News Department

HUD, VA award $364K to provide housing assistance for veterans experiencing homelessness in New Jersey

NEW JERSEY – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Friday awarded $25.4 million in HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers to 99 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) across the country.

This award will help homeless veterans and their families find and sustain permanent housing.

In New Jersey, HUD awarded $364,001 to two agencies: $201,543 to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and $162,458 to the Long Branch Housing Authority.

The HUD-VASH program provides housing and an array of supportive services to veterans experiencing homelessness by combining rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Thanks to the joint efforts of HUD, VA, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by 11% since early 2020 – the biggest decline in more than 5 years.

“We’ve made significant strides reducing the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness and these investments will build on that progress,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “The Biden-Harris Administration has made ending homelessness a top priority.  Today’s announcement puts us one step closer to ensuring every Veteran who serves our country has safe, stable housing.”

“Veterans who put themselves in danger to protect our freedoms should have a safe place to come home to,” said Alicka Ampry-Samuel, HUD Regional Administrator for New York and New Jersey. “While we see progress in eliminating homelessness in the Veteran population, as we march into 2023, we will continue to work hard to reach the goal of eradicating homelessness among our service members and every family that does not have an ideal place to live.”

Provided through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, this supportive housing assistance combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. This round of allocations will support 2308 HUD-VASH vouchers, and a breakdown of the awards by agency is available here.

“No Veteran should experience homelessness in this country they fought to defend,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “These HUD-VASH vouchers will help more than 2,300 Veterans find good homes and stay in those homes, where they belong – and there’s nothing more important than that.”

This calendar year, VA has provided more than 34,000 permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans — putting VA on track to meet, and even exceed, its goal of 38,000 permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans in 2022.

Since 2008, Congress has appropriated a total of $885 million for new HUD-VASH vouchers, and billions more to renew these vouchers every year. To date, nearly 107,000 HUD-VASH vouchers (106,989) have been awarded to Public Housing Authorities and VA Medical Center (PHA/VAMC) partnerships.  Approximately 700 PHAs nationwide administer HUD-VASH vouchers.

HUD-VASH vouchers awarded in New Jersey:

Recipient

City

Amount

State of New Jersey, Dept. of Community Affairs

Trenton

$201,543

Long Branch Housing Authority

Long Branch

$162,458

TOTAL

$364,001

Jay Edwards

Born and raised in Northwest NJ, Jay has a degree in Communications and has had a life-long interest in local radio and various styles of music. Jay has held numerous jobs over the years such as stunt car driver, bartender, voice-over artist, traffic reporter (award winning), NY Yankee maintenance crewmember and peanut farm worker. His hobbies include mountain climbing, snowmobiling, cooking, performing stand-up comedy and he is an avid squirrel watcher. Jay has been a guest on America’s Morning Headquarters,program on The Weather Channel, and was interviewed by Sam Champion.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button