(a) Eligible costs. Subject to the expenditure limit in §576.100(b), ESG funds may be used for costs of providing essential services necessary to reach out to unsheltered homeless people; connect them with emergency shelter, housing, or critical services; and provide urgent, nonfacility-based care to unsheltered homeless people who are unwilling or unable to access emergency shelter, housing, or an appropriate health facility. For the purposes of this section, the term “unsheltered homeless people” means individuals and families who qualify as homeless under paragraph (1)(i) of the “homeless” definition under §576.2. The eligible costs and requirements for essential services consist of:

(1) Engagement. The costs of activities to locate, identify, and build relationships with unsheltered homeless people and engage them for the purpose of providing immediate support, intervention, and connections with homeless assistance programs and/or mainstream social services and housing programs. These activities consist of making an initial assessment of needs and eligibility; providing crisis counseling; addressing urgent physical needs, such as providing meals, blankets, clothes, or toiletries; and actively connecting and providing information and referrals to programs targeted to homeless people and mainstream social services and housing programs, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, community-based services, permanent supportive housing, and rapid re-housing programs. Eligible costs include the cell phone costs of outreach workers during the performance of these activities.

(2) Case management. The cost of assessing housing and service needs, arranging, coordinating, and monitoring the delivery of individualized services to meet the needs of the program participant. Eligible services and activities are as follows: using the centralized or coordinated assessment system as required under §576.400(d); conducting the initial evaluation required under §576.401(a), including verifying and documenting eligibility; counseling; developing, securing and coordinating services; obtaining Federal, State, and local benefits; monitoring and evaluating program participant progress; providing information and referrals to other providers; and developing an individualized housing and service plan, including planning a path to permanent housing stability.

(3) Emergency health services.

(i) Eligible costs are for the direct outpatient treatment of medical conditions and are provided by licensed medical professionals operating in community-based settings, including streets, parks, and other places where unsheltered homeless people are living.

(ii) ESG funds may be used only for these services to the extent that other appropriate health services are inaccessible or unavailable within the area.

(iii) Eligible treatment consists of assessing a program participant's health problems and developing a treatment plan; assisting program participants to understand their health needs; providing directly or assisting program participants to obtain appropriate emergency medical treatment; and providing medication and follow-up services.

(4) Emergency mental health services.

(i) Eligible costs are the direct outpatient treatment by licensed professionals of mental health conditions operating in community-based settings, including streets, parks, and other places where unsheltered people are living.

(ii) ESG funds may be used only for these services to the extent that other appropriate mental health services are inaccessible or unavailable within the community.

(iii) Mental health services are the application of therapeutic processes to personal, family, situational, or occupational problems in order to bring about positive resolution of the problem or improved individual or family functioning or circumstances.

(iv) Eligible treatment consists of crisis interventions, the prescription of psychotropic medications, explanation about the use and management of medications, and combinations of therapeutic approaches to address multiple problems.

(5) Transportation. The transportation costs of travel by outreach workers, social workers, medical professionals, or other service providers are eligible, provided that this travel takes place during the provision of services eligible under this section. The costs of transporting unsheltered people to emergency shelters or other service facilities are also eligible. These costs include the following:

(i) The cost of a program participant's travel on public transportation;

(ii) If service workers use their own vehicles, mileage allowance for service workers to visit program participants;

(iii) The cost of purchasing or leasing a vehicle for the recipient or subrecipient in which staff transports program participants and/or staff serving program participants, and the cost of gas, insurance, taxes and maintenance for the vehicle; and

(iv) The travel costs of recipient or subrecipient staff to accompany or assist program participants to use public transportation.

(6) Services for special populations. ESG funds may be used to provide services for homeless youth, victim services, and services for people living with HIV/AIDS, so long as the costs of providing these services are eligible under paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(5) of this section. The term victim services means services that assist program participants who are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including services offered by rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, and other organizations with a documented history of effective work concerning domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

(b) Minimum period of use. The recipient or subrecipient must provide services to homeless individuals and families for at least the period during which ESG funds are provided.

(c) Maintenance of effort.

(1) If the recipient or subrecipient is a unit of general purpose local government, its ESG funds cannot be used to replace funds the local government provided for street outreach and emergency shelter services during the immediately preceding 12-month period, unless HUD determines that the unit of general purpose local government is in a severe financial deficit.

(2) Upon the recipient's request, HUD will determine whether the unit of general purpose local government is in a severe financial deficit, based on the recipient's demonstration of each of the following:

(i) The average poverty rate in the unit of general purpose local government's jurisdiction was equal to or greater than 125 percent of the average national poverty rate, during the calendar year for which the most recent data are available, as determined according to information from the U.S. Census Bureau.

(ii) The average per-capita income in the unit of general purpose local government's jurisdiction was less than 75 percent of the average national per-capita income, during the calendar year for which the most recent data are available, as determined according to information from the Census Bureau.

(iii) The unit of general purpose local government has a current annual budget deficit that requires a reduction in funding for services for homeless people.

(iv) The unit of general purpose local government has taken all reasonable steps to prevent a reduction in funding of services for homeless people. Reasonable steps may include steps to increase revenue generation, steps to maximize cost savings, or steps to reduce expenditures in areas other than services for homeless people.