King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan last week announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has provided $40,191,419 in grant awards to help end homelessness and support local programs throughout King County.

Seattle and King County will direct $123,286 of that amount to Nexus Severson House in Auburn and$42,540 to YWCA Auburn Transitional Housing.

The award is part of nearly $2 billion in total grants HUD has awarded nationwide for Continuum of Care homeless assistance programs.

The grants ensure continued funding for 56 community-based projects that provide 2,603 units of housing: 1,911 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people, 351 units of transitional housing, 45 Safe Haven units that offer supportive housing for homeless adults with severe mental illness, and rapid rehousing dollars to support 270 households, and 26 units funded as joint transitional housing/rapid rehousing projects.

Also renewed are funding for Continuum of Care Planning, Coordinated Entry, a standardized assessment process for all homeless persons, designed to match the right level of housing and services for every person or family facing a housing crisis, and funding for the Homeless Management Information System, which collects data on services provided to homeless people in programs throughout King County.

Constantine and Durkan also announced nearly $2 million in new, bonus funding to support survivors of domestic violence and create new permanent supportive housing units.

One newly-funded domestic violence program will help approximately 50 households move through the trauma of violence to permanent housing by providing short and medium rental assistance to quickly stabilize survivor households. Grant funds will build a network of survivor services linked to substantial resources leveraged through three community-based partners.

The 43 new units of permanent supportive housing will create permanent housing and supports for chronically homeless, single adults who suffer from chemical dependency, mental illness and other disabling conditions.

Seattle and King County will also work with the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence to implement a second domestic violence project, which is also included in the nearly $2 million of new grants, that will help accelerate the pace in which domestic violence services are aligned with the Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry system and to coordinate and provide training/technical assistance to participating programs.

Seattle and King County jointly apply for the federal Continuum of Care grants each year. HUD provides the funding to the highest performing local programs that have been proven effective in meeting the needs of people experiencing homelessness in their communities.