HUD awards 1.4 Billion to end homelessness in local communities

Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, awarded $1.41 billion in funding to keep nearly 7,000 local homeless assistance programs operating in the coming year. The grants announced today form a critical foundation for the Obama Administration’s Opening Doors strategy, the nation’s first comprehensive plan to prevent and end homelessness.

The announcement announcement also comes just a week before thousands of volunteers in nearly every city and county conduct a national one-night count of homeless persons and families. HUD’s Let’s Make Everybody Count! campaign is intended to document trends in homelessness that are crucial to local planners’ efforts to prevent and end homelessness in their areas.