U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Awards $3.6 Million in Grants for Homeless Housing Programs in Norfolk & Chesapeake
NORFOLK, VA – December 29, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded more than $3.6 million in grants to sustain homeless housing programs in Norfolk and Chesapeake in the first phase of the HUD Homeless Assistance Awards for this year. All of Norfolk and Chesapeake’s current Permanent Supportive Housing and Transitional Housing Programs were fully renewed through the competition.
This is the first year that Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Western Tidewater merged their Continuum of Care process to create a regional application to HUD under this competition.
The regional award for these renewals represents $3.6 million in federal funds for 2012. The funded agencies must raise the matching funds from local community partners and donors to fully implement these grants.
The next step is the much more competitive block that includes funding for NEW programs. HUD is expected to announce those in early 2012. An application was submitted to expand the Housing First Program by 10 additional units Norfolk and to begin or expand permanent supportive housing in Chesapeake and Western Tidewater. The HUD budget this year is extremely tight, so getting new programs is very competitive across the country.
Sarah Paige Fuller, Director of Norfolk’s Office to End Homelessness, states, “We are hopeful that our region will succeed in the competition for new funding as the application focuses on regionalizing our efforts to end homelessness and adding new permanent supportive housing for families and singles adults – critical components to our efforts to end homelessness.”
The work to acquire these grants each year is managed through the Continuums of Care. The Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Western Tidewater’s Homeless Consortiums are to be commended for their work to make this happen for our regional efforts to end homelessness.
The announcement is available at: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2011/HUDNo.11-290
