$200,000 added to Toledo homelessness aid

4/20/2012

A pot of federal money available to organizations that combat homelessness in Toledo will get a $200,000 boost, thanks to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

City officials said Thursday that HUD is providing the additional money, known as an Emergency Solutions Grant, for organizations working to prevent homelessness or to quickly find homes for people already on the streets.

The money will be added to the $610,000 in Emergency Solutions Grant money that Toledo is to receive this year.

Organizations will be invited to apply for the money this month.

Several homeless shelters in Toledo have decried a decision by the city's Department of Neighborhoods to deny them another source of federal funding they have long relied on.

If City Council approves the department's decision, thousands of Community Development Block Grant dollars will not be given to five Toledo homeless shelters this year.

Lourdes Santiago, the city's neighborhoods director, maintains that the shelters can instead apply for the Emergency Solutions Grant.

The funds announced Thursday would bring emergency solutions money to nearly three times the level that HUD made available to the city last year.

Much of that money cannot be used to provide emergency shelter, however.

Of the $810,000 in total Emergency Solutions Grant money to be made available, approximately half must be used for homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing, according to information provided by city officials.