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11:00AM | The previously mentioned US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds (below) was part of a two-part dispersion of HUD monies that ultimately provided Long Beach with a total of nearly $7M in grant funds to help foster shelters for the homeless.

The total amount, $6,985,304, will be given to both new and already-occurring programs throughout Long Beach.

The previously mentioned $417K is dedicated entirely to two new programs: the Long Beach Streets to Home program that is dedicated to 21 units scattered throughout the city that provide permanent, supportive housing for the homeless and the Unified Fund Agency (UFA).

Long Beach is only one of two continuums in the entire nation to achieve a designation as a UFA and the money is historic in a very specific way: it is malleable.

“UFA gives more local control to how we spend the money given to us,” said Susan Price of the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services. “We haven’t had that historically because the money has always been locked in existing proposals. Now we can move the money around, tailoring it for efficiency.”

June 19, 2:30PM | Following a dispersion of some $149M to nearly 900 homeless assistance programs across the nation, the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that Long Beach has received over $400K to provide support for such programs in the city.

California alone scored some $18M from the funds used to support HUD’s Continuum of Care Program. That pot of money that will be shared across 96 Californian homeless shelters or programs.

“Communities all across the country are changing their approach to reducing homelessness and now is not the time to retreat from doing what we know works,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in a statement. “Investing in proven strategies such as ‘Rapid Re-housing’ and ‘Housing First’ help to break the cycle of homelessness as we’ve known it in these communities.”

According to HUD’s most recent report on homelessness, over 600K people within the US are homeless, with over 200K being unsheltered. California easily accounts for the vast majority of homeless citizens, with 22% of the nation’s homeless population is to be found within our state, amounting to 136,826 persons. Of those, 91,272 are unsheltered.

The majority of the grant’s $417,136 total, $382,375 will go to the newly instituted Long Beach Street-to-Home program that is headed by the Los Angeles chapter of Mental Health America. The other portion—$34,761—will be given to Unified Funding Agency.