The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development presented a $2.3 million Jobs Plus grant to the Jacksonville Housing Authority on July 10.
The money will be used to train 300 residents who live in JHA properties throughout the city.
Richard Monocchio, principal deputy assistant secretary U.S. HUD, Washington D.C., presented the check at a ceremony at the Brentwood Community Center that included Mayor Donna Deegan, Vanessa Dunn, acting CEO of the Jacksonville Housing Authority; and Alesia Scott-Ford, field office director of Field Policy and Management U.S. HUD Jacksonville.
The JHA is one of 14 such agencies in the country to be awarded the grant. It is the second time in four years that it has received HUD job money.
Jobs Plus trains JHA residents to prepare them for better job opportunities and higher-wage positions. Training includes financial literacy education, job placement assistance and technological skills.
“This award allows us to continue our work of incentivizing and enabling our residents to gain important job skills that will help lift them out of public housing and into employment and home ownership,” Dunn said in a news release.
“I congratulate JHA for their work to receive this essential funding and ensure their residents can benefit from the dignity of work,” Deegan said in the release.
Affordable workforce housing is HUD’s primary focus, Monocchio said at the check presentation ceremony. It is a simple matter of supply and demand. The federal government’s plan is to build its way out of the nation’s tight housing and rental market, he said.
“It has taken about 50 or 60 years for us to get in this predicament. Unfortunately, we haven’t had as much construction as needed and wages haven’t kept pace with rents and mortgages.”
The federal budget calls for the construction of 2 million homes. It will provide tax credit incentives for contractors as well as down payment assistance for qualified home buyers. Rent assistance is also part of the plan, Monocchio said.
The JHA provides housing and training for low- and moderate-income families, seniors and adults with disabilities. It says that since 1994, more than 2,600 families have benefited from its services.