Using the Christmas holiday as a backdrop, the White House on Saturday announced $900 million in grants to provide nearly 250,000 homeless people with housing and other services, and to provide emergency shelter to thousands of others.

The grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will go to more than 350 communities as well as all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the American territories. In addition, more than a thousand non-profit organizations like the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America will receive funding for their homeless assistance programs.

"We are reaching out to the poor, to those who do not yet share in America's growing prosperity," President Clinton said in his weekly radio address. "We are making new efforts to reach out to the homeless, to help them find medical care and jobs."

The money is part of the $1.02 billion in homeless assistance contained in the fiscal 1999 federal budget.

A total of $750 million is targeted to 1,834 long-term programs to help individuals and families end their homeless status, once and for all. The grants are competitive, and are awarded to local governments and non-profits based on a number of factors that measure the effectiveness of their programs.

Among other services offered under these efforts, the homeless will receive job training, mental health care and substance abuse treatment.

The remaining $150 million is earmarked as emergency shelter grants that provide food and housing on a short-term basis. These are awarded through a formula based on a community's housing and poverty needs.

In addition, HUD is advancing nearly $8 million in homeless grants from its fiscal year 2000 budget to renew funding for supportive housing programs in 35 communities. This money will enable these localities to continue operating their programs.