Port Angeles programs run by Serenity House of Clallam County and a Port Townsend program operated by Olympic Community Action Programs received, between them, $495,800 in federal grants to continue services for the homeless.
The renewal grants will fund the programs for another year. The agencies apply for them annually, and they are awarded through the Continuum of Care program of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Much of the money goes for transitional housing, which is temporary housing for months or even years for people who are homeless, while they receive services to help them become self-sufficient.
Matching funds
Agencies provide matching funds, varying from 20 percent to 25 percent for the grants, said Cindy Burdine, deputy director of family services for Serenity House.
OlyCAP’s Crossroads transitional housing program was awarded $135,599.
“That’s wonderful,” said George Logg, who runs the program. “That means we can do it for one more year.”
Crossroads is for homeless people in recovery from alcohol and drugs. Participants are in recovery programs after having completed in-patient treatment programs.
“We try to get them jobs and help them become productive members of society,” Logg said, by providing such help as job training or aid with disabilities.
“Whatever they need, we try to make sure that they get it,” he said.
Crossroads, which began in Quilcene in 2001 and moved to Port Townsend in 2007, has beds for 11 people. Ten are filled now, with another expected to be taken by the end of the month, Logg said.
Serenity House
Serenity House of Clallam County received a total of $360,201 in three separate grants.
The largest grant is $142,951 for supportive services for homeless.
That money will serve clients in several programs, Burdine said.
Those programs include the single adult shelter, the family emergency shelter, Serenity Court — 10 units of transitional housing for singles and small families — and Tenant Based Rental Assistance, a program in which the Clallam County Housing Authority provides two-year vouchers and Serenity House provides case management.
Serenity House’s Evergreen Village, which provides 16 apartments for families who can stay up to two years, received $138,769.
Families work with case managers and get supportive services, such as skills training, to become financially stable and be able to secure permanent housing.
The Tempest Building, which provides permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people, received $78,481.
The funding is part of nearly $1.4 billion that will help 6,400 existing programs nationwide continue offering housing and services to homeless persons and families.
HUD is quickly providing renewal grants to prevent interruption in federal assistance and will announce funding to new projects in early 2010, a HUD statement said.