As the economy continues its slide, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says it will oversee a huge increase in spending on programs for homeless assistance and prevention.

Central Ohio already is a winner.

The Community Shelter Board was awarded nearly $9.3 million this week when HUD announced the recipients of $1.6 billion in local grants to help the homeless.

Included in that national total is $24 million for pilot programs in 23 communities to "rapidly rehouse" homeless families that include children, federal officials said. Of the 23 grants, four are slated for Ohio.

"Things are very daunting right now, but this is the right thing to do," said Barbara Poppe, executive director of the Community Shelter Board.

The board chose the Salvation Army in Greater Columbus to administer its pilot project, worth $845,000. The Salvation Army also received $2 million for pilots of rapid rehousing efforts in other counties and rural areas.

Dayton and Cincinnati housing efforts won the rest of the pilot money going to Ohio.

HUD says it hopes the local pilots become the basis for an expanded federal effort that next will pump $1.5 billion in stimulus money to programs aimed at preventing people from becoming homeless. That figure is 10 times the federal government's previous investment in prevention.

Poppe said community groups don't yet know how that pot of money will be spent. "We're waiting to see," she said. "The hope is that it is targeted to very low-income families."

The local pilot project will allow for intensive case management. Clients will receive help with education and employment training, as well as rent subsidies for six months instead of the more typical 30 days.

Homeless advocates say a month is hardly time enough to turn around a family's life. But keeping them in an emergency shelter "until they have everything about their lives fixed" isn't realistic either, said Alice Hohl, spokeswoman for the local Salvation Army.

"That was the old model," she said. "The new model is short-term shelter and then moving them to their own place."

Iysha Mumford and Travis Foster know what a difference half a year can make. They fled the economic ravages of Detroit last summer in hopes of finding an apartment and jobs in Columbus.

Unable to find a landlord willing to rent to an unemployed couple, they soon were sleeping in their van with their toddler daughter. Foster got up one Sunday morning and went to church.

"A woman gave me a hug, and then she kind of looked at me," said Foster, 29. "Maybe I wasn't as fresh as I could have been. She ran and got the pastor."

Church members ushered them to the YWCA Family Shelter. From there, the family began meeting with a Salvation Army caseworker who helped them find an apartment and paid the first month's rent.

Foster now is in a job-training program and Mumford, 24, has a call-center job. Their North Side home is cozy, and their daughter, Karma Matthews, 2, is thriving.

"I'm grateful," Mumford said.

The Community Shelter Board will allocate the remaining money to 31 projects in Columbus and Franklin County that help the homeless. Of the 7,500 people who received emergency shelter last year in the county, 1,500 were children.

rprice@dispatch.com

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