As if to use its gentle invisible hand to stroke our head, ease our damaged confidence, the federal government has issued $6.4 million in aid for homelessness and housing programs in Louisville. That should temporarily assuage any concerns about the city losing federal grant money because of its pathological inability to manage money or conduct proper accounting.

In fact, the Metro Department of Housing and Family Services — sacked by scandal and the departure last fall of director Kimberly Bunton, after the CJ revealed she had her thumb on the proverbial scale — will manage some $2.7 million of the HUD grant.

The biggest share — $1.1 million — goes to rental assistance programs for those battling drugs, alcohol and mental illness, the CJ reports:

“It’s extremely important because it literally funds the lion’s share of our shelter system, and we have a number of permanent housing projects in this for the homeless,” said Mary Frances Schafer of the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group that is in charge of the city’s grant application.

In other HUD-is-giving-away-money news, the federal housing agency announced today it has allocated its $10.1 billion in stimulus-bill money. Among other investments, a full 1/5 of the money will go to rental-assistance programs like the one mentioned above, while $3 billion will go to funding new public housing initiatives.