Iowa Homeless Programs Share Millions in Funding

The federal government plans to spend nearly six-million dollars to help homeless people in Iowa. The U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development is releasing funds for next year’s budget, which includes 660-thousand dollars to a program for homeless youth in Davenport. Kate Ridge is executive director of the John Lewis Coffee Shop in Davenport, which is among a half-dozen Quad City agencies helping the homeless and that will share the federal HUD grant. Ridge says the three-year project aims to reach out to homeless youth between 14 and 21 years of age. Project LIFE in Sioux City is getting 581-thousand dollars, several Waterloo programs will share more than one-million dollars, the New Hope project in Marshalltown is getting 391-thousand dollars, while another one-and-a-half million is going to homeless projects in and around Des Moines. HUD says another one-point-six million will be shared by Davenport, Des Moines, Sioux City and the state for an Emergency Shelter Grant.