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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that more than $22 million had been handed down to organizations across the state to help Alabamians facing homelessness or the threat of homelessness obtain shelter and assistance amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the groups to receive a slice of the funding was the Montgomery-based Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless (ARCH), which will receive $10 million for its work in Dallas County and more than three-dozen other Alabama counties.

The funds, awarded through the federal Emergency Solutions grant program, will enable 15 regional agencies to provide a bevy of services to those in need, including shelter, legal and health services and more to those at risk of losing their homes or already living without a home.

“The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for families around the globe,” Ivey said in a press release. “I am proud to direct these funds to benefit those greatly impacted in our own state. These grants will support programs and organizations that are able to provide at least some relief to many who are without a place of their own or at risk of becoming homeless.”

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is administering the funds, which were made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the first relief package approved in wake of the coronavirus crisis last year.

“Emergency Solutions Grants provide vital help to so many who find themselves in troubled times,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said in the release. “ADECA supports Gov. Ivey’s efforts to help those most directly affected by the global pandemic.”

Others to receive funding included the following:

• City of Huntsville – $1.8 million (Huntsville)

• Northwest Alabama Housing Services – $117,785 (Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Marion and Winston counties)

• City of Florence – $828,300 (Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Marion, Winston and Lawrence counties)

• Legal Services Alabama Inc. – $1.5 million (Cherokee, DeKalb and Etowah counties)

• YWCA of Central Alabama – $114,125 (Blount, Jefferson and St. Clair counties)

• Shelby County Commission – $219,892 (Shelby County)

• Montgomery Area Coalition for the Homeless Inc. – $1.7 million (Montgomery, Autauga, Elmore, Bullock and Lowndes counties)

• First Christian Methodist Episcopal Church – $830,632 (Montgomery and Bullock counties)

• City of Tuscaloosa – $742,539 (Tuscaloosa County)

• Salvation Army – $448,224 (Mobile)

• Family Counseling Center of Mobile Inc. – $710,058 (Baldwin, Clarke, Mobile and Washington counties)

• Housing First Inc. – $1 million (Mobile and Baldwin counties)

• Family Promise of Baldwin County Inc. – $993,819 (Baldwin County)

• Penelope House Inc. – $1 million (Mobile)