By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Buffalo Monday to announce that more than $800,000 in federal funding will be provided to Homespace.
Homespace is all about helping young homeless people with children. It provides transitional housing to those 18 to 25 years old at Ellicott and Dodge in Buffalo. One of the young women enrolled in Homespace tearfully thanked Senator Clinton for fighting to help fund the program. She says before entering Homespace, she had no where to turn.
Clinton says she looks for creative, effective programs to support.
"Homespace works," she said. "Homespace's commitment to providing the structure that homeless people need, and now its commitment to providing the structure that these young mothers need, is exactly the kind of cost effective commitment that I believe works."
Half of the more than $800,000 in HUD funding will also be used by Homespace to build new housing for homeless teens. Thelma Roberts, Executive Director of Homespace says the "Second Chance Home" will be constructed at Michigan and Dodge to assist teens between 16 and 17 years of age who have children.
Roberts says they expect to break ground for the "Second Chance Home" by early spring.