RISMedia, May 31 2011— The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded 10 public housing authorities nearly $34 million in grants recently that will be used as seed money to create early childhood education and adult training facilities for public housing residents.
“As President Obama has said, if America is to win the future, we need to out-educate the rest of the world,” says HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “This funding helps public housing agencies that want to provide these services but lacked the resources. This is an investment to make certain we connect affordable housing with quality education and training resources.”
HUD’s Capital Fund Education and Training Community Facilities (CFCF) Program provides funding to public housing authorities for the construction, rehabilitation, or purchase of facilities that will offer early childhood education, adult education and job training programs. It is designed primarily for public housing residents, but can be utilized by residents in the surrounding community.
The purpose of the facilities is to offer comprehensive, integrated education and employment services to help public housing residents achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency.
HUD required successful applicants to illustrate their ability to get firm financial commitments of at least 5 percent to leverage the HUD grant. The applicants were also required to identify at least one education and/or training supportive service provider, such as a community college, that would partner with the housing authority to provide education and employment services at the facility. All of the grantees surpassed this requirement by forming partnerships with many local organizations in the community.
For more information visit www.hud.gov.
