Omaha City Council approves funding for homeless hotel voucher program

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The rising costs of housing and increasing number of evictions is creating a homelessness crisis in the Omaha metro.

The annual point in time kicked off Tuesday and officials expect the rate of homelessness to be high.

“It’s concerning,” said Mike Hornacek with Together Inc. “We don’t want to get the cart too ahead of us and we want to get the counts back, but for those of us on the ground everyday doing the work you can see it and feel it.”

And, as the cold weather puts shelters near capacity, officials with Together Inc. are looking for ways to put an end to homelessness.

One of those way is its hotel and motel voucher program, which received $144,000 from Omaha City Council on Tuesday.

“We might not have some place to put somebody,” Hornacek said. “So, this hotel voucher program is important.”

The program is designed to temporarily house people in the most pressing situations during the winter months.

“As we experienced last week, the temperatures and wind chills, thirty and twenty below are very dangerous especially for an individual or family with kids,” Hornacek said.

This is the first time the city is providing funding for this effort. Previously, Together Inc. relied on community donors.

“The funding through the city provides us 120 days of stays in hotel rooms throughout the city for 10 rooms that can be 10 individuals or 10 families,” Hornacek said.

The full details on the program and who would be eligible for a voucher are still a work in progress.

Right now, the nonprofit said its starting point is to look for hotels and motels that are affordable.

“We definitely need to get our hands around it and we need to invest in resources that are necessary,” Hornacek said.