photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Ulysses Clayborn, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Great Plains regional administrator, speaks during a check presentation in Lawrence on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

An influx of federal grant funding intended to address rural homelessness throughout the state was recognized Wednesday in Lawrence, but the city and Douglas County as a whole will stand to benefit more directly from a different resource besides money alone — housing vouchers.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the Kansas Balance of State, the largest state entity addressing rural homelessness, will receive a $2.6 million grant earlier this month. Not only that, but HUD is also issuing “stability vouchers” as part of the award for public housing authorities to provide rental assistance to folks who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence, stalking and human trafficking.

Here in Kansas, that will include the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, which stands to receive five of those vouchers. Manhattan’s and Pittsburg’s housing authorities will also get five vouchers. The combined award of cash and vouchers is a first for HUD, according to the agency’s Great Plains Regional Administrator, Ulysses Clayborn.

“This grant of vouchers and grants is a first-of-its-kind funding initiative,” Clayborn said Wednesday. “It’s something that we haven’t done before … We are looking to try and see how we can combine resources and move things in a different way.”

Clayborn and various representatives of agencies dedicated to housing stability in Lawrence and throughout the state gathered Wednesday for a ceremonial check presentation at the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, which is based here in Lawrence. It’s the lead agency for the Kansas Balance of State as part of its “Continuum of Care” for HUD — a statewide conglomerate of service providers, advocates, local government officials and citizens working to eliminate homelessness.

While the rural homelessness grant dollars could go just about anywhere in the state, the vouchers should have a more definitive local impact.

Gallal Obeid, the vice president of program operations for the housing authority, was one of the local stakeholders who was present at Wednesday’s check presentation. Obeid told the group that the housing authority has already been successful in using other vouchers granted by HUD, such as the 31 Emergency Housing Vouchers it was awarded thanks to funding through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Families who use such vouchers are often the hardest to find housing for, Obeid said, but the housing authority has found success thanks to its close working relationship with the Continuum of Care, which is a HUD program designed to promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness.

“It’s proven with the Emergency Housing Vouchers we recently put into effect, with 90% utilization currently and the last three vouchers are searching — we’re looking to be at 100% by June,” Obeid said. “We intend to be just as successful with the stability vouchers.”