MASSACHUSETTS TO RECEIVE $4.6 MILLION IN NEW GRANTS TO HELP PREVENT, END HOMELESSNESS

BOSTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development New England Regional Administrator Barbara Fields today announced that Massachusetts will receive $4.6 million in new grant funds to support 29 new homeless programs across the state. Today's announcement marks the first-ever grants to local projects that provide critically needed housing and support services to homeless individuals and families. In January, HUD awarded an additional $58 million to renew funding to 303 existing Massachusetts programs (see below for MA grant information).

"Today, we are announcing new funds to invest in critically needed programs that will go a long way towards helping Massachusetts organizations assist the homeless and put families and individuals on the road to independence," said Fields.

HUD's Continuum of Care 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.

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 ending homelessness in Massachusetts. To date, HPRP has allocated $44.6 million in Massachusetts
to prevent more than 17,100 people from falling into homelessness or to rapidly re-house them if they do.

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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. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv.

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