LSA Committee agrees to award $500K to City Mission for women’s shelter

By TAYLOR BROWN
Senior Reporter
tbrown@yourmvi.com
Washington City Mission’s application for 2024 Local Share Account funds will be approved after all.
Washington County’s LSA review committee, at the request of Washington County commissioners, reconsidered City Mission’s $500,000 request for a women’s homeless shelter during a virtual public meeting Wednesday.
LSA funds are generated through the county’s share of gaming revenues from Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in North Strabane Township.
After some discussion and information provided by City Mission CEO Diana Irey Vaughan and other organizational leaders, the committee voted to recommend the project for funding.

The decision must be ratified by commissioners and passed along to the state for final approval before April 1.
The past several weeks have been confusing for City Mission leaders, who thought they were included in 2024 LSA funds, only to later learn their project was not one of 50 approved by the LSA committee for recommendation Feb. 6.
The 50 projects initially approved at that meeting were then passed along to county commissioners who also unanimously approved the recommendations nine days later, but not without questions surrounding why City Mission’s application was not recommended in the first place. That caused City Mission officials to believe they had been cut out of the process at the last minute.
LSA Committee Chairman Jeff Kotula said the women’s homeless shelter was among 94 project applications submitted this year totaling $28.1 million in funding requests.

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