VAN BUREN -- Crawford County's largest city has launched a partnership with a federal initiative to address homelessness in the area.
Mayor Joe Hurst announced the city's participation in the House America initiative through an official proclamation at a meeting of the Crawford County 100 Families Alliance on Friday. He expressed hope those present could make a positive impact battling homelessness, which he called a "crisis."
"When I say 'we,' I don't mean the city, I don't mean the federal government, I don't mean the state, I don't mean any one individual or group," Hurst said. "It has to be all of us. Van Buren and Crawford County, we have a great history of solving problems, and when we work together, we can see some amazing things happen."
Hurst proclaimed the city will work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which launched the initiative, to use resources on the federal, state and local levels, such as the American Rescue Plan, to make progress toward ending homelessness in the community. This includes setting and achieving goals toward this end.
Hurst said more than 580,000 people in America were experiencing homelessness on a given night when the covid-19 pandemic first hit in 2020, something that exacerbated the homelessness issue. The American Rescue Plan, which came afterward, provides communities with new resources to address this, including 70,000 emergency housing vouchers, $5 billion in grants through the Home Investment Partnerships Program and $350 billion in state and local fiscal recovery money through the Department of the Treasury.
Wanda Merritt, director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's field office in Little Rock, described House America as an "all-hands-on-deck initiative" to address homelessness and those at risk of being homeless. It provides technical assistance and networking to deal with this issue using American Rescue Plan funds.
Merritt said Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has a goal of getting 100 communities to sign up for House America. The purpose is to ensure the communities have the department's support and to help them be more intentional about looking at the needs and using both local resources and technical assistance from the department to reduce homelessness.
"On a regular basis, typically once a month, our HUD headquarters, they host calls where all of the communities all across the country come together and learn what other communities are doing, and you'd be surprised to what other communities can learn from each other," Merritt said.
These communities eventually set goals regarding such things as finding homes for people or building residential units, according to Merritt. House America began in the first quarter of this year and will run through Dec. 31.
Karen Phillips, director of 100 Families Initiative for the Little Rock-based Restore Hope Arkansas, said Van Buren is the only city in Arkansas that has signed on to be part of the House America initiative. Restore Hope helps run 100 Families alliances with the United Way of Fort Smith Area and members of the local community.
The 100 Families Initiative uses community resources to help move families from an environment of crisis to one in which they're thriving, according to the Restore Hope website. The areas the initiative seeks to address with families include housing, transportation, employment, education, addiction and recovery and food stability.
Tara Watkins, Crawford County coordinator for 100 Families, said in the last year her initiative has encountered 59 families who were homeless in the county. This is in addition to 72 other families who were at imminent risk of being homeless, meaning they were being evicted, living in unsafe housing or living in an unstable situation with family members.
Friday's meeting also featured a panel discussion concerning local housing issues.
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Gov. Asa Hutchinson created Restore Hope Arkansas in 2015 to bridge a gap between government services and communities struggling to reduce the incarceration rate, facilitate a successful re-entry from incarceration to freedom and reduce how many children are entering Arkansas’ foster care system.
Source: Restore Hope Arkansas website