CUOMO AWARDS $4.6 MILLION TO HELP 50,000 PEOPLE GET JOBS

Full description of grants

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $4.6 million in grants to help an estimated 50,000 low-income adults living in HUD-subsidized housing get jobs and become self-sufficient.

"These grants are an investment that will transform the lives of struggling families," Cuomo said. "They will give people the opportunity to leave welfare and poverty behind, and move to work and self-sufficiency."

The grants will provide funds to 134 public housing agencies in 39 states and Puerto Rico to each employ one family self-sufficiency coordinator. The coordinators help adults receiving HUD rental assistance vouchers to find and participate in education, job training, child care, counseling, transportation and job placement programs that will enable them to get jobs.

Some people benefiting from the grants are on welfare. Others are in low-wage, unskilled jobs and want to earn more to better support their families.

Participants in the job preparedness program sign a contract that says the head of the household will get a job and the family will become self-sufficient within five years.

During the term of the contract, as a family's income rises with new employment, about a third of the increased income goes to an interest-bearing escrow account. Normally, the same portion of the increased income would be used to pay higher rent payments in HUD-subsidized housing, because rents in HUD housing are usually set at 30 percent of a household's income.

If a family fulfills its contract requiring employment and independence from welfare, it can use its escrow account for such things as a downpayment on a home purchase, starting a business, paying back debts and paying educational expenses. If a family fails to fulfill the contract, it does not get the funds in the escrow account and may be terminated from the Family Self-Sufficiency program.

Here is a chart showing the amount of Family Self-Sufficiency grants going to public housing agencies in each state where grants are being made.