Funds sought for homeless

CITY HALL — The Housing Authority unanimously approved an expanded $2.7-million homeless assistance plan and the federal application to fund it Tuesday as federal housing officials put more pressure on cities to reduce the number of transients on local streets.

Two of the 14 programs included in the funding application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are new proposals meant to extend the city’s ability to get more homeless families and individuals off the streets.

Both programs, if approved, would provide roughly $503,000 in additional funding for Glendale Continuum of Care, a network of homeless services providers designed to get transients off the street, and through temporary housing and intensive case management, to reintroduce them to society as independents.

The roughly $2.2 million for existing transitional and supportive housing programs is expected to be renewed under the terms of their original federal contracts, city officials said.

At $335,629, the most costly of the new proposals is the “Rapid Re-Housing Demonstration Project,” which would provide counseling and housing subsidies for homeless families for up to 15 months.

A request for three additional rental subsidy vouchers worth a total $167,760 for homeless individuals rounds out the additions to the application this year.

Given the intense nationwide competition for limited federal resources, city officials said Glendale’s chances of securing the additional funds were “50-50.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this year made available $1.42 billion for homeless service programs nationwide.

“We’re hopeful, but it’s tough,” said Jess Duran, assistant director of the Community Development and Housing Department.

Glendale’s Continuum of Care is one of only four independent homeless service networks in the county besides Pasadena, Santa Monica and Long Beach. The Los Angeles Housing Services Authority assumes responsibility for the rest of the county.

As an independent system, Glendale must compete annually to not only retain existing federal funding, but to grab a bigger piece of the pie for new homeless programs.

But even if funding for the new Rapid Re-Housing project is approved, the matching requirements may prove too rich for some local nonprofits already struggling in a weak economy.