NORWICH – Desperate to keep support services for certain individuals receiving housing assistance, the Chenango Housing Council is going after state grant funds that the council says is critical for maintaining supportive housing programs in Chenango County.
Last week, the Chenango Housing Council agreed to submit an application for funding through the state Office of Temporary and Disability’s Assistance Supportive Housing Program, a program geared toward helping eligible individuals and families that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
The council’s ultimate goal is to continue case management for supportive housing services, explained Chenango Housing Council Chair Judy Wingate-Wade.
Wingate-Wade manages Chenango County’s Shelter Plus Care program, an initiative that provides eligible county residents with housing, along with additional services to help them maintain stable housing.
The Shelter Plus Care program receives vouchers through the state office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The problem, said Wingate-Wade, is that in order to receive those vouchers, the Shelter Plus Care Program must show that it can maintain services without HUD funding.
Enter the Chenango Housing Council’s application for funding through the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). If awarded, OTDA funds will show how the Shelter Plus Care Program can continue services outside of HUD funding. And because the application process for OTDA requires that applicants either manage, own, or operate the housing for which they’re asking for case management, the Shelter Plus Care Program was selected by the Chenango Housing Council to be the applying agency.
“Since many of the individuals who are eligible for these subsidized housing services are people with disabilities of all sorts, we need to give them support services to keep them stably housed,” Wingate-Wade said. “So far, we have been piecing together similar services with Catholic Charities using their grant money through the United Way and other resources, but we’re scraping for it right now; so this (state) money would be perfect.”
“In the past, the Housing Council has been talking about applying for funding for a temporary housing shelter. This is not the same,” said Gary Quarella, Director of Community Outreach for Catholic Charities of Chenango County.
Quarella represents Catholic Charities on the Chenango Housing Council. “This application for funding is to support case management services for people who are in subsidized housing to make sure that they don't fall out of subsidized housing,” he said. “It’s more for maintenance than intervention.”
Currently, Quarella oversees a similar program administered through Catholic Charities, but grant funds to keep that program running (which was awarded by the Chenango United Way) expires at the end of the year. Hopes are that new streams of funding through the OTDA will pick up by the start of 2016.