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Veterans Affairs announces $1M in grants to help homeless families in Santa Maria

Santa Maria Times - 11/29/2021

Nov. 30—A U.S. government agency will provide up to $1 million in federal grant funding to Santa Maria-area nonprofits through a special program designed to help homeless veteran families, according to a notice in the Federal Register posted Nov. 22.

The funds will be available for certain nonprofit organizations through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families, the notice said.

Santa Maria was among 45 cities or geographic locations in the U.S. that became eligible to receive the grant amounts, which ranged from $750,000 to $2 million.

Santa Barbara County had 1,897 individuals, including 90 families with a total of 135 children and 210 veterans who were experiencing homelessness, according to the 2020 Point-in-Time Count report released on March 10, 2020. Among those counted included 382 homeless individuals living in Santa Maria.

The program grants provides funds to private nonprofits and consumer cooperatives who will coordinate or provide supportive services to very low-income veteran families. Private nonprofits are 501(c)(3) organizations that typically exclude public charities such as churches, schools or hospitals.

The program identifies three classes of families: those who are residing in permanent housing and at risk of becoming homeless; are homeless but scheduled to become residents of permanent housing within a specified time period; and are seeking other housing after leaving permanent housing within a specified time period.

Applicants who demonstrate the "greatest capacity" to end homelessness among veterans or have sustained "the gains made in ending homelessness" in communities that have met federal criteria and benchmarks set by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will be provided with funding, according to the notice.

Additionally, rapid re-housing services to homeless veteran households is prioritized and grantees will be given priority if they can demonstrate adoption of evidence-based practices in their application, according to the notice.

Program applications can only be submitted electronically and must be received by 1 p.m.Feb. 7. Application instructions can be found at www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.

Anyone with questions is asked to email the SSVF Program office at ssvf@va.gov.

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