Money for roofs over heads of homeless

The Mirror

Several King County agencies, including one in Federal Way, have received part of an $18 million federal McKinney Homeless Assistance grant to continue their efforts to fight homelessness at least another year.

The grant will help the county and several non-profit agencies leverage another $43.9 million from other sources, officials said.

The McKinney grant, which provides funding for 63 local agencies and programs, includes a one-year allocation of $26,725 for Multi-Service Center’s Homeless Family Transitional Housing program’s six units of housing.

In addition, County Executive Ron Sims last week announced $10.4 million in low-income housing grants –– federal, state and local –– to several agencies that are creating, preserving or rehabilitating housing units countywide. The Federal Way-based Multi-Service Center received $650,000 to continue its work to provide housing for homeless families. The combined new funding for MSC is $676,725.

Other funding is earmarked for programs in Seattle, Renton, Duvall, Redmond and Bellevue.

Sims said the projects are a “first step” in meeting the countywide Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

“I have tremendous confidence in our ability to find the solutions that will help homeless individuals and families get back on their feet,” Sims said. “Working together, we will end homelessness in King County while continuing to meet the challenges of helping all our vulnerable populations.”

The funding announced by the county is for creating, preserving or rehabilitating 473 affordable housing units countywide. Of those, 381 will be new, including 192 for people who are chronically homeless or at serious risk of being homeless. Rental units for very low-income households, workforce housing and home ownership opportunities for first-time buyers will also be created, according to county officials.

Officials said 83 percent of the housing units will serve households with incomes at or below half of the King County median income. A three-person household at 50 percent of median income earns $35,050 annually; a single-person household at 50 percent of median earns $27,250.

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