HUD SECRETARY DONOVAN ANNOUNCES $1.2 MILLION IN NEW GRANTS FOR FIVE HOMELESS PROGRAMS IN IOWA

DES MOINES - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded $1,242,698 to five new homeless programs in Iowa. The grants announced today are an investment in local projects which have never received HUD homeless funds in the past, providing critically needed housing and support services to homeless individuals and families. The grants announced today are in addition to $7,593,468 million HUD awarded in January to renew funding to 44 existing Iowa homeless housing and service programs.

HUD is awarding new grants to the following Iowa local homeless programs:

*SHP = Supportive Housing Program
  S + C = Shelter Plus Care
  SRO = Single Room Occupancy

"Today, we build on this Administration's goal to prevent and end homelessness in America," said Donovan. "This funding will make a significant impact in the lives of thousands of people and provide resources to put them on the road to independence."

"This funding will support a broad range of housing and services for homeless individuals and families," said Derrith Watchman-Moore, HUD's Regional Administrator for the Great Plains states. "Whether it is those who suffer from addiction or mental illness, those who have worn our country's uniform, victims of foreclosure, or homeless families - this Administration is committed to not simply reducing homelessness but ending it."

HUD's Continuum of Care (CoC) grants fund a wide range of transitional and permanent housing programs as well as supportive services such as job training, case management, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment
and child care. Street outreach and assessment programs to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families are also funded through these grants. Continuum of Care programs include:

• Supportive Housing Program (SHP) offers housing and supportive services to allow homeless persons to live
  as independently as possible.
  
  
• Shelter Plus Care (S+C) provides housing and supportive services on a long-term basis for homeless persons with disabilities, (primarily those with serious mental illness, chronic problems with alcohol and/or drugs, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or related diseases) and their families who were living in places
  not intended for human habitation (e.g., streets) or in emergency shelters.
  
  
• Single-Room Occupancy Program (SRO) provides rental assistance for homeless persons in one-person
  housing units that contain small kitchens, bathrooms, or both.

Last year, 19 federal agencies in the Obama Administration announced a plan to end all homelessness through, Opening Doors, an unprecedented federal strategy to end veteran and chronic homelessness by 2015, and to end homelessness among children, families, and youth by 2020. In addition to the Continuum of Care grant program,
HUD's new Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing (HPRP) Program made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is making a major contribution to the Opening Doors strategy. To date,
HPRP has allocated $1.5 billion to prevent more than 875,000 people from falling into homelessness or to rapidly re-house them if they do.

HUD's homelessness grants are reducing long-term or chronic homelessness in America. Based on the Department's latest Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), chronic homelessness has declined by 30 percent since 2006.
This decline is directly attributed to HUD's homeless grants helping to create significantly more permanent housing for those who might otherwise be living on the streets. It was also reported in the AHAR that the number of homeless families increased for the second consecutive year, almost certainly due to the ongoing effects of the recession.

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.