Carbon looks to help homeless

Carbon County wants to continue to help families facing homelessness.

On Thursday, the commissioners voted to apply for a $90,000 Emergency Solutions Grant with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which will be broken up and overseen by Family Promise of Carbon County and the Carbon County Action Committee.

Before the vote, the county held a public hearing as part of the grant process.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the ESG program allows local governments to apply for funding on behalf of nonprofit organizations to be used for things such as rapid rehousing, homeless prevention and operation and essential services related to emergency shelters.

Kim Miller, director of the Carbon County Action Committee, said that if the county is successful, the organization would receive up to $45,000 through the grant, which would be used to target homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing services.

The funds would be used to assist those who are either homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness and have no other resources or support networks to be able to secure permanent housing.

She said that 15 households are expected to be served during the 18-month grant. Of that, 10 households will be served under the rapid rehousing component and five households will be served under the homelessness prevention component.

The Rapid Rehousing program would target four groups: homeless families with children who are residing in the Family Promise shelters and either qualify for public or section 8 housing via a “homeless priority” or now have or will soon have adequate income/resources to afford future rent and household expenses; homeless families fleeing from domestic violence; homeless disabled veterans or other homeless disabled people and families; and other homeless people or families referred by the Carbon County Housing Authority as anticipated to qualify for public housing or section 8 housing in the near future.

The Homeless Prevention assistance, which would be in the form of security deposits, utility deposits and payments, rental arrears, targets families with children; eligible disabled veterans or other disabled people or families; families fleeing domestic violence; and disabled or nondisabled people or families qualifying for public housing or section 8 assistance.

Affordability requirements must be met for both programs.

During the last ESG grant round, the money aided 23 families secure or retain stable housing.

Hannah Bartron, executive director of Family Promise of Carbon County, added that the money would help the organization continue to offer qualified services to prevent and end family homelessness.

Services that would be offered include assessment of housing barriers and current needs, case management and development of housing plans, housing searches and placements, advocacy for homeless tenant with landlords, temporary shelter services and shelter operation.

Bartron said in 2016, Family Promise successfully placed 82 percent of program participants in permanent housing after, on average, just 43 days in a shelter. There were 65 homeless people served by the organization.