SECRETARY FUDGE, GOVERNOR LAMONT, MAYOR BOWSER DISCUSS AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN HOMELESSNESS ASSISTANCE ALLOCATIONS
Secretary Fudge: "The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored just how important it is for every person to have access to safe and stable housing."

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, along with Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, held a Zoom call to discuss the nearly $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds allocated by HUD to help communities across the country create affordable housing and services for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

The supplemental funding, known as HOME-ARP, was provided by the American Rescue Plan, which was enacted into law on March 11, 2021, and is allocated through the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to 651 grantees, including states, insular areas, and local governments. Click here for a full list.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored just how important it is for every person to have access to safe and stable housing," said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. "This $5 billion in homelessness assistance provided by the American Rescue Plan will deliver much-needed resources for communities to give homes to the people who have had to endure the pandemic without one. In the days ahead, we need to build on this relief with President Biden's American Jobs Plan - a once-in-a-generation opportunity needed to bring our country closer to ending homelessness and housing instability."

"I thank Secretary Fudge and the Biden-Harris Administration for this new funding to Connecticut," said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. "The federal HOME Investment Partnership program is a vital tool we are using to move our homeless population off the streets and out of shelters and into permanent housing. We've made progress in Connecticut despite the pandemic. But we must do more as a state and a nation. Together with new state investments in affordable housing, this new funding to Connecticut from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development will support our ongoing work to end homelessness and to Build Back Better from this pandemic."

"This investment signals that the Biden Administration is serious about helping Americans recover and heal from the extraordinary circumstances this pandemic has caused," said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. "Here in DC, we have been very focused on making homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring. With the local investments we've made, we are proud of our progress - we've been able to reduce overall homelessness by 11% and family homelessness by 85%. But we also know that the pandemic, and the economic crisis it caused, puts those gains at risk. And we know that to really tackle this issue and to overcome the housing crisis, we need serious federal investments. And that's what this is, and we thank Secretary Fudge for leading the effort to get these funds out the door and into communities that need them."

The $4.925 billion in HOME-ARP funding gives states the flexibility to best meet the needs of people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness, including through development of affordable and supportive housing, tenant-based rental assistance, supportive services, and acquisition and development of non-congregate shelter units. Funds must be spent by 2030.

The nearly $5 billion in HOME-ARP funding is the first of two homelessness-related funding opportunities from the American Rescue Plan that HUD will release. In the coming weeks, HUD will announce the allocation of funding for emergency vouchers for people experiencing and at-risk of homelessness.

The American Jobs Plan (www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/), introduced on March 31, 2021, calls for a more than $200 billion investment to increase housing supply and address the affordable housing crisis.

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