Federal Grant Will Help with Homeless Services in Prince William County

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors recently accepted, budgeted and appropriated a $1.3-million COVID Homelessness Emergency Response Program (CHERP) grant, through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, to go to the Prince William County Department of Social Service, or DSS.

CHERP is a federal program designed to assist localities with rapid re-housing services and homeless shelter operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant comes as the DSS prepares to close down the temporary emergency shelter run from a hotel, as federal funding for that program ends.

• DSS will retain $500,000 from the grant to hire 10 temporary, grant-funded positions necessary to safely operate the 48-person emergency, temporary for persons experiencing homelessness shelter at the Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Building on the east end of the county.
• DSS will distribute $363,470 to Action in Community Through Service, or ACTS, and $368,470 to Northern Virginia Family Service, or NVFS, for the rapid re-housing services those organizations provide.
• The remaining $110,886 will augment a previous $175,042 administrative CHERP grant.

CHERP grants do not require a local match, and can be carried over into Fiscal Year 2022, which begins in July.