Real estate | Housing funds to help homeless renewed

Several local agencies and housing projects will continue to serve local homeless residents with renewed funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency announced this week.

HUD awarded a total of about $7.38 million to projects in South Carolina to ensure that the housing and services that support the homeless will continue operating next year, according to a HUD statement.

The Myrtle Beach/Sumter City and County area received about $1.19 million. The Myrtle Beach Housing Authority Shelter Plus Care program, which provides housing and support services on a long-term basis for homeless people with disabilities and their families, received about $215,000. Several local affordable housing developments, which rely on federal funding for support staff, including Alliance Inn Apartments and Balsam Place Apartments also received renewed funding.

HUD is renewing the funding to prevent any interruption of federal funds and will give money to new projects early in 2012, according to the statement.

“The grants we’re awarding today will literally keep the doors of our shelters open and will help those on the front lines of ending homelessness do what they do best,” HUD Southeast Region, Regional Administrator Ed Jennings, Jr. said in a statement. “It’s incredible that as we work to recover from the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression, the total number of homeless Americans is declining, in large part because of these funds.”

HUD’s 2011 estimate of the homeless population was down 2.1 percent to 636,000 people, according to a county of about 3,000 cities on one night in January of last year.

The grants awarded this week go to efforts that provide permanent or transitional housing for homeless people and provide services including job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care.

Local Realtor gains national recognition

Myrtle Beach Realtor Blake Sloan was named one of Forbes Magazines “30 under 30” in real estate.

Sloan, 28, the owner of The Sloan Realty Group and founder of The International Association of Real Estate Experts, was selected by a panel of industry experts.

In choosing the top 30 under 30, Forbes asked industry experts and Forbes readers several questions, including “Who is reinventing the world? Who should you hire today? Who will you be working for in 20 years? Who, in short, under the age of 30, matters?,” according to the magazines website.

Sloan, who grew up in the Myrtle Beach area and comes from a family of Realtors, was also named one of the National Association of Realtors “30 under 30” earlier this year.

Sloan was thrilled and a bit surprised to find out he had been chosen for the Forbes recognition, he said.

Last year Sloan launched the association, which links top Realtors around the world to share ideas, technology and tools to spur innovation in the real estate industry, Sloan said. The association also offers education and started offering the Certified Real Estate Expert Designation nationally in August, so buyers and sellers can more easier identify well-informed Realtors, he said.