City extends partnership with United Way to address homelessness

By Chris Fortune

The City of St. Joseph took additional steps to address homelessness at Monday’s city council meeting.

City council members approved the allocation of close to $25,000 in grant funding to the United Way of Greater St. Joseph to continue a partnership in which the agency serves as a coordinator for local homeless providers.

The funding comes from the Continuum of Care Program, which was designed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist individuals and families experiencing homelessness by providing services to help them transition to permanent housing.

Representatives from the St. Joseph Police Department, the health department, and agencies such as Community Missions and InterServ collaborate on the effort with the United Way.

“It is a body that is made up of multiple organizations and entities who are trying to prevent homelessness, respond to homelessness or make someone’s experience with homelessness as short as possible,” United Way President Kylee Strough said.

Strough said the work is an extension of the organization’s effort to bring partners together.

“We’re a member of this community, and we care what happens,” she said. “We aren’t just doing this work because there’s a contract attached to it. It just takes the work we already do, and gives us a little bit more responsibility, and helps the city accomplish what they need to.”

The city also contracts with a third party called Homebase for the grant. The national company works with cities that receive federal funds.

“Their task is to provide planning assistance, working with the numbers that are required to submit to the federal government as part of the grant, but also to assist cities in formulating methods of how to reduce homelessness,” said Clint Thompson, St. Joseph planning and community development director.

United Way has been contracted to help address homelessness in the city for the past two years.

“United Way has a great connection in the community and works with several other agencies that also are working to eliminate and improve on the conditions for those who are experiencing homelessness,” Thompson said.

St. Joseph receives over $55,000 annually from the Continuum of Care program, but the city is anticipating an increase in funds next year. Thompson said the St. Joseph Police Department is looking at different ideas to address homelessness.

Additional funding would allow the city to follow through on new ideas and the United Way’s blueprint.

“That blueprint is a roadmap that all the communities that are working together to achieve the same goal, to address homelessness, are on the same page,” he said. “And so, it’s a combined effort to ensure that the funds that the city are allocating for this specific purpose have a distinct goal in mind.”