MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Montgomery County commissioners approved spending $2.6 million on youth group homes and accepted $3 million in federal funding during their meeting.
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The $3 million allocation comes from three separate U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants.
County leaders plan to direct the federal money toward community projects, including park improvements, blight removal and new sewers.
Montgomery County currently has 93 total group homes.
The newly approved funding extends substitute care agreements for five of those facilities through December of next year.
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This extension comes as Ohio state lawmakers work to improve the placement system for youth convicted of crimes.
Geraldine Pegues, assistant administrator, explained that maintaining local options is critical when youth enter county custody.
“We’re adding resources because it’s the likelihood that we will have youth placed in those particular settings,” Pegues said.
She noted that county custody mandates appropriate local housing options for children.
“When kids are placed into children’s services custody, we’re required to have a placement for them. So this provides that opportunity for us to have available placement options for our youth within our community,” Pegues said.
She added that group homes are only part of the county’s strategy.
“Group homes are one of the placement options. We have family foster homes. We look to reunify kids with families wherever possible,” Pegues said.
Regarding federal funding, Montgomery County received about $200,000 more from the federal agency this year than last year.
Emily Bradford, community and economic development director, emphasized the importance of federal grants for local operations.
“It is imperative. And we use it in our community every single day. So we expend about $2 million in our Community Development Block Grant funds,” Bradford said.
The substitute care agreements for the five youth group homes will remain active through December of next year.
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