Published: October 13, 2009 11:31 pm      

$355G grant boosts Somerset County’s help for homeless

SOMERSET — The Somerset County commissioners on Tuesday accepted a grant that will boost efforts to assist those facing homelessness and endorsed an application for another to improve water service in the Village of Rockingham.

A $355,000 grant is coming to the county treasury to help prevent homelessness. The money, part of federal stimulus funding, is slated for the Somerset County Community Action Partnership.

CAP Executive Director Jeff Masterson said the money will increase by 35 percent the budget to assist those facing homelessness.

At a minimum, 100 to 120 families will be reached through the two-year life of the new grant as CAP struggles to keep a roof over their heads.

“We’re getting hit pretty hard with the economy,” Masterson said Tuesday. “Our ability to do the work we need to do is hampered for lack of funds.”

The money is geared to the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program.

The commissioners also endorsed a bid by the Redevelopment Authority of Somerset County to secure $500,000 in competitive Community Development Block Grant money for water system improvements in Rockingham.

The Shade Township village is using a temporary water storage tank for which the permit has expired, said Steven Spochart, executive director of the redevelopment authority.

If approved, the grant would enable the Central City Water Authority to install water pipelines from one of its tanks along Route 160 to Rockingham. About seven homes along that stretch that now rely on individual springs would hook up to the system along with village residents.

Windber’s water authority now supplies the village but the pipelines are long and deteriorated, Spochart said.

The work is estimated to cost $600,000 to $675,000, “a funding gap we would have to cure,” he said.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development will review the application.

How long the review will take is unknown.