SEATTLE, KING & SNOHOMISH HOUSING AUTHORITIES WIN MORE HUD RENTAL VOUCHERS TO HELP HOMELESS VETS FIND PERMANENT, AFFORABLE "PLACES TO CALL HOME"
With 41 new HUD/Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers Seattle, King & Snohomish authorities now have capacity to offer 1,130 homeless vets stable housing

SEATTLE - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded an additional 20 HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing(VASH) rental assistance vouchers to the Housing Authority of Snohomish County, 11 additional VASH vouchers to the King County Housing Authority and 10 additional VASH vouchers to the Seattle Housing Authority to increase their capacity to provide affordable, permanent housing to homeless veterans.

Today's awards mean that HUD is now funding 1,130 VASH vouchers in Washington State's largest metropolitan area, with a total of 219 VASH vouchers being provided through the Snohomish authority, 418 VASH vouchers by the Seattle housing authority and the King County authority providing 493 VASH. Statewide, HUD is funding 2,399 VASH vouchers through 15 Washington State housing authorities at a total cost of about $12 million annually.

"It's unacceptable that anyone who wore our nation's uniform calls the streets their home," said Secretary Julián Castro. "Although we've made tremendous progress in preventing and reducing veteran homelessness, these vouchers demonstrate our commitment to end veteran homelessness once and for all."

"The single most effective tool in ending homelessness is giving the homeless a place to call home," said HUD's acting Northwest Regional Administrator Donna Batch. "Today's awards continue to build the capacity of housing authorities and homeless providers to serve one of our most vulnerable populations, homeless veterans. They have fought for and served us. It's the least we can do for them."

As the former mayor of San Antonio, Secretary Castro was among the growing ranks of officials who joined the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness by the end of 2015 by using federal, local, and nonprofit resources. To date, 570 leaders have signed-on to the Challenge, in, including 432 mayors, 7 governors and 131 county and city officials.

HUD's VASH program plays a major providing capacity to authorities and local governments to end veteran homelessness. Under VASH, HUD provides VASH vouchers to local public housing authorities to provide permanent supportive housing to homeless vets while the Department of Veterans Affairs and homeless providers offer a range of supportive services to insure the recently-homeless veterans meet their obligations as tenants and have access to the resources and services needed to resume productive, successful lives.

The 821 vouchers awarded today to 27 authorities nationwide are being awarded through the HUD-VASH Project-based Voucher Set-Aside competition, announced in June 2015. Funding also is being provided to 52 housing authorities nationwide that have borne "extraordinary administrative expenses" associated with the start-up or operation of their VASH programs, including hiring temporary staff to expedite processing, conduction pre-inspections of housing likely to be used by VASH recipients and conducting recruitment outreach with landlords and other partners in the VASH program. Housing authorities serving Lane and Washington counties in Oregon and Seattle, Vancouver, Wenatchee and King County in Washington State received $364,332 of the $5.4 million awarded to authorities today for extraordinary administrative expenses. The funds cannot be used to cover costs associated with such things as security deposits or payments made directly to veterans such as transportation reimbursements

Last month, HUD and the VA announced a demonstration to expand HUD-VASH into Native American communities to assist Veterans who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Through this demonstration, HUD is offering $4 million in grant funding to Indian tribes and Tribally Designated Entities (TDHEs) to fund this rental assistance and associated administrative fees. HUD and VA anticipate awarding approximately 600 vouchers to Indian Tribes and TDHEs to help house and serve an estimated 600 Native American veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at the extreme risk of becoming homeless. Read HUD's Notice on the Implementation of the Tribal HUD-VA Supportive Housing Program.

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