Grant Funds Available through USDVA

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Grant Funds Available through USDVA
Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program

Approximately $600 million in grant funding is now being offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA) to nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives that serve very low-income veterans families occupying permanent housing through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program.

The SSVF program is designed to assist very low-income veteran families who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. The program employs a housing first model, an approach which centers on providing homeless veterans with permanent housing quickly and then providing USDVA health care, benefits and services as needed.

USDVA is offering $300 million in FY 2014 funds and $300 million in FY 2015 funds, subject to available appropriations and will make award decisions based on a national competition.

In FY 2013, USDVA awarded approximately $300 million in SSVF grants for operations beginning in FY 2014. USDVA is focusing up to $300 million in surge funding on 76 high priority continuums of care in an unprecedented effort to end veterans’ homelessness in these communities. In FY 2013, funding from the SSVF program served over 39,000 Veterans and over 62,000 participants (i.e., veterans and their family members).

In November of 2013, USDVA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the results of the 2013 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, which was prepared by HUD. The report estimated nationally there were 57,849 homeless veterans on a single night in January in the United States. In California, that number is estimated to be 15,179 veterans.

For more information about this grant opportunity, including eligibility requirements, go to www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/0 ... es-program.