BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 14, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) and Whitney Bank joined the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP) and its partners Thursday for the opening of a residential and community services facility for the homeless in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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GCHP developed the One Stop Homeless Services Center (One Stop) project in partnership with the Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless, a consortium of social service providers in the Greater Baton Rouge area, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Baton Rouge. One Stop is an innovative project that provides housing and support services in a campus environment. The project contains 36 single-resident occupancy units for very low-income, homeless and disabled homeless adults, all located on the upper floors of the facility.
FHLB Dallas and member institution Whitney Bank awarded a $250,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant in 2010 to assist the developers with the construction of One Stop. AHP funds are used to purchase, construct, and/or rehabilitate single-family, transitional, and multifamily projects for very low- to moderate-income families.
"FHLB Dallas is pleased to have contributed to the development of the One Stop project," said FHLB Dallas President and CEO Terry Smith. "Affordable housing remains a critical need in the communities our member institutions serve, and this project will not only provide housing to formerly homeless residents, but it will also provide resources to help the residents get back on their feet."
The One Stop Homeless Services Center, located at 153 North Seventeenth Street in Baton Rouge, will bring under one roof "supported independent living" for formerly homeless residents, quality of life support services, and hands-on assistance in removing barriers to their long-term success.
Homeless service providers and other agencies that serve the social, mental, and physical needs of the homeless population will be co-located in the facility to provide services to residents and other homeless individuals and families from the general community.
These services will include, among others, outreach case management to chronically homeless individuals, primary medical, pharmacy and dental services targeted to homeless residents, life skills and financial management training, basic employment assistance, and job counseling and training.
The center will also house "day center" locations for men, women, and children in the community, which will provide access to showers, laundry facilities, child care, prepared meals, food staples, toiletries, clothing for job interviews, access to telephones, computers and the Internet, and mail receipt capability, including a "home address" for job applications.
"The AHP funds were very critical and instrumental in financing the construction of the project, and those funds resulted in us being able to build the One Stop Homeless Services Center for the City of Baton Rouge," said Cornelius Payne, GCHP's project manager for One Stop. "This project is probably going to be a model for many other cities in Louisiana."
FHLB Dallas partnered with Whitney Bank in awarding the $250,000 AHP grant to One Stop. FHLB Dallas has awarded $846,000 in AHP grants through Whitney Bank in 2011 to support 100 affordable housing units in Louisiana.
"Whitney Bank has been committed to improving the communities we serve for over a century," said Troy Herbert, Whitney Bank's Baton Rouge market president. "By working resourcefully with our partners, initiatives like One Stop can offer a valuable all-encompassing program that also supports the region's long-term plans."
The One Stop Homeless Services Center is supported by Baton Rouge's "Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness," a strategy adopted by the City of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge. Funding for the $8.4 million initiative is being provided by the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, the Louisiana State Office of Community Development, the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, FHLB Dallas, Community Housing Capital, and Whitney Bank.
Each year, FHLB Dallas returns 10 percent of its profits to the communities served by its member institutions in the form of AHP grants issued through certain of its member financial institutions. The AHP grant to GCHP is part of $18.5 million in AHP grants that FHLB Dallas awarded, through its member institutions, to 79 housing projects in 2010. The grants will help create, renovate, or purchase 2,632 housing units, including more than $2.2 million that was awarded to projects in Louisiana in support of 284 housing units.
About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 12 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $31.4 billion as of September 30, 2011, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to more than 900 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas. For more information, visit the FHLB Dallas website at fhlb.com.
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About Whitney Bank
Whitney Holding Corporation, through its banking subsidiary Whitney National Bank, serves the five-state Gulf Coast region stretching from Houston, Texas; across southern Louisiana and the coastal region of Mississippi; to central and south Alabama; the panhandle of Florida; and the Tampa Bay metropolitan area of Florida.
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