UASI Grants 2026: Homeland Security Grant Program Status

HSGP source review, Grantsights, November 6, 2026: Grantsights checked the FY2026 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) attached to the FY2026 HSGP listing on Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) against FEMA's Homeland Security Grant Program page (opens in a new tab), FEMA's September 23, 2026 award release (opens in a new tab), the statutes at 6 U.S.C. 604 (opens in a new tab) and 6 U.S.C. 605 (opens in a new tab), and USASpending award records. Where official sources stop: FEMA publishes each state's and urban area's total, but not what your county will get, when your state's subaward window opens, or how your regional committee ranks projects. Your SAA and your regional working group decide those.

Homeland Security Grants Status on November 6, 2026

FEMA's FY2026 HSGP notice listed $1,064,000,000: $394,250,000 for SHSP, $584,250,000 for UASI and $85,500,000 for OPSG, for 56 awards. According to FEMA's HSGP page (opens in a new tab), FEMA announced the FY2026 awards on September 23, 2026. The release that day described more than $580 million for UASI, nearly $400 million for SHSP and $84 million for OPSG, alongside other preparedness programs. That OPSG figure is $1.5 million under the notice's $85.5 million table, and FEMA's release doesn't explain the gap.

Grantsights searched the Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) listing service on November 6, 2026 for posted and forecast Department of Homeland Security notices. The only FY2027 DHS notice listed was the Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems grant program, open October 16 to November 16, 2026. So the FY2027 HSGP amount, priorities and dates are unknown, and any figure you see quoted for them is a guess.

The money comes from 2 sections of the Homeland Security Act. UASI is section 2003, codified at 6 U.S.C. 604, and SHSP is section 2004, at 6 U.S.C. 605. The FY2026 notice runs OPSG as HSGP's third component, aimed at coordination between local, tribal, state and federal law enforcement along land and water borders.

How the Money Moves: FEMA, Your State, Then Your City or County

The FY2026 notice allows 1 application per SAA, and it says plainly that the SAA is the only entity eligible to apply to FEMA. Tribal governments can't apply directly either; they receive funds through the state. FEMA's State Administrative Agency contacts page (opens in a new tab) names each state's office, such as the Texas Office of the Governor's Homeland Security Grants Division or the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

The law then forces most of the money down to local government:

• SHSP: According to 6 U.S.C. 605(c) (opens in a new tab), a state must make at least 80% of its grant available to local and tribal governments within 45 days of receiving it, or provide items or services of equal value with their consent. If it doesn't, a local or tribal government may petition FEMA for direct funding.
• UASI: Under 6 U.S.C. 604(d) (opens in a new tab), the state gives the designated urban area at least 80% within 45 days, and anything the state keeps has to benefit that urban area.
• OPSG: The notice limits subrecipients to county-level governments and federally recognized tribes in states on the Canadian or Mexican border or an international water border, with active U.S. Border Patrol operations.

The FY2026 notice adds one detail that matters for timing: FEMA treats the 45-day clock as starting when it releases the remaining funding holds in FEMA Grants Outcomes (FEMA GO), not on the award date. Funds must be passed through unconditionally, and the SAA certifies the amounts and recipients to FEMA.

In practice, each state builds its own local process. Texas is a clear example. Its FY2026 State Homeland Security Program regular projects solicitation (opens in a new tab) opened February 17, 2026 and closed March 16, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Central, with a $10,000 minimum and no match. Local applicants had to go through 1 of Texas's 24 regional councils of governments, whose homeland security committees rank projects with a regional risk method before the state decides. The UASI regular projects solicitation (opens in a new tab) ran March 2 to April 30, 2026 for applicants inside the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio urban areas, routed through each Urban Area Working Group (UAWG). Both required a governing body resolution and an immigration enforcement certification form.

Grantsights' view: the state calendar, not FEMA's, is the one a local agency lives by. Texas closed its FY2026 SHSP window 100 days before FEMA even posted the FY2026 notice.

FY2026 Allocations: What Each State and Urban Area Got

FEMA doesn't score local projects to set the totals. The FY2026 notice lists 56 SHSP allocations, 44 UASI allocations and the OPSG split, all fixed before applications came in. SHSP follows FEMA's risk method and a statutory floor: 6 U.S.C. 605(e) gives each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico at least 0.35% of combined SHSP and UASI funds, and each of the 4 smaller territories at least 0.08%. In FY2026 that floor was $4,362,750 for most states and $997,200 for American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. New York got the most SHSP at $59,188,020, then California at $52,359,684 and Texas at $24,517,419.

UASI eligibility starts from a risk analysis of the 100 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. The swings between years are large, and they matter more to a big-city budget than anything in the application.

Grantsights built the table from the UASI tables in the FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026 notices. FY2024 used names like "New York City Area," and FY2025 switched to metropolitan area names such as "New York-White Plains, NY." FY2025 funded 44 urban areas, up from 41, adding Colorado Springs, Richmond and Milwaukee-Waukesha. According to FEMA's FY2025 changes page (opens in a new tab), FY2025 SHSP and UASI allocations were based solely on FEMA's relative risk method, where earlier years mixed risk with policy considerations. The FY2025 notice also called its tables "target allocations" that could change in the award letter.

For OPSG, Texas drew $34,800,900 of the FY2026 $85.5 million, California $13,400,000 and Arizona $11,969,100. Many interior states got $0.

Spending Rules: LETPA, 5 Priority Areas and the 20% Hold

The FY2026 notice requires at least 35% of each state's SHSP and UASI money for Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Activities (LETPA), such as intelligence analysis, information sharing, threat recognition and terrorist interdiction. That's above the statutory floor: 6 U.S.C. 607 (opens in a new tab) requires not less than 25% of combined SHSP and UASI funds for law enforcement terrorism prevention. When the notice and the statute differ like this, the notice governs that round, and FY2026 kept the same 35% as FY2025 and FY2024.

At least 30% of SHSP and UASI funds must go to 5 National Priority Areas (NPAs):

The remaining 17% can go to any of the 5. The border area lists projects such as participating in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) program and cooperating with ICE detainers, and the notice says the SAA must coordinate with ICE on all projects in that area.

FY2026 added a drawdown hold. According to FEMA's FY2026 changes summary (opens in a new tab), FEMA will withhold 20% of each state's and urban area's total HSGP award until the recipient proves it meets the FY2026 election security requirements. The notice lists those requirements for election jurisdictions: a plan to move from bar code or QR code ballot systems to hand-marked paper ballots, a 5% post-election manual audit, voter and ballot reconciliation, and citizenship checks of voter rolls through the federal SAVE system within 120 days of accepting the award. Meeting the 3% spending minimum doesn't release the 20%. Separately, FEMA can hold up to 30% of funds if projects don't line up with the NPAs.

The FY2026 notice also asks subapplicants and subrecipients for short bios and resumes of leadership and board members, with names and addresses, and says resumes are subject to approval. A county applying for an SHSP subaward should expect its SAA to pass that request down.

What HSGP Pays For and What It Won't

Allowable costs fall into 5 groups: planning, organization, equipment, training and exercises. Every SHSP and UASI project must show a clear link to preventing, preparing for, protecting against or responding to terrorism. Here's how the main limits in the FY2026 notice and the statute line up:

The M&A line is another place where the notice and statute differ. 6 U.S.C. 609 (opens in a new tab) caps grant administration at 3%, while the FY2026 notice allows 5% and cites the 2026 continuing appropriations law (Pub. L. 119-86). Use the notice's number for that round.

What FEMA's HSGP Pages Don't Tell You

FEMA's HSGP page, its how-to-apply page and the 96-page FY2026 notice leave 5 practical gaps for a local agency:

1. Your state's deadline can come months before FEMA's notice. Texas closed FY2026 SHSP local applications on March 16, 2026; FEMA posted the federal notice on June 24.
2. The application doesn't set the amount. Each state and urban area total comes from FEMA's risk method. A good project competes for a slice of a fixed regional pot, ranked by a council or UAWG.
3. The federal window keeps moving. It's ranged from 18 days to 80 days in the last 4 notices, opening anywhere from February to July.
4. Conditions changed 2 years running. FY2025 rebuilt the priority areas and the allocation method; FY2026 added the 20% election security hold. Read each year's changes summary before reusing last year's project list.
5. Award isn't spending. Subrecipients wait for the state's own agreement, any FEMA holds and, for building work, environmental and historic review.

Grantsights pulled each row from that notice's Grants.gov record on November 6, 2026 and checked the FY2024 through FY2026 rows against the notices themselves. The FY2025 row is the warning: 18 days from posting to the federal deadline, which only works because states run their local process on their own clock.

The subaward data shows the lag on the local end too. Of 1,081 subawards states reported under FY2025 prime awards, 983 were dated May through September 2026, 7 to 12 months after FEMA signed the state awards in late September 2025. That's FFATA reporting, not a perfect record of when counties got money, but it's a fair sign that FY2025 dollars reached many localities in mid-2026.

Who Received HSGP Money: USASpending Award Data

Grantsights analysis of USASpending records pulled November 6, 2026 found 56 state awards in the FY2025 round worth $1,008,000,000, matching the FY2025 notice to the dollar. The median state award was $6,536,250, and 14 states received exactly $4,362,750, the SHSP floor, with no urban area or border money on top. Louisiana's $9,719,504 award posted as a January 16, 2026 amendment; every other state award was signed September 26 or 27, 2025.

For example, New York received $133,051,238 in FY2025, which equals its FY2025 SHSP allocation of $38,200,874 plus the $92,180,364 New York City UASI target plus $2,670,000 in OPSG. The FY2025 round's state awards split into 23 under $5 million, 11 from $5 million to $10 million, 14 from $10 million to $25 million, 4 from $25 million to $50 million and 4 above $50 million. The same listing also carried 18 Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program awards worth $13,500,000 in FY2025, a separate FEMA program for tribal governments; see the tribal grants guide for that route.

Subawards show where the money lands. Under FY2024 prime awards, states reported 1,430 subawards worth $611,773,232, with a median of $107,281. That's about 61% of the FY2024 state total, so treat it as a floor. The size spread was 272 under $50,000, 382 from $50,000 to $100,000, 433 from $100,000 to $250,000, 263 from $250,000 to $1 million, and 80 above $1 million. Texas reported the most (412 subawards, $86,425,655) and New York the most money (113 subawards, $188,607,395).

Named examples from the FY2024 round, all from state-reported subawards:

• The City of New York received $118,451,583 in UASI funds from New York State on November 1, 2024.
• Fort Bend County, Texas received $443,640 for a SWAT tactical robot and prime mover.
• The City of Fort Worth received $372,120 for arson and bomb squad detection and investigation equipment.
• The Rio Grande Council of Governments received $492,370 for regional interoperable communications.
• Webb County, Texas received $2,412,334 for its Operation Stonegarden project.

One city in Texas shows the small end. The City of Mercedes received $37,500 in FY2025 SHSP funds for a radio dispatch console and $106,000 in FY2025 OPSG funds, both reported in June 2026. Under FY2025 prime awards, states had reported 1,081 subawards worth $216,223,461 (median $87,921) from only 29 states as of November 6, 2026; New York and Illinois had reported none, so the FY2025 subaward picture is far from complete. One more caveat: Florida reported a $4,360,470 Nonprofit Security Grant Program pass-through to Jacksonville under its HSGP award ID, so a few records in the subaward file aren't HSGP projects.

Foundation Money Alongside Homeland Security Grants

Private foundations gave 6,402 community grants in Texas alone in Grantsights analysis of 990-PF filings pulled October 29, 2026, but very little of that goes to sheriffs, police departments or county emergency management. Be honest about fit: a government agency buying fusion center software or bomb squad gear is an HSGP, state budget or bond project, and foundations rarely fund it. Foundation money fits better for the nonprofit partners around public safety, such as Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) programs run by nonprofits, volunteer fire companies, search and rescue teams and community preparedness groups. Those groups should also read grants for volunteer fire departments and grants for search and rescue teams.

For those nonprofit partners, Grantsights keeps a community funder list: private foundations whose 990-PF filings show gifts to civic and community causes, grouped by state. None of it is federal money, and preparedness is only a small slice of what these funders back. The preview for your own state costs nothing, and a refund is available for 30 days if the funders turn out to be a poor match.

Each row is a statewide count of all community giving in the October 29, 2026 Grantsights pull, not preparedness grants. Medians of $2,500 to $5,000 mean a foundation gift pays for a CERT class or a trailer of supplies, not a radio system. Use how to read a 990-PF to check a funder's history before asking, and the Grantsights grant search to track public notices, including the next HSGP round once FEMA posts it.

Common Mistakes Local Agencies Make With HSGP

These 6 mistakes come straight from the FY2026 notice, the statute and the way states run their subawards.

• Waiting for FEMA's notice. A common mistake: the state window may already be closed by the time the federal notice appears, as Texas's was in FY2026.
• Treating HSGP as general public safety money. Body cameras, in-car video and general-use vehicles for officers on routine patrol fail because they lack a terrorism nexus; Texas's FY2026 SHSP solicitation lists them as unallowable.
• Ignoring the priority areas. The state has to meet its 3%, 10% and 30% minimums from somewhere. A county that only proposes non-priority equipment is asking for a share of the remaining money, which is the smaller pool.
• Underestimating the paperwork. Governing body resolutions, immigration certifications, board bios and current SAM.gov registration all come before a dollar moves. Use the SAM.gov registration guide early.
• Budgeting the first year's full award. The 20% election security hold and possible 30% NPA hold can delay drawdowns.
• Missing single audit exposure. A large subaward can push a county over the $1,000,000 federal spending threshold; see the single audit requirements guide.

Related Guides for Local Government Security Funding

HSGP is 1 of several federal routes a city or county uses for public safety. The federal grants for local governments guide lays out the others side by side. Police departments should compare HSGP with Justice Department programs in grants for police departments. School districts looking at hardening should read grants for school safety, and community centers that host shelters or polling sites can start with grants for community centers.

FAQ: Common Questions

Are UASI and other homeland security grants open right now? No. FY2026 closed July 24, 2026, awards came September 23, 2026, and no FY2027 notice is posted as of November 6, 2026.

When is the next HSGP deadline? Not announced. Watch your state's subaward window, which can close months before FEMA posts.

How much UASI money does an urban area get? FY2026 ranged from $2,684,441 to $142,481,143 across 44 urban areas, set by FEMA's risk formula.

Can a city, county or police department apply to FEMA directly? No. Only the SAA applies; local governments receive subawards through the state.

Is there a cost share or match for HSGP? No match, but 35% LETPA, 30% NPA and a 20% election security drawdown hold apply.

Can a nonprofit get homeland security grants? Mainly through NSGP; some states, such as Texas, also open SHSP and UASI subawards to nonprofits.

Sources

These sources were checked November 6, 2026 unless noted.

• Grants.gov: FY2026 Homeland Security Grant Program (DHS-26-GPD-067-00-98), with the FY2026 NOFO updated July 9, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: FY2025 Homeland Security Grant Program (DHS-25-GPD-067-00-98), with the FY2025 NOFO (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov records for the FY2024 (DHS-24-GPD-067-00-98) and FY2023 (DHS-23-GPD-067-00-01) HSGP notices and the FY2024 NOFO, read through the Grants.gov API
• FEMA: Homeland Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: How to apply for the Homeland Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: State Administrative Agency contacts (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: September 23, 2026 release on FY2026 preparedness grant awards (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: FY2026 HSGP key changes (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: FY2025 HSGP key changes (opens in a new tab)
• govinfo.gov: 6 U.S.C. 604, Urban Area Security Initiative (opens in a new tab)
• govinfo.gov: 6 U.S.C. 605, State Homeland Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• govinfo.gov: 6 U.S.C. 607, Terrorism prevention (opens in a new tab)
• govinfo.gov: 6 U.S.C. 609, Use of funds (opens in a new tab)
• Texas Office of the Governor eGrants: FY2026 SHSP regular projects solicitation (opens in a new tab)
• Texas Office of the Governor eGrants: FY2026 UASI regular projects solicitation (opens in a new tab)
• USASpending.gov award search (opens in a new tab): Grantsights pull of prime awards and FFATA subawards for Assistance Listing 97.067, November 6, 2026
• Grantsights pull of 990-PF community giving by state, October 29, 2026