Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) would receive $75 million from Baltimore’s $641 million allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and $15.4 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) HOME Investment Partnerships Program.
The $90.4 million in combined funding will allow the City to implement best practices from its COVID-19 emergency housing response as a model for its long-term response to homelessness.
“If we are truly going to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring, we need to make more dollars available for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity to access essential housing. Today we take a significant step in the realization of that goal,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of the challenges our communities face and exacerbated housing loss. This investment is about looking at access to housing as a fundamental human right and connecting residents experiencing homelessness to the services and resources they need to get back on their feet.”
According to the City’s press release:
The Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs is funding five project proposals that support the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services’ overall strategy to reduce homelessness. Those projects include:
- Non-congregate Emergency Housing for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: To cover the acquisition of two hotels including renovation and operating support for non-congregate emergency housing.
- Shelter Demobilization for COVID-19 Non-congregate Shelter Sites: Includes rental assistance and case management services for individuals who resided in hotels used as shelter decompression sites.
- Housing Navigation and Landlord Recruitment Support: To reduce the length of time that people experience homelessness. Funds will support housing navigation and landlord recruitment strategies to increase access to safe and affordable housing units.
- Housing Accelerator Fund: To increase the supply of permanent supportive housing units.
- Flexible Fund for Diversion and Rapid Resolution: Because of similarity in service interventions, the proposed Homelessness Diversion and Rapid Resolutions funds have been combined to create the Flexible Fund – short-term rental assistance that will prevent people from entering shelter or help them rapidly exit shelter.
