SALISBURY — Nearly $6 million in Veterans Administration homeless prevention grants to agencies serving 54 counties in North Carolina will serve approximately 2,400 homeless and at-risk veteran families as part of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program.
The awards signify another Department of Veterans Affairs step toward Secretary Eric Shinseki’s goal of ending veteran homelessness by the end of 2015, a news release said.
The VA awards the grants to private nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income veteran families living in — or transitioning to — permanent housing.
The money will be distributed to community-based groups that can offer temporary financial assistance on behalf of veterans for rent payments, utility payments, security deposits and moving costs.
This is the program’s third year. Last year, VA provided about $100 million to assist approximately 50,000 veterans and family members nationwide.
“The work of Supportive Services for Veteran Families program grantees has already helped us prevent and end homelessness among tens of thousands of homeless veterans and their families, but as long as a single veteran lives on our streets, we have work to do,” Shinseki said in the news release.
Part of a national package of $300 million, approximately $820,000 is earmarked to serve households in Forsyth County; $289,000 in Wake; $737,000 for 26 counties in western North Carolina; $2 million for Onslow, Duplin and Cumberland counties; $1,14 million in Cabarrus, Catawba, Davidson, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties; and $1 million for Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnson, Lee, Person, Orange, Randolph, Rockingham and Wake counties.
Through the Homeless Veterans Initiative, the VA committed over $1 billion in fiscal year 2013 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among veterans, the news release said.
More information about VA’s homeless programs is available at www.va.gov/homeless. Veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and their family members and friends can call VA’s National Homeless Veterans Call Center at 1-877-4AID-VET.