COUNTYWIDE : Nonprofit Agencies to Receive $403,767

Ventura County will get $403,767 from a national board of voluntary organizations to supplement emergency food and shelter programs.

The board, headed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has allocated funds nationwide each year since 1983, when the Stewart McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was established. The amount each area receives is determined by such economic factors as the local unemployment rate.

“The amount we got this year is about average compared to past years,” said Alex Jestrab of the local United Way chapter. United Way of America provides the administrative staff and functions as the fiscal agent for the program.

“Groups such as the local chapters of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross and smaller ones such as Project Understanding used the money for everything from providing a hot meal to paying one month’s rent for a family that was on the verge of being evicted to providing shelters for teen-age runaways,” Jestrab said.