Washington, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda announced today that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded numerous grants to several South Bay organizations that provide housing, rental assistance and care for individuals and families in Santa Clara County who are in need of housing, shelter, care and rental assistance. Organizations represented in the announcement represents governmental, charitable, and educational entities in the South Bay.

“This is welcome news, and the people of Santa Clara County will be better served by the announcement of these grants,” said Congresswoman Lofgren, who served as the first Executive Director of Community Housing Developers, a non-profit community-based housing developers in San Jose. “The federal government has a responsibility to help local organizations provide housing assistance to those in need.”

The 25 South Bay organizations will share over $6.9 million to provide a variety of services from homeless shelters to rental assistance. The grants are funded under three programs:

Supportive Housing Program (SHP)
The Supportive Housing Program (SHP) is authorized by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. It is designed to promote, as part of a local Continuum of Care strategy, the development of supportive housing and services to assist homeless person in the transition from homelessness and to enable them to live as independently as possible. Eligible applicants are States, units of local government, public housing authorities and private non-profits.

Single Room Occupancy Program (SRO)
The Single Room Occupancy program provides rental assistance for homeless person in connection with the moderate rehabilitation of SRO dwellings. SRO housing contains units for occupancy by one person. These units contain food preparation or sanitary facilities, or both. Under the program, HUD enters into Annual Contributions Contracts with public housing agencies in connection with the moderate rehabilitation of residential properties that, when rehabilitation is completed, will contain multiple single room dwelling units. The public housing authorities make Section 8 rental assistance payments to participating owners (i.e., landlords) on behalf of homeless individuals who rent the rehabilitated dwellings. The rental assistance payments cover the difference between a portion of the tenant’s income (normally 30%) and the unit’s rent, which must be within the fair market rent established by HUD.

Shelter Plus Care (S+C)
Shelter Plus Care is a program designed to provide housing and supportive services on a long-term basis for homeless persons with disabilities and their families who are living in places not intended for human habitation (e.g. streets) or in emergency shelters. For example, this assistance is for those with serious mental illness, chronic problems with alcohol and/or drugs and AIDS or related diseases. The program allows for a variety of housing choices, and a range of supportive services funded by other sources, in response to the needs of the hard-to-reach homeless population with disabilities.