Does permanent housing for homeless families sound far fetched? It isn’t! It is just a matter of enlightened public policy. Here is action you can take in this regard. In addition, attached there is a letter sent by the Anchorage Coalition on Homelesness to Senator Don Young outlining the issues and the solutions, and a resolution by the Coalition regarding the issues:
Legislative Alert: Oppose Harmful Changes to the HEARTH Act
Background: In June, the House Financial Services Committee is expected to consider the HEARTH Act (H.R. 840). The HEARTH (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing) Act is strong legislation that will re-write the rules governing HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant programs, better enabling urban, suburban, and rural communities to end homelessness.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters of Los Angeles is proposing a broad set of alterations to the HEARTH Act through a “manager’s amendment.” The changes being supported by Congresswoman Waters would turn the HEARTH Act into a bill that is almost identical to the the Senate legislation (S. 1518). Specifically, the Waters draft manager’s amendment would substantively alter the key provisions of the HEARTH Act by:
Requiring people in doubled-up and motel living arrangements to move at least twice between such arrangements before qualifying as homeless for purposes of HUD McKinney-Vento and other federal programs that use the HUD definition of homelessness.
Enacting into statute current federal administrative policy on set-asides and bonuses for permanent housing projects that exclude many families with children and youth.
Weakening stakeholder participation in decision-making about the expenditure of HUD McKinney-Vento funds allocated to each community, including school district homeless liaisons.
Action Needed:
Please call your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to contact House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) with the following request:
Ensure that the forthcoming manager’s amendment to the HEARTH Act (H.R. 840) preserves the bill’s original intent to:
Amend the HUD definition of homelessness to bring it into alignment with other federal agency definitions of homelessness, without conditions that would require people in doubled-up and motel living arrangements to move multiple times in order to quality as homeless.
Restore flexibility to communities to use HUD McKinney-Vento funds for the full continuum of homeless assistance activities, without preferences or bonuses that support some activities over others.
Establish community homeless assistance planning boards that include many stakeholders in decision-making about how to spend HUD McKinney-Vento funds allocated to each community, including school district homeless liaisons.
Contact information for all U.S. Representatives is available at www.house.gov or by contacting the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121. When you reach the Congressional office, ask the receptionist to transfer you to the staff person who handles housing issues. Please leave a voice mail message for this staff member if they are not available to speak to you personally.
Please also urge your U.S. Representative to join 85 House colleague as a co-sponsor to the introduced version of the HEARTH Act (H.R. 840). A current list of co-sponsors is posted at http://thomas.loc.gov, and can be accessed by choosing “bill number” and typing “H.R. 840” into the entry field.
