BOSTON -- Organizations providing everything from permanent housing to solar power and clean water to victims of Hurricane Maria will receive $951,300 in grants from Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico.
The 29 organizations selected include some based in Puerto Rico and some in Massachusetts, where thousands of hurricane evacuees moved to find housing and employment after their homes were destroyed last fall.
These latest grants given by the charitable fund, run by the Boston Foundation, bring the total to $2.1 million in relief, recovery and relocation support since Hurricane Maria. Nearly $4 million has been raised so far, according to a press release issued by the organization.
"The work going on here in Massachusetts and on the island of Puerto Rico is remarkable and heroic," Aixa Beauchamp, co-chair of the Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico advisory committee, said in a statement. "It is also not nearly enough. While we continue our efforts to support recovery on the island, we call on government to step up and belatedly live up to its promise to care for American citizens on an island still vulnerable to future storms."
The fund allotted $500,000 in grants to 16 organizations in Massachusetts that are working to assist thousands of people from Puerto Rico looking for housing and employment in the state.
More than half of the grant dollars will go to Springfield and Holyoke organizations, with about half of the remaining funds earmarked for programs in Worcester, Leominster and Fitchburg.
"We have heard throughout the months since Maria evacuees began arriving in Massachusetts that Springfield and Holyoke would be under the most strain -- so we continue to target support there, even as we recognize that agencies from Boston to the Berkshires and Fitchburg to Fall River are serving those in need," said Vanessa Calderon-Rosado, co-chair of the advisory committee.
The agencies in the state receiving funding are:
- Catholic Charities, Springfield, $50,000
- Enlace de Familias, Holyoke, $50,000
- Holyoke Health Center, $50,000
- Career Point, Holyoke, $40,000
- Gandara Center, Springfield, $40,000
- New North Citizens Council, Springfield, $35,000
- Centro Las Americas, Fitchburg/Leominster, $33,000
- Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, Boston, $30,000
- Spanish American Center, Leominster, $26,000
- Boston Medical Center, $25,000
- Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Worcester, $25,000
- SER-Jobs, Fall River, $25,000
- Chelsea Collaborative, $20,000
- Latino Education Institute at Worcester State University, $20,000
- Friendly House Inc., Worcester, $16,500
- Casa Latina Inc., Florence, $15,000
The advisory committee awarded grants to 13 organizations in Puerto Rico totaling $450,800. The organizations chosen focus on grassroots efforts to establish a resilient, sustainable infrastructure and create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Juan Carlos Morales, another co-chair of the advisory committee, said he hopes the grants will help workers and entrepreneurs.
"Recovery is not just focused on things, it has to focus on people," he said.