Identical legislation to reauthorize HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant programs was recently introduced in both the House and Senate. The bills, H.R. 1877 and S. 808, are available at http://thomas.loc.gov/. Both bills are nearly the same as H.R. 7221 - the McKinney-Vento legislation that passed the House in 2008 but did not pass the Senate before the 110th Congress adjourned last year.
We have updated our analysis of key issues in McKinney-Vento reauthorization, to reflect H.R. 1877 / S. 808. That document is available here.
As indicated in the analysis, we continue to be concerned by several provisions in this legislation, particularly the language codifying a new HUD definition of homelessness. In a time of dramatically rising homelessness among children, youth, and families, the language in these bills does not sufficiently align HUD's definition of homelessness with the definition used by the U.S. Departments of Education, HHS, Justice, and Agriculture.
To better meet the needs of these families, we call on Congress to use definition language from the bipartisan H.R. 29 - the Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2009. Information about HCYA, including bill text and a fact sheet, can be found here. We look forward to working with Congress, the Administration, and our advocacy partners to ensure that any final legislation has a definition of homelessness that meets the needs of all children, youth, and families who are experiencing homelessness.