Explanation
BACKGROUND:
Under Title XII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is allocating $1.5 billion for communities to provide financial assistance and services to either prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless or help those who are experiencing homelessness to be quickly re-housed and stabilized. This federal funding creates the grant referred to as the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP).
As a result of HUD using their Emergency Shelter Grant formula, the city of Columbus was awarded $2,642,649 of HPRP funds from HUD. This funding requires that the City of Columbus submit to HUD an HPRP application and make a substantial amendment to the city's Consolidated Plan 2008 Action Plan.
The City of Columbus and Franklin County are collaborating to fund HPRP initiatives that benefit both the city and county. We have agreed to combine our allocations and work through the Rebuilding Lives Funder Collaborative (RLFC) and Community Shelter Board (CSB). RLFC and CSB have established collaborative teams to design effective services and systems to implement HPRP in our community. CSB will then make awards to subgrantees, selected through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process called CSB Gateway, with funds to provide homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing services.
The HPRP City of Columbus grant application to HUD can be seen on the city's website. On April 29, 2009, a 12 day public notice was placed on this website, and in the Columbus Dispatch. Citizens, public agencies and other interested parties may make public comments to the city on the HPRP grant application through May 11, 2009. In addition, the application will be presented at the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee hearing on May 6, 2009 where public testimony will be accepted.
HUD requires that the city submit an application no later than May 18, 200...
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