E7-15726. Awards to Eleven Office of Refugee Resettlement Shelter Care Providers

AGENCY:

Office of Refugee Resettlement, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice of grant awards.

CFDA #: 93.676.

SUMMARY:

This notice is hereby given that awards will be made to eleven unaccompanied alien shelter care providers in the amount of $10,633,009. This funding will support services through September 30, 2007.

Grantee	Location	Project period	Amount (dollars)
The Children's Village	Dobbs Ferry, NY	10/1/04-9/30/09	405,415
Pioneer	Tacoma, WA	10/1/04-9/30/09	151,771
Southwest Key—Brownsville	Brownsville, TX	10/1/05-9/30/10	585,099
Southwest Key—Conroe	Houston, TX	10/1/05-9/30/10	666,590
Southwest Key—Mesa	Houston, TX	10/1/05-9/30/10	753,300
Lutheran Social Services of the South	El Paso, TX	10/1/05-9/30/10	2,318,670
Southwest Key—El Paso	El Paso, TX	10/1/05-9/30/10	1,526,590
Heartland/ICC	Chicago, IL	10/1/05-9/30/10	2,457,752
Southwest Key—Phoenix	Phoenix, AZ	10/1/05-9/30/10	634,810
International Educational Services—Foster Care	Harlingen, TX	3/1/06-2/28/11	245,567
Florence Crittenton	Fullerton, CA	3/1/06-2/28/11	887,445

This funding will support the expansion of shelter/foster care program bed capacity to meet the number of unaccompanied alien children referrals from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The program is mandated by section 462 of the Homeland Security Act to ensure appropriate placement of all referrals from the DHS. ORR's ability to meet this mandate is often a challenge since the program is completely tied to DHS apprehension strategies and the sporadic number of border crossers. The program has seen a dramatic increase in the number of children referred from DHS in the past few months necessitating an expansion of existing shelter care capacity.

The program has very specific requirements for the provision of services. Existing grantees are the only entities with the infrastructure, licensing, experience and appropriate level of trained staff to meet the service requirements and the urgent need for expansion. The program's ability to avoid a backlog of children waiting in border patrol stations for placement can only be accommodated through the expansion of existing programs through this supplemental award process.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kenneth Tota, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., Washington, DC, 20447, telephone [phone].

Dated: August 7, 2007.

Kenneth Tota,

Chief of Operations, Office of Refugee Resettlement.