Housing Assistance Corporation - Cape Cod -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 4/29/2009
Last Visited: 7/24/2009
"We have turned away - and this is shameful - we have had to turn away 100 people in the last two months," Allison Rice, vice president of the Housing Assistance Corp. of Cape Cod, said yesterday.
The nonprofit and other homelessness-prevention groups are seeing an increased demand for such help as rent subsidies, emergency shelter, food and fuel.
In 2008, HAC distributed $952,000 to prevent homelessness on the Cape and Islands.
Through April this year, HAC has already spent $998,000 because of the poor economy, Rice said at a summit about homelessness at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans.
She was talking to about 33 advocates for the homeless who help run programs across the Cape.
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The voucher program is a cheaper way than shelters to fight homelessness, said Hayes and Rice, who are worried about the impact on renters, as well as landlords who count on the rent.
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"For a family to be in a shelter on the Cape costs $4,920 a month," Rice said.
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Unfortunately, the state program that helped Ellison now only provides rental subsidies for two months, not a full year, Rice said.