BEAVER After two years of no local options, homeless men in Beaver County will soon have a place to lay their heads at night.
The Cornerstone of Beaver County, a nonprofit based in Beaver Falls, received more than $1 million in funding to help buy a building off of Drug and Alcohol Services of Beaver Valley and convert it into a 24-hour men s emergency shelter. We’re truly honored to work with the county on this milestone development that will ensure that men in need of safe, emergency housing and supportive services can access it right here in their own community, said Marie Timpano, executive director of the organization. We’re also excited to work with our Beaver County Continuum of Care partners to empower shelter participants to secure and maintain stable, permanent housing, independence, and ultimately, a future of hope and possibilities.”
Jay Manning / PublicSource
Allegheny County officials realized last autumn that Pennsylvania’s CARES Rent Relief Program wasn’t helping many tenants and landlords here. So they made a decision apparently unique in the commonwealth: They largely ditched state rules, stopped spending state money, and opened the spigot on their own rent relief program.
Months before, in June, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald dedicated as much as $25 million in the county s federal CARES Act allocation to rent relief. The county used that money to double the state-set per-tenant maximum of $750 a month to $1,500, plus add as much as $200 in utility aid.
Initially, the county and its contractors, led by nonprofit ACTION-Housing, tried to pay some tenants using state funds, dished out through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency [PHFA], and others with the county CARES pot.