The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the Blue Ridge Continuum of Care, the region’s planning body for homeless services, $835,191 to support its coordinated effort in reducing homelessness in the region.
This money will fund seven projects being implemented through three organizations: the City of Roanoke, the Council of Community Services and ARCH Services. The funding is part of a record $1.95 billion awarded by HUD to organizations nationwide through its Continuum of Care (CoC) grant competition.
These resources will provide critical services to individuals and families in crisis and will allow the region to build upon its successes in addressing homelessness. As announced earlier this month, overall homelessness in the region has been reduced by more than 54 percent since 2012.
Projects funded through the announcement are:
- Blue Ridge CoC Planning Project – City of Roanoke
- City of Roanoke Homeless Assistance Team (HAT)
- Coordinated Assessment System – City of Roanoke (new)
- Healing Haven – ARCH Services (new)
- Heroes Haven Permanent Supportive Housing for Chronically Homeless Veterans – ARCH Services
- Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) – Council of Community Services
- Trust House Case Management – ARCH Services
These awards include five renewal and two new projects. The new projects are evidence of the region’s leaders and system planners’ commitment to conducting ongoing evaluation of community needs and investing in new, best practice-aligned programs that make the service system more effective and efficient.
ARCH Services has received funding to implement a new permanent supportive housing project to provide stable housing and supportive services to individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.
The project will utilize the Housing First model – a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing people experiencing homelessness with permanent housing as quickly as possible, and then providing voluntary supportive services as needed. This approach prioritizes client choice in both housing selection and in service participation.
The City of Roanoke will be implementing new funding to build its capacity in managing the community’s Coordinated Assessment System. The Coordinated Assessment System ensures individuals and families experiencing a housing crisis are connected to the most appropriate services quickly and efficiently.
