Welcome to Washington. As we approach July 22nd, the 20th Anniversary of the McKinney-Vento Act, NPACH understands that many of you will be in Washington this summer, for conferences, events, or vacations.
As you visit the District, NPACH reminds you that along with most other national homelessness advocacy organizations, NPACH supports H.R. 840, the HEARTH Act. In contrast, we are urging that changes be made to S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA).
These bills represent competing visions of how HUD homeless assistance programs should be managed. HEARTH provides greater decision making at the local level, more closely aligns the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agency definitions (including the Department of Education), expands resources for emergency shelter and supportive services, provides a framework for greater homeless prevention activity, and allows communities the flexibly to implement a range of housing solutions. In contrast, CPEHA would largely codify current HUD policy, while making some small positive changes that have mostly been incorporated in HEARTH. As a result, communities would be required to continue the current federal focus on ending chronic homelessness, whether or not this policy meets local needs.
NPACH urges organizations who support the HEARTH Act to make their views known to Congress while in Washington. If you're not in Washington, contact your Members of Congress from home. To help, we have produced a one page HEARTH fact sheet that can be provided to House members, and a one page document on CPEHA, to be used in discussions with Senate offices, that includes talking points on how the bill could be amended to attract our support. To let us know how your visits go, email Jeremy Rosen at jrosen@npach.org