Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced a joint project between their two agencies to make $40 million available to local housing agencies to assist 5,300 non-elderly families with disabilities. A non-elderly disabled family is a family in which the head, the spouse, or the sole member of the family is under 62 and has a disability.

The effort is a part of President Obama’s Year of Community Living initiative. HUD is offering approximately $40 million to public housing authorities across the country to fund approximately 5,300 Housing Choice Vouchers for non-elderly persons with disabilities, allowing them to live independently. HHS will use its network of state Medicaid agencies and local human service organizations to link eligible individuals and their families to local housing agencies who will administer voucher distribution.

Of the 5,300 vouchers set aside as part of this program, up to 1,000 will be specifically targeted for non-elderly individuals with disabilities currently living in institutions but who could move into the community with assistance. The remaining 4,300 can be used for this purpose also, but are targeted for use by non-elderly individuals with disabilities and their families in the community to allow them to access affordable housing that adequately meets their needs.

In addition, HUD is encouraging housing authorities to establish a selection preference to make some, or all, of the 4,300 available to individuals with disabilities and their families who, without housing assistance, are at risk of institutionalization. Housing authorities have 90 days to submit their applications to HUD, and the agency expects to have funding awards ready in late fall 2010.

Public housing authorities can apply for vouchers from both categories; the maximum number of vouchers for a housing authority relates to the number of baseline units it already has, so that larger housing authorities can apply for more vouchers than smaller authorities.

To read the full funding announcement, visit http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/program_ offices/administration/grants/fundsavail.