Grays Harbor County Receives RCDI Grant

The Rural Housing Service, an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently awarded Grays Harbor County with a $249,000 grant as part of funding made available under the Rural Community Development Initiative program.

This program was made available on May 23rd, 2016 to public bodies, non-profit organizations and federally recognized tribes in rural areas with a population of over 50,000 or urbanized areas that are both adjacent and contiguous to such a city or town. Applicants vie for a limited pool of funds through a competitive selection process and awards must be used improve housing, community facilities, and community and economic development projects.

As per the grant details, Grays Harbor County is required to match or exceed the federally awarded funding through partnerships with federal, state, local, private and non-profit entities. These matching funds have been sourced from the county's document recording fee reserve and in turn places the total award amount at $498,000.

The grant money could not have come at a better time considering Grays Harbor County recently approved a 10-year plan to end homelessness in accordance with the Homeless Housing and Assistance Act of 2005 as of last January. The Act requires that county governments work with the State in order to address the homelessness problem and that comprehensive local plans must be discussed, developed, and updated once every five years.