MILWAUKEE – In an effort to help low-income residents become self-sufficient, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded nearly $240,000 today to S.E.T. Ministry, Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is part of a national endeavor issued to public housing authorities, public housing resident associations, Native American tribes, and non-profit organizations across the nation to hire or retain service coordinators to help them find jobs, educational opportunities, and achieve economic and housing independence.
The funding, provided through HUD’s Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency – Service Coordinators Program (ROSS-SC) helps grantees hire or retain “service coordinators” who work directly with residents to assess their needs and connect them with education, job training and placement programs, and/or computer and financial literacy services available in their community to promote self-sufficiency.
“It’s part of our mission to help connect public housing residents to better, higher paying jobs and appropriated, critical services as a means of helping them move beyond public assistance and toward self-sufficiency,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “This funding gives our local partners resources they can use to help residents become economically independent and achieve the dreams they have for themselves and their children.”
“This funding will facilitate educational and economic opportunities to help residents along in their trajectory towards self-sufficiency and success,” said HUD Midwest Regional Administrator, Joseph P. Galvan.
“Every person deserves the opportunity to build self-sufficiency,” said Mayor Tom Barrett. “This funding will provide public housing residents with new pathways to achieve their goals and gain independence.”
“SET Ministry and the Housing Authority share a long and innovative partnership to improve quality of life and increase independence among HACM residents,” said HACM Secretary-Executive Director Tony Pérez. “We are thankful to HUD for this opportunity to expand our work together and to positively impact even more lives. This grant continues to underscore that HUD sees their investments with us as an effective deployment of limited resources.”
The purpose of HUD’s ROSS-SC program is to encourage innovative and locally driven strategies that link public housing assistance with public and private resources to enable HUD-assisted families to increase earned income; reduce or eliminate their need for welfare assistance; and promote economic independence and housing self-sufficiency. These grants provide funding to hire and retain Service Coordinators who will assess the needs of residents of conventional Public Housing or Indian housing and coordinate available resources in the community to meet those needs. In addition, ROSS-SC grants help improve living conditions for seniors, enabling them to age-in-place.
