RISMEDIA, December 2, 2010—U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that homelessness for 750,000 Americans was prevented or ended, thanks to HUD’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The program provided $1.5 billion to local communities to keep families in their homes or help them find other affordable housing after a sudden financial crisis, which might have otherwise led to homelessness.
“Preventing or ending homelessness for over 750,000 Americans is a major milestone for the Recovery Act and for the Obama Administration’s Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness,” said secretary Donovan. “Often times, a little bit of financial assistance can make all the difference between finding or keeping a stable home and being forced to live in a shelter or on the streets.”
HUD requires each grantee to participate in its local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), where client-level data is entered and collected on the households served through HPRP on a quarterly basis. The grantee and/or subgrantee compiles the reported data and provides HUD with an unduplicated count of person and households served in the reporting quarter and date, as well as whether the household exited the program to stable housing. On an annual basis, HUD captures additional detailed data from the grantees that is published in the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
The Recovery Act provided $1.5 billion to fund HPRP, which was a new program created specifically under the Recovery Act. These grants offer communities a resource to provide short- and medium-term rental assistance and services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless or to quickly re-house those who are experiencing homelessness.
Grants provided under HPRP are not intended to provide long-term support for individuals and families, nor do they provide mortgage assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure. Rather, HPRP offers short- and medium-term financial assistance and services to those who would otherwise become homeless, and those who are already in homeless shelters or living on the street, many due to sudden economic crisis. This can include short-term rental assistance (up to three months), medium-term rental assistance (up to 18 months), security deposits, utility deposits and/or utility payments, moving cost assistance, and hotel vouchers. Payments will not be made directly to households, but only to third parties, such as landlords or utility companies. The goal of the program is to increase housing stability for those individuals and families served with HPRP assistance.
Secretary Donovan and the Department are committed to providing the highest level of transparency possible as Recovery Act funds are administered. It is vitally important that the American people are fully aware of how their tax dollars are being spent and can hold their federal leaders accountable.
For more information, visit www.hud.gov.
