Published: November 01, 2009 11:25 pm      

Grants will allow for expanded mission

'wrap-around services' vital for Safe Harbor

Ashland — Safe Harbor officials say two recent federal grants will provide services to help area domestic violence victims achieve and maintain their independence.

Both grants were administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the City of Ashland for Safe Harbor. One will be used to subsidize housing and the other will fund counseling and other support services.

Lorraine Woolery, Ashland’s Section 8 administrator, said the city secured $94,900 in funds to subsidize rents in 34 permanent housing units at Harbor Hill for the next year.

“It does not pay the whole amount, but it does pay a portion of it and it can only be used for that one project-based building,” Woolery said.

The city began making subsidized payments on Sept. 1 to help offset the rent of women living in the housing.

She said the city previously signed a 15-year commitment to use a portion of its Section 8 program voucher funds to subsidize rent at Harbor Hill. Those funds helped offset the cost to the city this year.

The apartments at Harbor Hill opened during the summer at Ashland’s former tuberculosis hospital. In addition to housing, the complex includes classrooms and a laundry facility. A day care center is expected to open early next year.

Ann Perkins, executive director of Safe Harbor, said both grants are “huge for us. We really have had flat funding for nearly 10 years.”

The grants have allowed the agency to achieve its goals of expanding services while reaching more in need.

Perkins described the city’s commitment of 34 project-based housing vouchers as “the lynch-pin” to the entire Harbor Hill project.

The second grant, which Safe Harbor recently received in conjunction with Shelter of Hope, Salvation Army and CAReS, was from the Housing and Emergency Assistant Reaching the Homeless program. HEARTH funds are from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and are designed to help prevent homelessness and provide affordable long-term housing.

Ashland was awarded $436,000 in HEARTH funds. Safe Harbor received $127,530 to pay for the salaries and benefits for two case managers for Safe Harbor and Harbor Hill.

Perkins said one of the case managers has already been hired and the other position is in the process of being filled.

The jobs are vital to providing “wrap-around services” to women in the shelter, she said.

“This money is pulling kind of the whole package together, which is spelling more success for more people over the long run,” Perkins said.

“My case managers are all about helping women get into housing, clean up their credit, financial literacy and how to live by a budget — anything to do with housing and financial literacy,” she said.

“We teach them life skills.”

Without these additional services, she said, many women won’t achieve independence and may return to their abusers and/or sink back into addiction.

“For 25 years we would set people up in houses or apartments, and for women who don’t have support systems, it’s almost setting them up for failure,” Perkins said.

“You know how tenuous a situation it is, having just one major thing going wrong. If you don’t have a support system it’s hard for people to stay independently successful.”

In addition to housing and life skills, Safe Harbor helps women get full-time employment with a livable wage.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.