Housing Authorities Awarded Grants

The Department of Housing and Urban Redevelopment recently announced that the Tioga and Bradford County Housing Authorities were awarded a combined $440,306.00 in Resident Opportunity and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) Grants for 2017-2020.

“We are extremely thankful to be awarded these grants,” said Executive Director, Kelley Cevette. “For the past five years these ROSS Grants have allowed us to provide a variety of additional services for our residents.”

The purpose of the ROSS Service Coordinator program is to provide funding to hire and maintain Service Coordinators who assess the needs of residents and coordinate available resources in the community to meet those needs. Coordinators also provide services that enable participating families to increase earned income, reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance, make progress toward achieving economic independence and housing self-sufficiency, or, in the case of elderly or disabled residents, help improve living conditions and enable residents to age-in-place.

In 2011 the Tioga County Housing Authority was awarded the agency’s first three-year ROSS Grant. In 2014 another three-year grant was awarded to Tioga County, as well as an initial three-year grant for the Bradford County Housing Authority.

“We wanted our tenants in Bradford County to benefit from their own ROSS Program,” said Cevette. “The two programs mirror one another but providing each county with their own service coordinator allows us to offer a broader array of services and overall case management.”

In addition to assisting tenants obtain employment and educational opportunities, service coordinators have worked individually with numerous residents to address a variety of issues that could potentially affect their ability to maintain their tenancy. Service coordinators have also organized informational seminars, holiday activities, food pantry deliveries, health assessment and on-site mobile clinics.