Up to six cities will be selected for this project. Only one application per municipality will be considered and must be submitted with the full support of the mayor and/or city manager. Interested applicants are encouraged, but not required, to submit a letter of interest from their Mayor or City Manager by Tuesday, June 3. 

All proposals must be submitted online by 11:59 PM PT on June 30, 2025. 

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Olga Kozlova, Senior Program Specialist at kozlova@nlc.org. 

Up to six cities will be selected for this project. Only one application per municipality will be considered and must be submitted with the full support of the mayor and/or city manager. Interested applicants are encouraged, but not required, to submit a letter of interest from their Mayor or City Manager by Tuesday, June 3. 

All proposals must be submitted online by 11:59 PM PT on June 30, 2025. 

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Megan Greig, Senior Program Specialist at greig@nlc.org. 

The National League of Cities is excited to offer a scholarship to local leaders to participate in Local Solutions to Ending Homelessness, a NLC University’s course, at no cost. 

Through this course, local leaders will gain a comprehensive understanding of the complex factors driving homelessness in U.S. cities and explore evidence-based solutions to create meaningful change in your community. This course is specifically designed for local leaders seeking to develop and implement effective solutions.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to: 

• Identify the primary driver of homelessness: Understand that the fundamental cause of homelessness is the shortage of affordable housing. 
• Distinguish individual vulnerabilities from root causes: Recognize how individual      vulnerabilities (e.g., mental health, substance use, adverse childhood experience) increase the risk of homelessness but are not the root cause. 
• Recognize disparities in homelessness: Due to longstanding racial discrimination, Black, Hispanic or Latino/a/x, and Indigenous people are disproportionately more likely to      experience homelessness than white Americans.  
• Evaluate effective solutions: Learn and assess the most impactful solutions and strategies for addressing and ending homelessness in their communities. 

This scholarship is aimed at local leaders from small (under 50,000) to mid-size cities (up to 200,000) interested in deepening their understanding of the root causes of homelessness and proven solutions to ending homelessness. 

We are seeking mayors, council members and policy advisors that are both new to engaging in the issue of homelessness and seasoned practitioners. 

Selected applicants will have the cost of the course and course materials ($500) covered. Participants will be expected to engage in and participate throughout the five-module course. Each module is 75 minutes long and will begin at 3:00 p.m. EST.

The application deadline is Friday, August 15, 2025.

Have a question not answered here?

Contact the team at housing@nlc.org with any additional questions.

NLC will select a group of cities, towns, or villages for the Advancing Economic Mobility Rapid Grant program. Selected cities will demonstrate a commitment to expanding the economic mobility of residents. NLC will consider applications from cities of varied sizes and progress in existing economic mobility efforts. Please respond to the questions in the application to help NLC understand your current environment and readiness to take action to improve the economic mobility of your residents.

  Provide any supporting information (such as documents, reports, press releases, etc.) that provides evidence related to your responses and clearly indicate where the supporting information is relevant.   

Please note that all applicants are required to create a Submittable account to complete the application.