Thursday, March 30, 2023

LA County, City Will Receive $157 Million HUD Grant to Address Homelessness

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Homeless photo courtesy LA County Facebook page

The County and City of Los Angeles are set to receive $157 million from a $2.8 billion federal grant for helping homeless people move into permanent housing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.

The Continuum of Care Competition Awards provides funding for thousands of local homeless service and housing programs across the nation.

The awards were previewed by HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge at the National League of Cities Conference.

“Helping people move into stable housing from temporary shelters and encampments on the streets is essential to ending homelessness,” Fudge said in a statement. “Working with our local partners, these Continuum of Care program grants deliver communities the resources they need.”

The program is the largest source of federal grant funding for homeless services and housing programs, according to HUD.

Wednesday’s announcement builds on a $315 million “first-of-its- kind” package of resources that HUD awarded in January to help communities provide housing and supportive services in unsheltered settings and for homeless people in rural areas.

Communities were tasked to develop a comprehensive approach to addressing unsheltered and rural homelessness to receive federal grant funding, which involved coordination with health care providers, other agencies such as public housing authorities, and people with lived experience of homelessness.

In August 2022, HUD issued a notice of funding opportunity for the fiscal year 2022 Continuum of Care Competition awards, which included approximately $80 million for non-competitive Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program renewal and replacement grants.

The 2022 awards also included more than $52 million for new projects for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

HUD had sought to fund projects that met specific criteria such as, but not limited to, those with an emphasis on racial equity and anti- discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people.