Urbana agency gets $109k grant to assist homeless

The women’s sleeping quarters at the Caring Kitchen in Urbana. BILL LACKEY/STAFF Judy Blair, right, and Nancy Denler, volunteers at the Caring Kitchen in Urbana, make up plates for lunch Thursday, June 29, 2017. BILL LACKEY/STAFF

The women’s sleeping quarters at the Caring Kitchen in Urbana. BILL LACKEY/STAFF Judy Blair, right, and Nancy Denler, volunteers at the Caring Kitchen in Urbana, make up plates for lunch Thursday, June 29, 2017. BILL LACKEY/STAFF

The Caring Kitchen Inc. in Champaign County will receive a $109,500 grant from the Ohio Development Services Agency to assist the county’s homeless population.

Information from the Ohio Development Services Agency showed 72 organizations across Ohio will receive to support homeless prevention, emergency shelters and permanent housing initiatives. The ODSA is distributing more than $25.8 million to support programs that help homeless Ohioans find permanent housing.

The Caring Kitchen, 300 Miami St. in Urbana, is a nonprofit that offers emergency shelter services, a food pantry, a soup kitchen, tutoring, clothing and more. The two-year grant was awarded for the agency’s Homeless Crisis Response program, according to the ODSA.

The goal of the HCRP is to prevent individuals and families from experiencing homelessness and, when homelessness does occur, to provide for emergency shelter operations and to rapidly move persons from emergency shelter into permanent housing, according to information from the ODSA.

Statewide, about 39,000 Ohioans will be assisted through the HCRP program, according to the ODSA.

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