timeline

Applications for the 2022 HCMS grant were due at 12:00PM CST on May 16, 2022.  Applicants were scored based on their application and ranked.  The top 10 applicants were awar​ded grants.  The grants for 2022 will run from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

2022 List of HCMS Grant Recipients​

2022 HCMS Application

2022 HCMS Application Supplement​

2022 Training 

On July 19, 2022 a training was held for all grantees covering HCMS definitions, allowable costs, pay​ment schedule, monitoring, and reporting (including the new HMIS HCMS reporting module).  Materials can be found below:

2022 HCMS All Grantee Training_Presented.07.19.2022.pdf

​​2022 HCMS All Grantee Training_Presented.0​7.19.2022.mp4​

Information on how to pull reporting in HMIS for the HCMS grant program can be found at the following website: ICA Help Center - HCMS Reporting​​

Contact Information​

All questions can be directed towards the HCMS Grant Specialist - Emily Bourne

Emily.Bourne@wisconsin.gov​​