New Hampshire is receiving an $8.6 million grant to provide rental assistance for people with mental illness.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will help cover rent for up 150 individuals or families with mental illness.
Dean Christon is the director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.
"The issue of housing in an affordable way [for] folks who are transitioning out of institutional care has been a real challenge for the state and communities for some time," says Dean Christon is the director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. "I think it will have an impact. It’s not obviously going to completely solve the problem."
The grant will be spread over five years, but Christon say the feds have told state officials the money could be available for decades, if Congress continues to fund the program.
This news comes just over a year after New Hampshire settled a class-action lawsuit over its treatment of residents with mental illness. The state promised to spend $30 million over four years on services for people with mental illness.
