Federal stimulus funds will help the homeless in Lawrence County

The grant will more than double the amount available to help the homeless.

By MARY GRZEBIENIAK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. – Federal stimulus money soon will be helping to ease a growing problem of homelessness in Lawrence County.

Kathie Presner, Emergency Services Coordinator for Lawrence County’s Community Action Partnership, told county commissioners at their caucus Thursday that the partnership has been awarded $379,616 to be spread over three years for assistance to the homeless. The county also has a chance to receive an additional $200,000 in competitive grant-funding for which commissioners authorized making application Thursday.

The funds are part of the 2009 Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program, which is part of the federal stimulus program.

In the fiscal year beginning July 1, the program would provide three-month assistance or 18-month assistance to 75 families.

Presner said that until now, only $43,000 of an annual $166,000 state homeless-assistance program grant has been available to provide rental assistance to Lawrence County residents being evicted from their homes. The amount was enough to aid only a small number of the 1,300 applying for help and was usually used up within the first three months of the fiscal year to help about 50 families. Presner said there are currently 58 on a waiting list for rent help.

Presner said that in the 10 years she has been with the agency, the homeless problem has increased from 160 to 1,300 families annually. The typical county homeless family, she said, consists of children with parents under 25 who have been evicted and cannot obtain credit or pay a security deposit. These people end up staying with relatives or friends until they wear out their welcome, she said.

Commissioner Steve Craig commented, “Sometimes we find ourselves in the unenviable position of having to place children in foster care because the parents have no place to live.”

Presner said that it is actually cheaper to provide rent assistance to the parents than to pay the costs of placing the children in foster homes.