The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved about $7 million in federal funds for local housing programs, including money to run homeless shelters at two military armories next winter.
The voice vote by the five-member board was unanimous and there was no discussion.
The winter armories, which fed and sheltered about 1,200 homeless adults this year, had to close early because of the federal budget stalemate, leaving the homeless with nowhere to stay. Washington lawmakers, locked in partisan bickering, didn’t approve a 2010-2011 budget until April.
Federal funding for the shelters at the Fullerton and Santa Ana armories next winter will be $419,046. The armory program is run by Mercy House under a contract with the county.
Most of the rest of the $6,959,746 will go to cities for use in rehabilitating homes and making public improvements. But the county will use about $1.6 million for affordable housing.
No specific affordable housing projects are included in the allocations approved Tuesday. But when the new county fiscal year begins in July, announcements will be made of money that is available and applications taken for specific projects.
Orange County has no year-round emergency homeless shelters, but it is working on its part of a national plan to end homelessness by 2020.
A number of nonprofits provide temporary shelters to homeless women and children who meet certain criteria, such as enrolling in drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs.