At this time of year, annual grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are awarded to thousands of local homeless programs. This federal funding makes all the difference in being able to provide stable housing to those experiencing homelessness.

Today, I'm announcing nearly $2 billion in homeless assistance grants, we call them Continuum of Care grants, to renew support to more than 5,800 local homeless assistance programs nationwide.

Renewing these grants will allow these providers to continue their work to house and serve our most vulnerable neighbors.

These dollars support a broad range of interventions to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness, from street outreach to a host of housing and services that address their needs.

Before I conclude, I just wanted to talk about those individuals and families who are living on our streets.

This is the time of the year when local communities across the country are conducting annual counts of the number of those persons experiencing homelessness, including those living in unsheltered locations.

These counts are critical to our understanding about the scope and nature of homelessness. They help to inform local planners as they work to prevent and end-yes end-homelessness.

On any given night, more than a half-million people experience homelessness-approximately a third of these individuals were found in unsheltered locations.

Last Wednesday night, I joined the Community Partnership-along with hundreds of volunteers-to take part in the 2019 count here in Washington.

As I witnessed those living in reprehensible conditions just steps from the halls of Congress, I was saddened to hear their stories of addiction, mental illness and joblessness.

Each year, HUD serves more than a million people through emergency shelter, transitional, and permanent housing programs. Our grants are an important reason why we're seeing homelessness decline significantly among Veterans and families with children.

I'm pleased that be able to announce our renewal grants to our existing grantees who need our help.

These local providers are on the front lines in our effort to end homelessness. They are located in our cities, towns and rural areas all across our country.

Preventing and ending homelessness remains a federal strategic goal and our efforts to reach this goal are working!

But the goal to prevent and end homelessness requires our support of those on the front lines, and our most vulnerable neighbors who deserve that support the most.

Thank you.

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