PAWTUCKET – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $6.4 million to public and private programs that assist Rhode Island’s homeless.
“This funding is a result of the most competitive grant processes in the federal government, and it serves a vital need of providing homes and services to those who need them the most,” said Taylor Caswell, HUD’s regional director for New England. “Consistently receiving funding for programs in Rhode Island speaks volumes of the coordination involved in making today’s announcement possible.”
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Joining him for the announcement were Gov. Donald L. Carcieri; U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle; Richard H. Godfrey Jr., executive director of Rhode Island Housing; and Dennis B. Langley, president and CEO of the Urban League of Rhode Island.
“I’m very pleased that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing $6.4 million to help address the complex issue of homelessness and to support the work of nearly 50 innovative programs in our state,” Carcieri said in a statement this morning.
“Since 2003, we’ve allocated $7.5 million to the Neighborhood Opportunities Program each year, creating 1,031 new affordable homes. A year ago, voters approved the $50 million bond to create even more affordable housing. And the state’s new Housing First Rhode Island program is helping to move those who have been homeless for years into stable housing by providing them with the services they need. These funds will help build on those successes.”
Rhode Island Housing applied for the grants – working with the R.I. Housing Resources Commission’s Office of Homelessness to ensure that the projects were consistent with the state’s 10-year plan to end homelessness – and now will administer them for 24 partner agencies statewide. “As rents, home prices and utility costs continue to remain out of reach for many,” said Godfrey, the agency’s executive director, “more and more Rhode Islanders are finding themselves homeless and in need of permanent supportive housing and services.”
The HUD money includes $5.6 million in Continuum of Care Grants to help provide permanent housing and supportive services to homeless individuals, and nearly $750,000 in Emergency Shelter Grant, to help operate local shelters and related social services and homelessness-prevention programs.
Recipients include the Urban League’s Safe Haven Program, whose future home at 85 Slater St. was the site of the 10:30 a.m. news conference. According to the group’s Web site, Safe Havens aims “to identify seriously mentally ill people living on the streets and link them to housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment and social services,” providing a continuum of appropriate care to help them make “a smooth transition first, from street living or emergency shelters to the Safe Haven; and most importantly, from the Safe Haven to the community.”
Also chosen was Turning Point, a supportive housing community for veterans that is planned for Providence. The HUD grant will fully fund 10 of the 40 planned units of permanent housing.
“At a time when many Rhode Islanders are struggling, this federal funding is welcome news,” said Reed, who is a member of both the Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending on the program, and the Banking Committee, which oversees federal housing policy. “Our community groups work hard to help those in need, and I’m glad we were able to … provide a measure of help.”
Rhode Island Housing, two grants ($524,400 and $982,620) totaling nearly $1.51 million
Advent House, seven grants totaling $349,458
Amos House, two grants totaling $ 213,691
Amos House, $81,900
Blackstone Valley Advocacy Center, $32,470
Crossroads Rhode Island, six grants totaling $621,475
Family Resource Community Action, two grants totaling $164,503
The House of Compassion, $24,785
House of Hope Community Development Corporation, three grants totaling $242,162
East Bay Community Action Program, $60,897
Lucy’s Hearth, two grants totaling $41,903
MAP Alcohol & Drug Rehabilitative Services, Inc., $33,460
The Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, $199, 997
New Hope for Families, Inc., $11,810
Newport County Community Mental Health Center, $8,204
Nickerson Community Center, $123,856
OMNI Development Corporation, $612,248
Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, two grants totaling $224,698
The Providence Center, two grants totaling $216,132
Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, two grants totaling $134,440
SSTAR of Rhode Island, $126,231
Urban League of Rhode Island, three grants totaling $485,087
Washington Square Services Corp., $103,217
Welcome House of South County, $67,926
Westbay Community Action Inc., $60,295
YWCA of Greater Rhode Island, $47,563
R.I. total, more than $5.66 million
Pawtucket, $90,645
Providence, $247,284
Woonsocket, $58,505
R.I. non-entitlement, $350,005
R.I. total, $746,439
The Urban League of Rhode Island, an affiliate of the National Urban League Inc., is a nonprofit advocacy and social service organization focusing on eliminating discrimination and helping minorities and the poor. To learn more, visit www.ulri.org.
Rhode Island Housing is a self-sustaining state agency that helps Rhode Islanders to obtain homes they can afford, offering loans, grants and consumer education. To learn more, visit rhodeislandhousing.org.
Additional information about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HUD programs and the agency’s New England regional office is available at www.hud.gov.
