U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan awarded $5,384,265 to renew support for 50 local homeless housing and service programs in Pennsylvania. Provided through HUD’s Continuum of Care programs, the funding announced will ensure these HUD-assisted local homeless assistance programs remain operating in the coming year. Later this year, HUD will award additional grant funding to support hundreds of other local programs, including new projects. View a complete list of all the West Virginia homeless projects awarded funding.
“The evidence is clear that every dollar we spend on those programs that help find a stable home for our homeless neighbors not only saves money but quite literally saves lives,” said Donovan. “We know these programs work and we know these grants can mean the difference between homeless persons and families finding stable housing or living on our streets.”
HUD’s Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local projects to meet the needs of their homeless clients. The grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment programs to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families. HUD funds are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.
“This funding will provide essential support to West Virginia’s homeless assistance programs, enabling communities to plan and provide a comprehensive approach to assisting homeless individuals and facilities,” said Jane C.W. Vincent, HUD’s Regional Administrator of the Mid-Atlantic Region.
While the Fiscal Year 2012 funds awarded are not impacted by the automatic across-the-board budget cuts under sequestration that began March 1, Donovan cautioned that future budget cuts may reverse significant reported declines in homelessness: “During this challenging budget climate, we must make certain that we don’t balance our books on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens. When we make even modest investments in these programs, we see a measureable decline in homelessness.”
HUD recently announced its 2012 “point in time” estimate of the number of homeless persons in America. Approximately 3,000 cities and counties reported 633,782 homeless persons on a single night in January of 2012, largely unchanged from the year before. While HUD found significant declines among the long-term homeless and veterans, local communities reported an increase in the number of sheltered and unsheltered families with children. In West Virginia, local communities reported a 9 percent overall rise in homelessness in 2012.
HUD’s Continuum of Care grants announced will continue offering permanent and transitional housing to homeless persons as well as services including job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care. Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local programs to meet the needs of their homeless clients. These grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment programs to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families.
In 2010, President Obama and 19 federal agencies and offices that form the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) launched the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness. Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness puts the country on a path to end veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015 and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020.
