Affordable housing, sustainable communities and homeless initiatives are all included.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $3.2 million in grants to the city of Berkeley for housing and homeless programs, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, announced Tuesday.
Berkeley will receive a $2.4 million Community Development Block Grant to develop sustainable urban communities and a $223,000 Emergency Solution Grant to help support homeless individuals and families on the street.
The city will also receive a $584,000 grant from HUD’s Home Investment Partnerships Program to expand affordable housing opportunities to low-income and very low-income communities.
“I’m pleased that Berkeley will receive this critical federal funding to improve and increase access to housing for those most vulnerable in our communities,” Lee said in a statement.
“Affordable housing is a human right,” she said.
“Federal investments such as these are critical to addressing our housing crisis, as many longtime residents in the East Bay, and throughout the Bay Area, are being forced out of the communities they’ve called home,”
Lee said.