Hey everyone. I’ve been experimenting with Claude’s Fable 5 mode lately and used it to put together an FY2026 CoC NOFO prep package. Figured it might be useful to anyone heading into NOFO season, so I’m sharing it here as-is. It’s a jumping-off point, not a finished product. Use it, adapt it, or ignore it.
Everything below is free to download. No sign-up, no email gate.
What’s in it
The Guide: “Navigating the HUD CoC NOFO” (Word + PDF, 19 pages)
- A one-page survival guide for anyone new to the competition: the whole process in 8 plain-language steps
- History of the competition from FY2010 through FY2026, including what happened with FY2025
- Full FY2026 breakdown with NOFO page citations: scoring, tiers, deadlines, and what’s new
- Which points are already locked by your data vs. the ~156 of 220 you can still win before August 26
- Top 20 ways CoCs lose points, pulled from HUD’s own FY2024 debrief data
- An evidence library: what letters, MOUs, and screenshots to gather for each criterion
The Workbook: scoring calculator and planner (Excel, 12 tabs)
- A scoring calculator covering all 52 scored criteria (200 base + 20 bonus points), each with HUD’s criteria and page number
- A Tier 2 project score model using HUD’s published formula
- A backwards-planned timeline from the August 26 deadline, with owners and dependencies
- A Point Recovery Plan that auto-shows where your biggest winnable gaps are
- An evidence tracker, pre-flight checklist, beginner’s guide, and glossary
Fair warning
This is AI-assisted and unofficial. It is not HUD guidance. If anything in here conflicts with the actual NOFO, go with the NOFO. Every point value cites its NOFO page so you can verify it yourself, and a couple of genuine NOFO ambiguities (like whether bonus points count toward Tier 2 scoring) are flagged in the tools rather than guessed at. Confirm those with HUD as needed.
Download the tools
- The Guide: Navigating the HUD CoC NOFO (PDF)
- The Guide: Navigating the HUD CoC NOFO (Word)
- The Workbook: NOFO Navigator and Scoring Workbook (Excel)
PS: If you work in the CoC or HMIS world, you might want to check out the free CoC Alliance Slack group, where CoC and HMIS leaders work together every day to help each other with things like the NOFO, HMIS, and more.