Federal funding granted to help address homelessness in Chatham Co.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Federal dollars are going to help people experiencing homelessness in Chatham County.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved all grants submitted by the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless – totaling around $3.5 million in funding for this year.

This most recent funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will allow programs for those experiencing homelessness to continue in Chatham County.

According to executive director of the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless, Jennifer Dulong, the $3.5 million is a renewal that will go toward the expenses of eight different programs in the area. That includes projects like City 54 which is permanent supportive housing for people with special needs, the Economic Opportunity Authority’s Tom D. Austin House, which offers family housing, and Union Mission, which offers various housing options, among others.

Dulong says funding for these projects is critical.

“Sustainability is relevant, we absolutely cannot afford as a community to lose any funding for any of these projects. We need every single bed space available; we need every single permanent supportive housing unit available to help our citizens who are experiencing homelessness. When communities lose some of that money, there’s a chance that they could lose some of that access to that housing and those bed spaces,” Dulong said.

The most recent data from the Authority – from January of 2023 – shows 712 people experiencing homelessness in Chatham County. Dulong says this funding will help continue to meet the needs of the community and they’re seeing progress.

“Just since January, 51 heads of household have been housed in permanent supportive housing projects and/or have been able to self-resolve into a unit that was advocated by one of our local partners, and that matters,” Dulong said.

Dulong said while these grants are extremely important to these organizations, they only partially cover the entire operating budget or programs for those experiencing homelessness in Chatham County, which makes community partnerships all the more important.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.