The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will award 150 rental assistance vouchers to two Vermont housing authorities to help reunite children in foster care with their parents.
Burlington Housing Authority will receive 50 vouchers. Vermont State Housing Authority will receive 100. Total dollar amount of the vouchers is more than $940,000.
HUD will award a total of 37 housing authorities across the U.S. nearly $20 million in funding to assist 7,500 children and their parents.
The funding comes through HUD's Family Unification Program (FUP), which provides Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8 ) rental assistance to families whose lack of adequate housing is a primary cause of parents being separated or near separation from their children.
In addition, approximately 20 percent of these vouchers will help provide stable housing for 1,500 young adults aged 18-22 who have "aged-out" of the foster care system.
These vouchers, like regular Housing Choice Vouchers, allow a family to rent housing from a private landlord and generally pay 30 percent of the family's monthly adjusted gross income towards rent and utilities.