An organization with a thirty-year history of helping disadvantaged women and children in the Valley is getting more than half a million dollars in state funding.

The Ohio Controlling Board approved the allocation of $513,800 to the Beatitude House in Mahoning County.

This funding will help provide transitional and permanent supportive housing for homeless, disabled single males, females, and households with children, with household incomes at or below 35% of the area median income in Mahoning County.

The $513,800 will be allocated to the Beatitude House in two separate ways. First, $124,800 will be used to offer transitional housing by providing 24 beds which are expected to serve 35 households during a two-year period.

The remaining $389,000 will be allocated to provide permanent supportive housing for an expected 43 households and 107 people.

“It is important that we continue to help those in low-income situations get back their feet and these funds coming to Mahoning Country provided a great opportunity for us to help those from the Valley who are in need of support,” said State Representative Al Cutrona who announced the funding.

Beatitude House, sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, creates homes, provides educational opportunities and fosters healthy families, enabling women and children with the opportunity to transform their lives.

The organization operates transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, Immigrant Outreach including English Language services, and Ursuline Sisters Scholars.

In 1990 an anonymous donor gave the Ursuline Sisters a house on the city’s north side. That building was transformed into an apartment complex for Transitional Housing services, providing shelter for women and children. The first families moved into the building in 1991 and soon two complexes were added to the program. Those complexes can house up to 12 families.

The housing program has expanded to include an additional 25 permanent supportive housing units throughout Mahoning County and an additional 10 transitional housing units in Ashtabula.