The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Georgia organizations fighting homelessness more than $58 million in federal grants, with much of those funds going to metro Atlanta programs striving to find homes for the unhoused.
Georgia will receive $58.2 million from the nearly $3.16 billion HUD is allocating nationally through its Continuum of Care program, which assists in everything from funding to collecting data on the unhoused, the federal agency says.
Metro Atlanta groups and programs, ranging from Atlanta’s Phoenix House to MUST Ministries in Cobb County, will receive more than $13 million in funds slated specifically for the area’s biggest counties, according to a list of recipients on HUD’s website.
Millions more will also go to individual organizations and programming in metro Atlanta that are not affiliated with the area’s counties.
“Now, more than ever, we are doing all we can to get people off the street and into permanent homes with access to services. That is why we are making sure the service providers on the frontlines of this crisis have the resources they need,” HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a news release announcing the grants.
The money comes just days after organizations fighting homelessness spread out across the metro area last week to determine the number of unhoused on the streets in what has been dubbed the “Point-in-Time” count.
The effort, which is taken every one or two years depending on the jurisdiction, impacts the flow of federal dollars and can dictate in large part what resources are available to address services for the unhoused.
It also follows recent weeks of bitter cold that forced metro Atlanta governments to open warming centers for the homeless and exposed weaknesses in the area’s abilities in some cases to respond quickly.
For instance, Rev. Siegfried White, an Atlanta minister who regularly transports unhoused people to warming centers, and about a half-dozen homeless people last week went to City Hall to complain about the lack of open warming centers on a a recent cold Monday night. City officials said conditions did not warrant opening the warming centers, per city policy.
Falecia Stewart, vice president of housing for MUST Ministries, said the more than $900,000 HUD has allocated for the organization will help fund its permanent supportive housing program, which houses chronically homeless individuals and families.
“It’s a tremendous help,” she said.
HUD said the $3.16 billion allocation is the largest-ever amount directed toward Continuum of Care program funding to address homelessness in the agency’s history. More than 7,000 projects aiding to help the homeless will receive funding with the program.
HUD also announced this week an additional $3.7 million allocation to Georgia to help reduce home health and safety hazards. Of that amount, the city of Atlanta will receive $1.7 million.
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