The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday it awarded a record $2 billion to homeless assistance programs across the nation.
The money, awarded by the department amid budget cuts, will be divided among 7,300 local homeless assistance programs under HUD’s Continuum of Care program, which grants support to local programs serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
“HUD stands with our local partners who are working each and every day to house and serve our most vulnerable neighbors,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. “We know how to end homelessness and it starts with embracing a housing-first approach that relies upon proven strategies that offer permanent housing solutions to those who may otherwise be living in our shelters and on our streets.”
HUD continues to challenge state and local Continuums of Care to support their highest performing local programs that have proven most effective in meeting the needs of persons experiencing homelessness in their communities. HUD announced many of these planners also embraced it’s call to shift funds from existing underperforming projects to create new ones that are based on best practices that will further their efforts to prevent and end homelessness.
“Continuums of Care are critical leaders in the work to end homelessness nationwide,” said Matthew Doherty, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness executive director. “When communities marshal these, and other local, state, private, and philanthropic resources, behind the strongest housing-first practices, we see important progress in our collective goal to end homelessness in America.”
HUD Continuum of Care grant funding supports an array of interventions designed to assist individuals and families experiencing homelessness, particularly those living in places not meant for habitation, located in sheltering programs, or at imminent risk of becoming homeless.
In HUD’s 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, the department found 553,742 people experienced homelessness on a single night in 2017. This is up .7% from the year before.
But now, HUD hopes to reverse that trajectory with this new funding and other efforts it made throughout its first year under the new administration.
To see a complete list of all the state and local homeless projects awarded the $2 billion, click here.
