Technical assistance to support national strategy to assess, prevent and end homelessness
WASHINGTON, DC – January 19, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $6.8 million to help local communities across this country to assess the nature and scope of their homeless challenge as part of a broader Administration goal of preventing and ending homelessness. The technical assistance grants awarded today will ultimately help state and local planning organizations or ‘continuums of care’ to improve data collection and reporting that is a critical part of designing their responses to homelessness.
“You can’t solve homelessness unless you understand homelessness,” said Mercedes Márquez, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. “These grants will offer critical assistance to state and local planners as they gather the necessary data they’ll need to prevent and end homelessness as we know it.”
The grants announced today are provided through HUD’s Homeless Management Information Systems Technical Assistance Program.The purpose of these technical assistance grants is to provide the highest level of performance among continuums of care in the collection and reporting of homelessness data. HUD is awarding grants to the following technical assistance providers:
|
Recipient |
City |
Amount |
| Abt Associates, Inc. | Cambridge, MD |
$2,436,500 |
| Cloudburst Group | Landover, MD |
$1,584,000 |
| ICF Incorporated, L.L.C. | Fairfax, VA |
$1,644,500 |
| Nat’l Center on Family Homelessness, Inc. | Needham, MA |
$1,144,000 |
|
TOTAL |
$6,809,000 |
Next week, tens of thousands of volunteers across the U.S. will conduct one-night counts of homeless persons and families living in shelters and on the streets. These point-in-time snapshot counts, along with annual data collected through local Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), provide a clear and continually improving picture of homelessness throughout the country and at the state and local level. The grant funding announced today will support this effort and Opening Doors, the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.
Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) are used by state and local planners to understand the dynamic nature of homelessness in their communities and to assess what programs are working. Local “continuums” that require help in their data collection and reporting system will request technical assistance from HUD. The technical assistance offered by the providers awarded funding today will help these planners better understand their homeless population and design the most effective system of care.
###
HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the
need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build
inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business.
More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and
http://espanol.hud.gov. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at
www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD’s News Listserv.
Contact:
Brian Sullivan
(202) 402-7527
