NPACH: The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness

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Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 840, the Homelessness Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH), after first adopting a substitute amendment offered by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI).

As expected, Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Congressman Geoff Davis (R-KY) later offered an amendment to include children, youth, and families who are verified as homeless by federal program personnel (including school district liaisons, Head Start programs, Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs) in the HUD definition of homelessness.

After an intense and emotional debate, the amendment was withdrawn in an exchange for a commitment from Full Committee Chairman Frank and Housing Subcommittee Chairwoman Waters to continue working to improve the HUD definition of homelessness before the bill moves to the floor in September. We will continue to fight for these improvements, and are confident that with your help they will occur. The Committee leadership of both parties also agreed to send a letter to the Government Accountability Office, next week, requesting a study on expanding the HUD definition of homelessness.

The markup was an important step forward in our ongoing effort to ensure that the HUD definition of homelessness is expanded to accurately reflect the full range of people experiencing homelessness in this country. We are pleased that almost the entire debate was focused on the issue of the HUD definition and the needs of children, youth, and families. While the Biggert-Davis amendment was not approved, we are confident that its introduction and the spirited debate will result in meaningful improvements to HR 840 before it is considered on the House floor. And we are deeply grateful to Mrs. Biggert and Mr. Davis for their leadership.

Next week, we will provide a more detailed summary of today’s markup. We thank you for all of your hard work on this issue, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the weeks and months to come.

The markup can be viewed here.

A powerful Time Magazine opinion piece on the importance of a reality-based expansion of HUD's definition of homelessness can be read here:

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Because contributions from individuals allow us to speak freely and honestly about the direction of homelessness policy. NPACH is unique in its grassroots approach and global view, connecting community-based organizations, schools, and the public to national policy through our advocacy and education initiatives. As such, our style of advocacy does not often match the current structure, interests and priorities of many traditional sources of funding for homelessness and housing groups.

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