U.S. city San Francisco to receive extra federal funds to combat homelessness

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The western U.S. city of San Francisco will get an extra 9 million U.S. dollars from the federal government to fight homelessness, local media reported Thursday.

With the 9 million dollars, which is part of two-billion-dollar grants announced by the government Thursday, the city will obtain a total of 41.5 million dollars in homelessness grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, second only to Los Angeles in southern California that receives 109.4 million dollars.

San Francisco, a major tourist city on the west coast, spends about 300 million dollars on homelessness every year.

The extra grant will help the San Francisco government expand programs to provide housing for the homeless sleeping on the streets.

The federal government awards the grants every January for local agencies to address homelessness, which has risen sharply along the west coast in recent years, where rents have been rising fast.

Alameda County to the east of San Francisco will get 35 million dollars, the second biggest amount in the San Francisco Bay Area, while Santa Clara County, southwest of San Francisco, will receive 22 million dollars.

San Francisco had a homeless population of about 7,500 in 2017, according to a Homeless Point-in-Time count survey, or a "homeless census" conducted by the city last year. Enditem