Federal agency gives $10.7M to isle homelessness efforts

Thirty-seven programs that help homeless people in Hawaii have received a total of $10.7 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"It’s comparable to last year, which is good," said Marc Alexander, Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s homeless programs coordinator. "Nothing got cut and we’re grateful for that. It keeps everything in place, with maybe a little bit more."

Most of the money for Oahu will help place homeless people into permanent housing, Alexander said, with the rest continuing to provide services in areas such as mental health and drug treatment.

"This money helps pay for permanent housing," Alexander said.

Providers of homeless services in the next two months hope to hear whether they will receive additional money to expand services and provide even more permanent housing for homeless people, Alexander said.

Overall, HUD announced $1.47 billion in awards to more than 7,100 homeless assistance programs across the country, an increase of $62 million over last year and the most HUD has ever provided for homeless assistance, a HUD news release said.

The grants "will literally keep the doors of our shelters open and will help those on the front lines of ending homelessness do what they do best," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in the release. "It’s incredible that as we work to recover from the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression, the total number of homeless Americans is declining, in large part because of these funds."

Last week, HUD announced its 2011 "point in time" estimate of the number of homeless persons in America.

About 3,000 cities and counties reported 636,000 homeless people on a single night in January 2011, a 2.1 percent decline from the year before, HUD said.

The reduction was seen among all homeless groups including individuals, families and those experiencing long-term or chronic homeless.

HUD’s estimate also reveals a 12 percent reduction in homelessness among veterans.