Burns: $450,000 awarded to Women’s Help Center
Rep. Frank Burns June 12, 2025 | 4:49 PM
HARRISBURG, June 12 – State Rep. Frank Burns announced state funding of $450,000 was awarded to the Women’s Help Center to focus on ensuring residents in Cambria County have access to safe, affordable housing.
The Women’s Help Center Inc. will use $350,000 toward construction and rehabilitation of a new emergency shelter facility. The remaining $100,000 will be used to help with its Emergency Shelter Program for women and their families, and expanding its service to men.
“Working together with the Women’s Help Center has produce results, as I went to bat for the organization,” said Burns, D-Cambria. “I even brought in a senior staffer from the House Majority Leader’s Office to meet with the organization and learn firsthand how important the Women’s Help Center is to our county. Now, our efforts have resulted in nearly half a million dollars for this local organization.”
Burns said the new facility will serve as the housing hub for the community, offering non-congregate emergency shelter for males and females and separate family units, along with a variety of supportive services to enable individuals and families to return to independent housing.
The funding was awarded through the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund. PHARE was established by Act 105 of 2010 (the "PHARE Act") to provide the mechanism by which certain allocated state or federal funds, as well as funds from other outside sources, would be used to assist with the creation, rehabilitation and support of affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth.
More information about the PHARE program is available here: https://www.phfa.org/legislation/act105.aspx.