Mayor Walsh announces $24 million HUD grant to help the homeless

BOSTON - Mayor Martin J. Walsh today announced a $24.2 million federal award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support Boston's continued work in ending chronic homelessness. Boston's funds will be distributed among the city's Continuum of Care, the local provider network that provides housing and services for Boston's homeless individuals and families. Continuum of Care funds leasing and rental assistance for permanent housing; transitional housing; supportive services; homeless management information systems and planning.

"Funding for our most vulnerable populations is critical, as we cannot leave any member of our community behind. This grant will go a long way in helping Boston pursue its goal of ending chronic and veteran homelessness by 2018," said Mayor Walsh. "As a city that believes in equity and affordability for all its citizens, we will put these funds to extraordinarily good use to support the work our city does every day. I thank Secretary Castro and HUD for their continued support for Boston."

In an announcement this week, HUD awarded a record $1.95 billion in grants to nearly 7,600 homeless assistance programs throughout the nation, including Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands as the Obama Administration boosted efforts to prevent and end homelessness.

The Continuum of Care award is a competitive grant, awarded annually through the Homeless Continuum of Care funding competition. Awards are based on the merit of the submission and how closely programs adhere to HUD priorities. This year, HUD continued to challenge state and local planners to support higher performing local programs that have proven most effective in meeting their own local challenges and have a lasting impact.

Out of 40 projects submitted by the Boston Continuum of Care for funding, 37 were selected. In addition to renewing critical funding to support the city's current programs, HUD also awarded Boston four new projects. Overall, the Boston Continuum of Care award increased by $255,451 over 2015. The funds will help serve more than 1,400 chronically homeless individuals, and will fund more than $1 million to place homeless individuals in housing, while providing stabilization services to help them successfully remain housed. One of the City's new projects will help 20 homeless families of school-aged children to become housed.   

This grant will support Boston's Way Home, the City's plan to end veteran and chronic homelessness in Boston by 2018. In January 2016, Mayor Walsh announced Boston had ended chronic veteran homelessness; to date, nearly 800 veterans have been housed. In 2016, the City scaled up its efforts to end chronic homelessness; since January of 2016, almost 230 chronically homeless individuals have been housed.

Boston's Way Home has redesigned the way Boston offers services to homeless individuals. Rather than counting on shelter as the solution to the issue, Boston has moved toward a housing-first model, where an individual's entrance into the shelter system is also their entrance to a path toward permanent, stable housing. Through investments in housing, technology and system redesign, Boston is on track to meet its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2018.