Mayor Jerry Demings recently celebrated that Orange County exceeded his goal of housing homeless individuals. Orange County Government housed 486 individuals experiencing homelessness in partnership with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and HUD’s “House America” initiative.
HUD announced that over 100,000 families and individuals were housed through the ‘House America’ homelessness initiative overall.
Mayor Demings committed to House America in October 2021 and since then, Orange County efforts resulted in serving immediate needs of 486 households. An additional 805 affordable rental units, including 110 that are set aside for extremely low-income households, are in the development pipeline since receiving federal funding support and technical assistance from HUD.
Orange County is one of 105 communities across 31 states and territories and the District of Columbia that joined the initiative Secretary Fudge launched in partnership with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness as a comprehensive effort to address the nation’s homelessness crisis.
“Orange County is dedicated to ensuring that affordable units for low and extremely low-income households are available in our community,” said Mayor Demings. “Through the tireless work from our dedicated staff, HUD’s partnership, utilizing American Rescue Plan funds and tapping our local Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support these developments, we have exceeded our initial goal for last year and we’ll challenge and support staff to keep this pace in 2023.”
In total, the national effort also exceeded the goal Secretary Fudge set in September 2021. At that time, she challenged state and local leaders to collectively place at least 100,000 households experiencing homelessness into permanent housing and add at least 20,000 new units of affordable and supportive housing into their development pipelines by December 2022.
“Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to call home. Through House America, I’m proud to see that Orange County Government, led by Mayor Jerry Demings, has stepped up to get people off the streets and into homes,” said Secretary Fudge. “The Biden-Harris Administration is deploying a Housing First approach, using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and other resources to help individuals find a place to call home. We will continue to work to house America until we end homelessness as we know it.”
House America encourages communities to deploy a historic level of federal resources to address homelessness. In particular, House America’s 105 communities received a funding boost through ARPA to expand permanent housing opportunities – including more than 20,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers and over $1.5 billion HOME-ARP from HUD, as well as over $65 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. These resources sparked renewed momentum and greater deployment of available funds, including CARES Act and annual appropriations, to create permanent housing solutions.
RELATED: HUD: Over 100,000 Housed Through ‘House America’ Homeless Initiative
