What Happened?
Colorado Springs plans to spend $7.8 million in federal grants to improve housing options and reduce the homelessness rate. The funding will be sourced from three separate federal grants, and work hand-in-hand with $5 million project to end homelessness in the city.
The Goal
In January, Colorado Springs announced a series of projects the city will invest in to reduce the number of homeless residents through housing and economic support. Relying heavily on federal grants to fund the initiative, each project will optimize available money and reapply annually to maintain efforts. The plan calls for:
- $2.1 million for developing public facilities and a homeless day center
- Expanding emergency shelter beds with city and federal funds
- $275,100 in federal grants for increasing homeless outreach opportunities
- $4.3 million for building affordable housing options
- $1.3 million for administrative costs, human services programs, revitalization projects and neighborhood planning activities
Colorado Springs plans to seek feedback from neighborhood groups on specific public infrastructure strategies, as well as launch a pilot initiative involving the repurposing of blighted property into useful resources. The plan would have launched already, but federal grant allocation delayed the start date.
Housing and Homeless Initiative Funding
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offers a variety of federal grants to help communities improve affordable housing availability as well as combat rising homelessness rates. To help cities lower homelessness numbers, HUD can allocate funds through:
- Continuum of Care Program This program helps communities end homelessness through partnerships with public, private and nonprofit organizations. By quickly rehousing homeless individuals to minimize trauma, the collaborative efforts help affected people regain their roles in the community quickly and efficiently.
- Emergency Solutions Grants Program This program is a revamping of the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 that focuses on the development of homeless shelters to provide immediate care to dislocated individuals and families. Through these shelters, the homeless population can gain access to resources to help them re-enter society.
- Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program This program helps cities re-house or make it easier for homeless individuals to gain access to affordable housing and then stabilize their situation to ensure long-term housing. The money can also be used to proactively aid those on the brink of homelessness through programs and affordable housing.
- Defense Base Closure and Realignment Program This program is a community-based process that works to encourage both economic redevelopment as well as reducing homelessness numbers. The program focuses on making changes at military base closure and realignment sites by providing technical assistance to qualified cities.
- HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program This program offers communities with the tools to end veteran homelessness through joint cooperation between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. HUD offers housing choice vouchers to qualified veterans and the VA provides case management and outreach resources.
- Title V Program – Federal Surplus Property for Use to Assist the Homeless
This program helps organizations make use of abandoned or underused federal properties to assist homeless persons and increase accessibility to affordable housing. While no monetary funding is provided, the federal government will release the land to qualified local governments or nonprofit organizations to repurpose it for their initiatives.
Optimize the Dollar
Gov1 has followed the strategies of many communities making good use of federal funding to redevelop the community and boost economic activity.