Feds cut funds for housing 7.8%

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has notified local officials that private and public agencies can apply for a total annual grant of up to $4.7 million, said Shawna Parker Brody, analyst at Clark County Community Resources Management. Last year's amount was $5.1 million.

Parker Brody, who has advised on the annual application for five years, said it was "disappointing" to receive news of the drop in this year's funding. At the same time, she noted that the region wound up getting $5.9 million with last year's application, after the federal government took into account that the rental housing market had gotten more expensive.

Daniele Dreitzer, executive director of Henderson Allied Community Advocates, a nonprofit organization, said the news was evidence of "an equation that's not going to work."

"As a growing community, anything less than a growth in funding is a cut," she said.

The annual federal grant, known as the continuum of care, has had a rocky history in Southern Nevada circles in recent years, as a series of mistakes in the 2003 application led to only $1.6 million being awarded. Parker Brody appealed that decision, and lost that appeal, then redoubled public and private efforts to improve last year's application.

Dreitzer's organization benefited directly from the success of that application, becoming the first project in Henderson to receive the federal funds -- $471,554 for a three-year project that will provide vouchers for affordable housing to women who have been victims of domestic violence and their children, as well as homeless families.

The project, which will begin in July and is scheduled to help at least 40 people a year, was one of three new projects funded last year and a sign of how homelessness had spread throughout the valley, observers said at the time.

Commenting on this year's funding announcement, Dreitzer noted how the $400,000 shortfall could be enough to help 120 people off the streets.

HUD spokesman Larry Bush said that the funding was reduced this year because it was determined that more communities nationwide were eligible, meaning the pie had to be sliced more thinly.

Dreitzer had a different take, however.

"It's an indication of what's happening with this administration," she said. "They do not want to invest in low-income, people of need."