Federal funds will be used for new homeless project

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

The Las Vegas Valley became one of the few urban areas in the nation to get federal funding for start-up projects to help the homeless, part of nearly $6 million announced Thursday, a county official said.

The annual Housing and Urban Development Department funding went to ongoing projects in most other places, according to Shawna Parker Brody, analyst at Clark County Community Resources Management.

Parker Brody has been an adviser on the application for five years and made an unsuccessful appeal about the 2004 funding when only $1.6 million was awarded.

She worked with nonprofit organizations this time around to make sure certain requirements were met in advance of the application, including starting up a shared computer system among organizations that work with the homeless and carrying out a census of the homeless.

"We're thrilled," Parker Brody said about this year's results.

The new projects that will be covered by some of the money include three programs that will create housing for more than 200 people.

Those projects include affordable housing for the chronically homeless, short-term housing for veterans and a short-term housing project in Henderson.

This year's funding also marks the first time a program from Henderson applied, a sign of how the homeless population has spread out in recent years, Parker Brody said.

There is also continued funding for a rental assistance program run by Clark County.