Congress enacted the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide homelessness prevention assistance to households who would otherwise become homeless—many due to the economic crisis—and to provide assistance to rapidly re-house persons who are homeless.

The City of Hartford receive $1,572,727 in one-time HPRP funds, and through a competitive RFP process, awarded a contract to Mercy Housing & Shelter Corp. to implement HPRP on behalf of the City of Hartford. HPRP provides temporary financial assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services to individuals and families who are homeless or would be homeless but for this assistance. The funds under this program target two populations of persons facing housing instability:

1) individuals and families who are currently in housing but are at risk of becoming homeless and need temporary rent or utility assistance to prevent them from becoming homeless or assistance to move to another unit (prevention), and

2) individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness (residing in emergency or transitional shelters or on the street) and need temporary assistance in order to obtain housing and retain it (rapid re-housing).