(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced the City of Spokane will receive $4,730,046 in grant money from housing programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Spokane will receive $3,271,898 from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, $1,181,603 from HUD’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), and $276,545 from the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program. The funding will help improve housing opportunities, build new affordable housing units, and assist with homelessness prevention in Spokane.
The CDBG program helps support home ownership, housing rehabilitation, public improvements, and economic development projects in communities throughout the country. Since 1974, the program has invested more than $153 billion in communities nationwide, and it has helped leverage $4.09 in non-CDBG funding for every $1.00 of funding given out.
The HOME program is the federal government’s only block grant program to help state and local governments create more affordable housing units for low-income families. The program has created more than 1.3 million units since 1992 and provided direct rental assistance to more than 356,000 low-income families nationwide. It serves urban, suburban, and rural communities, providing resources for seniors, persons with disabilities, homeless families and individuals, and military veterans.
The Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program provides funding to engage homeless individuals and families living on the street; improve the number, quality, and operations of emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families; provide essential services to shelter residents; rapidly re-house homeless individuals and families; and prevent families and individuals from becoming homeless.
As a senior member of the Senate subcommittee responsible for housing appropriations, Senator Murray has been instrumental in continuing the CDBG and HOME programs, fighting not only to save the HOME program from near elimination, but successfully working to increase its funding in a 2015 spending bill and protect that funding from attacks from the Trump administration in spending bills over the past two years. Senator Cantwell has long been a supporter of HUD’s housing grant programs, including CDBG and HOME. She has also prioritized investment in affordable housing, helping to secure nearly $3 billion in additional affordable housing funding in March 2018 and introducing legislation earlier this year to increase investment in affordable housing and provide more resources and stronger protections for at-risk groups.
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