Huntington nonprofit gets homeless grant

A Huntington social-services nonprofit has received a federal grant to create permanent housing for people with disabilities who are homeless.

The Family Service League was told last month that it will get $345,079 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to renovate a single-family house to be used as permanent housing for single adults.

Jo Anne Collins, director of the group’s Housing and Homeless Services Division, said there are hundreds of homeless people who are waiting for permanent housing, and that homelessness in Suffolk County is nearly at a 10-year high.

“There’s very little housing targeted specifically to the chronically homeless” -- those who have been homeless for more than a year, Collins said. “This is a drop in the bucket, but we’re excited.”

The housing, which Collins said would likely be completed in 2013, will be accompanied by supportive services and case managers for the occupants.

The Family Service League runs one permanent-housing unit and is developing two more.

The location for the new home has not been chosen, but Collins said it would be in Suffolk.

So far, the nonprofit has received three awards from HUD for supportive housing for the chronically homeless in the county.