Lynn’s Serving People in Need to receive $60G from United Way

LYNN-Lynn’s Serving People in Need will receive $60,000 to support its efforts to promote financial and economic stability and self-sufficiency for homeless clients.The money is part of a $661,000 United Way commitment to aid SPIN and 12 other organizations in Eastern Massachusetts that serve more than 1,000 homeless families living in hotels and motels because they cannot find permanent housing or shelter beds.These new funds will fuel the third year of United Way’s strategy to fight homelessness in the region through a Housing First approach, which stabilizes families in permanent housing as a first step to recovery from chronic homelessness.”Two years ago, we set out to advance Housing First because we believed it would move us from a system of managing the problem to a true solution for individuals and families experiencing the pain of homelessness,” said Michael K. Durkin, president and CEO of United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley. “Now, entering our third year of funding we are beginning to see signs of significant progress from the agencies funded to tackle this issue.”The United Way funding is allowing SPIN to continue its efforts to increase the supply and availability of affordable, permanent, and transitional housing in its service area. SPIN is also working to increase the level and types of services that, including the recent launch of the United Way Financial Stability Center at 270 Union St., powered by SPIN on Sept. 22.United Way announced its efforts to help SPIN and other organizations during its Real Estate and Building Industry Breakfast attended by nearly 1,000 industry leaders last Friday, including developers, brokers, construction managers, architects, engineers, interior designers, attorneys, consultants, bankers and insurance executives, who have for the past two years aligned with United Way to counter homelessness.In 2007, the Real Estate and Building community set a goal, as an industry to raise $1 million by 2011 to target family homelessness. Since that time, the effort has grown significantly, putting the industry on track to beat their initial goal and reach $1 million before the set deadline.By the end of the three-year funding commitment, United Way will have invested around $2.5 million toward the goal of ending homelessness in the Commonwealth. In addition to its investments in Housing First, United Way helped more than 11,200 people get or keep homes last year through its network of partner agencies. The Real Estate and Building Industry raised nearly $3.2 million in 2008 to fuel these efforts, enabling thousands of families to either gain or remain in permanent housing.The Donahue Institute recently studied United Way’s progress in its Housing First effort, and found that outcomes data gathered about families served fully demonstrated the funded organizations’ effectiveness at moving families experiencing homelessness into permanent housing, as well as assisting families in maintaining their housing through crisis situations.The report found that “75 percent of families for whom outcomes data are available were in permanent housing at the conclusion of Year 2 funding.”