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.

Published: December 28, 1999

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.