Monies come as part of federal plan to end family homelessness by 2020
Following last week’s National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness held here in San Diego, Father Joe’s Village announced it received a $663 thousand grant, renewable yearly, to address child, youth and family homelessness. The funds, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), are a part of the federal government strategy to end homelessness and utilize a housing first strategy—taking families directly from the streets or emergency shelters and placing them in their own housing. Father Joe’s anticipates aiding more than 180 men, women and children, or 52 families, each year with the funds.
“This funding will help us address a very pressing problem for our clients and our community,” said Deacon Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s Village. “The waitlist for families is most often our longest and ending homelessness for children is also about breaking the cycles of homelessness and poverty. We must do all that we can, not only for those who are homeless now, but to prevent it where we can for those in the future. The absolute best way to end homelessness is to stop it before it starts.”
The top priority of the Village Rapid Rehousing for Families program is placing participant families into housing and establishing the supports and services the families will need to remain housed. Through this program, families will be placed in their own apartment and provided a deposit, short-term rental assistance and supportive services designed to help them stabilize in the apartment and stay there.
This new housing program marks a significant increase in the availability of rapid re-housing in San Diego and a vital resource in community efforts to end homelessness.
For more information on this and other Village programs and services, visit www.neighbor.org.
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ABOUT FATHER JOE’S VILLAGE
As Southern California’s largest residential homeless services provider, Father Joe’s Village has been empowering people to achieve self-sufficiency for nearly 65 years. What started as a small chapel serving San Diego’s impoverished has grown into a cutting-edge provider of innovative housing programs and services. Father Joe’s prepares up to 3,000 meals and provides a continuum of care to more than 1,500 individuals every day—from infants and adolescents to adults and seniors. This includes over 200 children and over 200 military veterans. As an industry thought-leader, Father Joe’s offer innovative solutions to address the complex needs of the homeless, regardless of age, race, culture or beliefs. The organization’s primary goal is to transform lives and end the cycle of homelessness. To this end they provide housing, healthcare, food, clothing, education, job training and child development in an internationally modeled “one-stop-shop” approach. This mission is made possible only through the efforts of compassionate staff, dedicated volunteers, and generous public and private donors. For more information, please visit: https://www.neighbor.org.
