Local agencies share in federal grants to help homeless

12/25/05

Santa Barbara County efforts to turn the tide of chronic homelessness will share in $1.33 billion in federal Housing and Urban Development grants for 2005, the agency announced this week.

All together, nine local government and private agencies will share $1,366,000, according to HUD, with the Housing Authority of the city of Santa Barbara getting the largest single piece of the pie, $590,184.

The money, part of $221 million provided to California, supports what the bureaucrats have termed "continuum of care" programs that generally provide transitional or permanent housing to the homeless.

The grants may also go to services like job training, health care, counseling for mental health or substance abuse, and child care.

The Casa Esperanza Homeless Center located at 816 Cacique St., the largest homeless shelter on the South Coast, received $160,586, the biggest single grant going to a nongovernment program in the county.

Casa Esperanza will use the money to operate its drop-in day center. Among the services offered there are job referrals, nursing care, a lunch program and "a place where people can come and rest," said Michael Foley, Casa Esperanza's executive director.

The money is distributed throughout the year.

"We certainly use all of it," he added. Up to 200 homeless are allowed to sleep overnight at Casa Esperanza during the winter months.

Other county programs receiving grant money, and the amount given, are:

*ÊSanta Barbara County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Services, $115,315

*ÊSanta Barbara County Housing and Community Development, $102,813

*ÊSanta Barbara Community Housing Corporation, $99,440

*ÊDomestic Violence Solutions for Santa Barbara County, $76,220

*ÊTransition House, two grants of $61,763 and $55,152

*ÊLompoc Housing Assistance Corporation, two grants of $49,875 and $36,565

*ÊGood Samaritan Shelter Inc., $17,850

"Today, we take another step along the road toward the day when we end chronic homelessness on our streets," said Alphonso Jackson, HUD secretary, in a statement released earlier this week.

HUD noted that the Bush administration's stated goal is to end chronic homelessness through its assistance programs since the chronically homeless, estimated at 10 percent of the homeless population, uses more than half of the resources targeted at the problem.

"By shifting the federal emphasis toward meeting the needs of the most vulnerable homeless persons," according to HUD, "more resources become available for those who experience homelessness as a temporary condition."

Staff report