By: Russell Clemings/ The Fresno Bee

More than $4 million in federal stimulus funding is about to become available to relieve and prevent homelessness in Fresno. With the start of a new federal budget year Thursday, city and county leaders are allocating funds to 11 organizations that will be charged with finding and helping people who are homeless or in danger of becoming so. "We're really excited about this," said Gregory Barfield, who was in charge of the city's successful shutdown earlier this year of a large homeless camp along H Street near the Monterey Street bridge. A total of 103 people in 70 households were moved in that effort. Of those, Barfield said, all but four remain in the program, generally in rent-subsidized apartments. The four exceptions include two who dropped out, one who died and one who went to prison, he said. The task now will be more complex. Instead of focusing on a single homeless camp, workers for the 11 agencies will search throughout the county. Instead of limiting their efforts to people living in the open, they'll also look for people in substandard housing who are in danger of becoming homeless.

"We want to prevent people from becoming homeless if they're on the verge," said Laura Haga-Moreno, staff analyst in the county's Department of Children and Family Services. In small towns and rural areas "you'll see people living in a garage, renting it out," Haga-Moreno said. "We have to look outside of categories that you might typically think of as homeless." Last Thursday, the Fresno City Council approved $3.1 million in allocations to eight agencies. The largest share of $1 million is going to the city Housing Authority, which Barfield said will be in charge of finding apartments for the homeless.

On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to allocate almost $1.1 million to another eight agencies, including five that also received city allocations. In addition, another $500,000 of the county's stimulus funding is to be used by county social services departments for direct assistance to needy households, Haga-Moreno said. The amount of money involved far exceeds what either the city or the county typically have available for homelessness. For example, Haga-Moreno said, the county this year received $175,239 in federal funds for emergency shelters. The new three-year program will almost triple that for the county on an annual basis. Agencies that will get funding from one or both sources include Central California Legal Services, AspiraNet, Marjaree Mason Center, WestCare California-Veterans, Fresno EOC Sanctuary, Angels of Grace Foster Family Agency, the city and county housing authorities, the California Association for the Physically Handicapped and the United Way of Fresno County.