Federal funds trickle down to help families in crisis

BRADENTON:  It’s all in the name: the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness.

Richard Martin directs the agency and points out its ambitious goal to end homelessness one family at a time. With the arrival of $600,000.000 in federal grant money, the agency is one step closer to its goal.

”The community does help people back into a productive and sustained life, and we are getting better at doing so with all the agencies working together,“ he said.

The need for a living wage, job creation and accessible health care is the real community challenge, and Martin hopes to be past the current crisis and have a better safety net in two years.

”At the end of this, if we’ve really helped people, we come out a better community,“ he said.

Sitting in a corridor at New College, Martin's mind is working overtime at this point as his organization continues its search to name the agencies that will receive financial assistance to help families on the edge of homelessness, and those who have fallen into homelessness.

The Bill Galvano One-Stop Center and the Salvation Army are the top agencies receiving funds from the federal stimulus money. In Manatee County, four to six agencies will have access to the funding, and agreements are in the works but not yet finalized.

These dollars are part of $1.5 billion in stimulus funds that were dispersed through the Department of Housing and Urban Development across the country and trickled down to the community level.

”We know that in last year in 2008, the main agencies provided some services to over 30,000 people that were either homeless or at risk of homelessness,“ Martin said.

Of those, 8,000 were identified as homeless in Manatee County. But those figures have spiked.

”The one thing about homelessness (is that) it’s an invisible population in so many ways,“ he said. ”A lot of new homeless people don’t want to be seen as being homeless so you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at them. They still have their work clothes on.“

For every five calls, the organization has resources for one. Martin says the general formula is that for every 100 calls for housing, rent and utilities assistance, only 20 can be helped.

There is a big difference between families on the edge of homelessness and those who are homeless, and it all comes down to how much it costs to help.

”If people are in their homes, we can prevent homelessness at a much less cost,“ Martin said. ”For lack of $500, people are losing their homes, and if we can provide that it’s good.“

He sees each day how hard people at risk for homelessness are working to patch their lives together, and he also knows how desperate it is.

Martin’s No. 1 recommendation to those families is to communicate with their landlord early on when it becomes apparent that a renegotiation of the rent is necessary. He says often tenants wait until it’s too late, and the landlord and tenant go down together.

For those who are currently homeless, Martin says emergency services are in short supply and there are not a lot of resources.

”Basically, anyone who is currently homeless has the ability to access services (and) certainly to access meals, and to be fed in this community is pretty easy to do,“ he said. ”As far as finding a home, a long-term stable home, that is difficult if you are homeless.“

Mainly because emergency shelters are in very short supply, which is why the partnership is trying to work out how to best to spend the money.

”As much as $600,000.00 sounds, it’s not that much considering the need out there,“ Martin said, as the tone of his voice drops. ”We haven’t had any resources and when we have some we want it to be everything and it’s not.“