HOMELESS GRANT Agencies seeking additional funding

Homelessness among single mothers has increased drastically.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Half a point is worth almost $1 million to local agencies that help homeless people.
The Youngstown-Mahoning County Continuum agencies have asked U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review its most recent grant application.
The coalition applied for a three-year, $1.5 million grant to continue addressing chronic homelessness in the county. It was awarded $600,000.
That's only enough money for one year of services. "It just puts a lot of programs at risk," says Nancy Voitus, executive director of Catholic Charities Regional Agency serving Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Voitus is chairwoman of the continuum, which consists of 13 agencies that provide shelter to people in need. They include Help Hotline, Community Legal Services, Youngstown City Health District, Humility of Mary Health Services, Meridian Services, YWCA and Addiction Programs of Mahoning County.
What happened
Voitus has learned that HUD split about $1 billion among 5,000 recipients. Grant applications were scored on a point system, with full funding going to those that scored 82 or higher. The Youngstown-Mahoning County Continuum Agencies' score was 81.5, she said.
The review will show how HUD awarded points and whether any points were mistakenly deducted, Voitus said.
The grant process is competitive, but even more so this time. HUD money for homeless programs shrunk from $1.4 billion last year to $1 billion, Voitus said.
Meanwhile, the needs of the homeless continue to grow. The continuum's grant writers cited a 29-percent poverty rate in Youngstown as a distress sign.
"We're seeing more people with layoffs, company closings, more families having problems making ends meet," Voitus said. "The problems haven't been resolved."
"People are hurting -- not just agencies," said Connie Shaffer, executive director of YWCA of Youngstown. Some homeless people have been dropped from other support systems, such as welfare and mental health, she noted.
YWCA has used its share of HUD grant money to subsidize rent payments for 65 people in 26 households. The federal government studied the YWCA's scattered-site program for disabled families as a national model, "so when we only saw one year funded out of three, we were shocked," Shaffer said.
Trend noticed
Although single mothers are not technically part of the chronic homeless population, the continuum noted on its grant application a "drastic increase" in the number of homeless families headed by single women.
"Continuum agencies cannot build new units fast enough to accommodate this population," the application reads. "There are waiting lists for each unit."
If the continuum doesn't receive more money, member agencies will have to look for other funding sources. Otherwise, when the next HUD grant cycle begins, "There's only so much we can ask for, so some programs could be eliminated" later this year, Voitus said.
If "good, viable programs" must be cut, the remaining programs will suffer, too, Shaffer said.
Continuum members are enlisting the support of elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th.
shaulis@vindy.com