PEORIA, Ill. – Nonprofit group LULA Peoria is receiving additional funding to help the city’s homeless with a nearly $205,000 grant for Heart of Illinois United Way.
The grant will allow LULA to keep Peoria’s unhoused people in hotels where they’ve been living until the end of June.
Peoria’s City Council on Tuesday night accepted the grant for LULA and also sent $70,000 in public money to another organization that’s helping those who’ve been unhoused but also have disabilities.
Earlier this month, council gave LULA $39,000 to help pay for hotel rooms and supplies for the homeless.
Peoria Community Development Director Joe Dulin said the money gives leaders more time to come up with longer term solutions to the homeless problem.
The grant comes with some conditions, including that LULA can’t use the money to house any new individuals. Once someone checks out of the hotel, they can’t return and must use other programs assisting the unhoused.
The council’s vote to accept the grant money was unanimous, with Mayor Rita Ali thanking LULA and the United Way.
Since the city council approved an ordinance to ban camping on public property, LULA has provided shelter and food for 93 people.
The $70,000 city grant is being paid for Phoenix Community Development Services to house 84 former homeless people with disabilities at the New Hope Apartments downtown for the next several months.
Peoria is at least temporarily funding the program due to uncertainty about the flow of federal funding. The city will not be reimbursed if federal funds don’t arrive.
“It is very likely that if the funding does not come through or is not approved, the tenants at New Hope will receive notices to vacate and will likely end up unsheltered or in the existing emergency shelters,” city staff said in a report to the council.
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