The cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson received a $150,000 grant this month from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help stave off homelessness. The grant monies can assist those on the verge of homelessness, as well as those who are living in conditions not meant for human habitation.
Jamie Ludwig is a social worker with Cape Girardeau’s Community Caring Council. She says the Emergency Solutions Grant has been a long time coming.
“The whole goal of this program is to get individuals into a place that they can maintain and afford on their own,” Ludwig said. “They’re gonna be working with me once they’re housed through our case management services to increase their income to ultimately lead to increasing their stability, and housing situation in general.”
Ludwig says that it was implemented the first of this month, and ten people have already applied.
“We have a lot of people that come into our office who had decent employment,and had been working for years, and they were unable to pay the rent once they lost that job,” Ludwig said.
Ludwig says it’s for situations like this that the grant has been put into effect. Ludwig expects to see more people coming in for their help before the grant period ends next year. This program will last a year, with options for renewal in 2014.
