In Time of Giving, Bush Unveils Homeless Aid

The Bush administration announced more than $1 billion in grants Tuesday for projects that will aid hundreds of thousands of homeless families and individuals across the country. The largest amount, $165.4 million, is earmarked for California.

Advocacy groups for the homeless had expected the announcement, which was timed to coincide with the start of the holiday season.

“We must always remember there are people who hurt in our society,” President Bush told about 100 green-aproned workers at So Others Might Eat, a Washington soup kitchen where he and Mel Martinez, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, announced the grants.

Calling on Americans to support charities of all kinds, the president added: “I encourage America, as we head into Thanksgiving, to find a program that needs help.”

The $1.09 billion in grants--about $45 million more than last year--will be used to help homeless families and individuals find emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent homes, Martinez said. The funding will go to state and local governments and nonprofit organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

Projects for the homeless in Los Angeles County will receive, upon application, a total of $52.5 million, a HUD spokesman said. Orange County is set to receive $8.9 million and Ventura County $1.3 million.

Mitchell Netburn, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said his agency would receive $48 million for services in both the city and the county of Los Angeles. “This is a significant step towards ending homelessness,” he said.

Nearly $18 million will be used for new permanent housing projects for homeless people with disabilities or substance-abuse problems. Other funds will help to answer a variety of needs, including services and transitional housing for homeless families and programs for homeless veterans, Netburn said.

Steve Berg, a spokesman for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the grants were particularly needed in view of increased unemployment and a downturn in the economy, both of which were aggravated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Homelessness tends to be concentrated in the large cities,” Berg said in an interview. “And in the current economic climate, we’re going to have an especially bad winter, I’m afraid.”

More job losses will add to the problem “because the lowest-paid people are usually hit first,” he said.

New York state will receive $123 million, the second-largest total after California, officials said.

Martinez said $150 million would go to governments to create, improve and operate emergency shelters. The funds could also be used to provide job training, health care, child care, and drug and alcohol counseling, he said.

The ultimate goal, said Martinez, is to end chronic homelessness.

“It is estimated that 650,000 people are homeless on any given night in America,” he said.

A nationwide survey last month by Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofit groups, found that 26% of the people who donated to charities as a direct result of the terrorist attacks will stop or reduce their giving to other charities. Almost half of the survey respondents told Independent Sector that they will cut back on contributions in the next six months if the economic slowdown worsens.

The grants are traditionally announced during the holidays, though in recent years the announcement has come closer to Christmas. This year’s timing--just before Thanksgiving--is an indication of Bush’s concern that Americans’ generosity is declining because of the economy as well as the surge of support for organizations dealing with terrorism victims.

“I hope Americans will not substitute the gifts they’ve given in the aftermath of Sept. 11” for traditional charities, Bush said. “As we think about ways to recognize the true blessings we have in America . . . we must never forget the food banks and the hungry and the poor.”

Bush also pressed Congress to approve by Christmas his long-pending proposal to open government social-service grant programs to religious charities and make more charitable donations tax deductible for individuals who do not itemize deductions.