M.E.R.C.Y. Communities has won a three-year
federal grant worth $240,000 to establish eight units of permanent
housing for Springfield’s homeless.
The funding comes from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which last week issued $1.4 billion
in grants to more than 4,000 homeless programs across the country.
That’s the largest allocation of
competitive grant money the federal agency has overseen, according
to HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan.
In Springfield and Sangamon County, five
social-service providers won a total of $689,689, a 19 percent increase from last year.
For most of the agencies, the funding
represents a large slice of their annual operating budgets.
M.E.R.C.Y. was the big winner by far,
receiving a pair of grants totaling $409,483.
The agency will use $167,293 to continue
running its two-year transitional shelter program for women and
children on East Cook Street.
The remaining $242,190 will go toward opening
a permanent housing facility geared toward homeless people with
disabilities.
M.E.R.C.Y. executive director Mary Stone says the agency plans to lease, rather than
purchase, a building for its new permanent housing program.
“We’re not property
managers,” says Stone, “we’re social workers
affecting change in people’s lives.”
Other recipients of last week’s federal
grant allocation are:
Abundant Faith, which runs a
transitional shelter for women and children on Taylor Avenue,
$48,825.
Fifth Street Renaissance, which
operates a transitional shelter for men and women, $24,150.
Helping Hands, which offers emergency
shelter to men and women on 11th Street, $115,332.
Youth Service Bureau, which provides
emergency and transitional shelter to teenagers on Normandy Road,
$91,899.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2005.
