Late Monday afternoon, the Senate Banking Committee pulled S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007 (CPEHA), from committee consideration for today. Instead, the Banking Committee is likely to take up the bill in September, after Congress goes on recess for the month of August. Please disregard today's edition of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness electronic newsletter, which states that the markup is going forward.
The swift passage of legislation to reauthorize HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant programs is a top priority for NPACH. However, NPACH can only support balanced legislation that protects all homeless populations - children, youth, families, and single adults. Legislation must also balance the needs and priorities of urban centers and rural communities.
To that end, NPACH has worked with a broad coalition of national, state, and local organizations to support CPEHA amendments that would do two things:
1) More closely align HUD's definition of homelessness with that used by the US Department of Education.
2) Preserve local flexibility in spending federal homeless assistance grant funds.
NPACH thanks everyone from around the country who responded to our alert last week and contacted the Senate in support of these key principles. We are disappointed that the Banking Committee chose to put off consideration of CPEHA, rather than considering these amendments. However, we look forward to working with Senators from both sides of the aisle, through the month of August, to produce legislation that all homeless persons, homeless advocates, and homeless service providers can be proud to support.
In the next week, NPACH will issue a new alert, calling on our supporters to once again contact Congress during the August recess. In the meantime, if you have questions please call or email Jeremy Rosen in our Washington DC office at (202) 714-5378 or jrosen@npach.org