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Housing Grants for Single Mothers

Aparna Iyer
Housing grants for single mothers can help women tide over tough times and provide safe and decent accommodation for their family.
Single mothers have the formidable task of balancing their workload at home and meeting the demands of their job, since they have to care for their family all on their own. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program helps women and children, living below the Federal Poverty Level, get adequate nourishment.
The program ensures that pregnant and postpartum women and infants and children up to age of 5, can receive checks or food coupons to purchase foods rich in one or more nutrients, viz. protein, iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C.
In addition to WIC, the Temporary Assistance To Needy Families Grant (TANF) helps women take care of children in the comfort of their home and promotes work related opportunities to minimize the dependence of families on government benefits.
In addition to these programs, the Federal Government has also instituted housing grants for single mothers. They are disbursed to state governments and non-profits who use the funds to provide housing assistance to women.

Federal Housing Grants

Low-income Families

The Federal Govt. allows women, whose annual household income is less than 50% of the median income for the county or the metropolitan area where they are residing, to receive housing vouchers that are administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs).
Women can choose where they would reside and pay the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount of subsidy paid by the PHA in lieu of the voucher. Women may be allowed to buy the rental home provided the rental unit measures upto PHA standards. These vouchers are distributed by 2,400 local, state, and regional agencies.
Today, nearly 2 million low-income families have vouchers. These vouchers may also be used to pay the rent for a home that is currently occupied by the single mothers. It's believed that nearly 36 percent of the vouchers are being used by families with children, 7 percent by people with disabilities over the age of 62 and 23 percent by the elderly.
The government also administers federal aid to the PHAs so that they can maintain, plan, and develop public housing units. Today, there are 3300 PHAs that provide accommodation to nearly 1.2 million households. Women who are interested in publicly owned homes should contact the PHAs for further details.
Women can apply for privately owned subsidized housing by visiting the website of the HUD and searching for subsidized private homes. In case of subsidized apartments/homes, the landlords are the direct recipients of the Federal Grant that aims to subsidize housing for people from low income families and for those with disabilities.
In general, women whose household income is less than 80 percent of the income of the county where they are residing, are eligible to live in privately owned subsidized homes.

Women with Disabilities

Shelter Plus Care Program grants are used for providing Tenant-based Rental Assistance (TRA), Sponsor-based Rental Assistance (SRA), Project-based Rental Assistance with (PRAW), or without rehabilitation (PRA) and Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program for Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Dwellings.
These are meant for people with disabilities so that they can receive shelter and supportive services on a long-term basis. Although, housing grants can help women tide over difficult times, women should not rely solely on Federal Aid, rather, they should ensure that they become self-sufficient so that they can provide for their family all on their own.