More than $100 million is coming to North Carolina for housing.

Part of the federal stimulus package signed into law recently, the money will help homeless families move into permanent homes and renovate low-income housing.

It is part of more than $10 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development heading around the country.

About $86 million of the state money will go to the state and then be passed to local communities in block grants for homelessness prevention and to help companies build affordable housing.  

Much of the money is focused on projects that can be put under contract within 120 days. (N&O) 

Henry Cisneros says that the future of the Democratic Party lies with Latinos.

The former Cabinet secretary said today that the country's growing Hispanic population in the United States will be a vital constituency in the future, but he said that won't change the party's issues much because they are already "part of the American dream."

"There are very few issues where the Latino interest diverges from the traditional American interest," he told Dome. "This is a group that comes here to work, that is traditional in its family values, in its church values."

A supporter of Hillary Clinton, Cisneros was traveling in North Carolina and making appearances on local Spanish-language radio on her behalf. He said that her high level of support among Hispanics is grounded in part on memories of her husband's presidency, in which he served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Still, Clinton won't win too many votes from Hispanics in North Carolina. According to recent figures from the State Board of Elections, there are 41,897 Hispanic voters, or less than 1 percent of the electorate.

But Triangle Community Foundation President Andrea Bazan-Manson, who was traveling with Cisneros, said that number may be undercounted because voters could only check a box noting that they are Hispanic in the last three years.

"All of us that registered 15 years ago didn't have a choice," she said.