HUD Archives: News Releases

HUD AWARDS $1.2 MILLION TO JUSTICE RESOURCE INSTITUTE, INC. IN BOSTON TO IMPROVE HOUSING AND SERVICES FOR THOSE LIVING WITH AIDS
Grants provided by HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program

BOSTON - Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $1,223,377 to the Justice Resource Institute, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts as part of a national effort to offer permanent and transitional housing and support services to more than 200 households with families and individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Provided through HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program, these projects will also develop new cross program approaches in HIV care by creating an Integrated HIV/AIDS Housing Plan in their communities.

"These resources will allow public agencies, nonprofits and housing authorities to forge new partnerships so that together, we can deliver comprehensive housing solutions and services for low-income families dealing with HIV," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said. "These communities will be innovating to more effectively and efficiently assist vulnerable households with HIV and serve as models for others to improve health outcomes and reduce risks of homelessness."

HUD's grant funding will support the Justice Resource Institute (JRI) in Boston, Massachusetts for a regional JRI Health Youth Housing Initiative. This effort will provide scattered site tenant based housing rental assistance and supportive services to 20 homeless youth who are living with HIV in the Boston area in partnership with the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership and the Boston Medical Center SPARK Center. Collaborations will also involve local vocational training partners and Ticket to Work programs the effort will help connect clients with job opportunities and assist in developing a community model for an Integrated HIV/AIDS Housing Plan with the Massachusetts HIV planning group and the Planning Council of Boston EMA. For more information contact: Susan Buoncuore, Director of Housing Services, JRI Health, 545 Boylston St. Suite 700, Boston, MA 02116; Phone: (617) 457-8142 x2424 or by email.

In collaboration with other parties, this group will offer supportive housing over the next three years to 208 households. Grants funded under this initiative advance HUD's implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (http://aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/national-hiv-aids-strategy/) (NHAS) and will demonstrate models for a
next generation of improved coordination of housing and care for a vulnerable population. This better integration of housing support will also help achieve the Obama Administration's Opening Doors Strategy to prevent and end homelessness.

The project was selected through a national HOPWA competition to identify Special Projects of National Significance that will help advance understanding and improve the delivery of housing and care for persons with HIV. HUD
received 46 proposals under this competition. The projects will provide housing assistance to eligible persons in their communities during the next three years. Planning efforts will also concurrently examine new approaches for comprehensively integrating local services and in coordinating and streamlining where possible the delivery of those services in their community.

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