Front view wide angle image of a homeless senior adult male of caucasian ethnicity sleeping rough outdoors. He is wrapped in a blue sleeping bag on a hard floor covered with stoned, with a brick wall behind him. He has his eyes closed and has grey white hair and an unkempt white beard. Horizontal low angle image with copy space.
A total of 49 organizations in Nevada were awarded a total of $15,864,846 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That money is part of a record $2 billion in Continuum of Care grants to support more than 7,300 homeless assistance programs nationwide. The Las Vegas-Clark County area received the bulk of the funding for Nevada at nearly $14 million. Washoe County received almost all of the rest of the funding at $1.7 million.
As part of the grants program, HUD is calling on state and local planners to support their highest performing local programs and to shift funds from those programs that aren’t performing well.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson said ending homelessness starts with proven strategies that offer permanent housing solutions to those who would otherwise be living in shelters or on the streets.
Matthew Doherty, dead of the Interagency Council on Homelessness said progress toward ending homelessness requires communities to marshal not only the federal grant money but state, local, private and philanthropic resources.
HUD estimates 553,742 people experienced at least one night of homelessness in 2017. But homelessness among families with children decreased 5.4 percent since 2016. But those people experiencing long term, chronic homelessness, including veterans, increased.
California is the state receiving the largest share of the grant money, $382.56 million, followed by New York at $200.8 million.
Two areas under U.S. control are still eligible for grant money. Because of last year’s hurricanes, the deadline for applying in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was extended until Feb. 16.
