On Thursday, October 2, the House passed HR 7211, the "HEARTH Act." HEARTH is a bill to re-write the portion of the McKinney-Vento Act that governs HUD's homeless asssistance grant programs.
This brand new version of HEARTH represents a compromise between two similar bills - the original HEARTH Act (HR 840) as amended in committee, and S. 1518 - the Senate's HUD McKinney-Vento legislation. This compromise was drafted by Congressional staff behind closed doors, and was presented as a "done deal" just before the vote.
After passing HEARTH, the House adjourned, possibly for the year. The Senate adjourned until a proposed post-election session on November 17. The new bill (still called S. 1518 in the Senate) may be taken up at that time. Further information about the Senate's plans will be presented as it becomes available.
Read the new bill here.
We are grateful for the support of many House Members who worked hard to make improvements in the bill. Their efforts should be commended. Several who deserve our special thanks are Representatives Judy Biggert of Illinois, Geoff Davis of Kentucky, Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, Carolyn McCarthy of New York, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Andre Carson of Indiana. In addition, we will always appreciate the late Representative Julia Carson of Indiana, who introduced the original HEARTH Act along with Geoff Davis. That bill, drafted with assistance from NPACH and many of our partner organizations, set the tone for the 2007 and 2008 House debate on federal homelessness policy.
NPACH will issue a detailed analysis of HR 7221 in the next few days, focusing on key provisions in the bill and comparing the legislative language to our principles for HUD McKinney-Vento reauthorization.
We are nearing the end of the Bush Administration, an administration that has clearly been hostile to the cause of providing low income and homeless individuals and families with access to the housing and supportive services they need to succeed. It is worth asking whether this is the right time to pass legislation that puts into law a number of Bush Administration administrative policies that have been harmful to homeless individuals and families, or whether we should decline to bind a new administration to the mistakes of the past 8 years, and instead view reauthorization as a 2009 opportunity - an opportunity to learn from recent years and adopt a broad national strategy to end homelessness, focused widely on individuals and families, and including veterans, people living on the street, and children & youth.
We invite your thoughts on this topic. To provide them, send email to: mckinney@npach.org