Welcome to Washington. From July 9-11, hundreds of homelessness advocates, service providers, and government officials will gather in Washington, D.C. for the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ annual conference. The conference is a wonderful opportunity for people to learn, network, and educate their federal legislators.

As we approach July 22 - the 20th anniversary of the McKinney-Vento Act’s initial passage – education and advocacy on Capitol Hill have never been more important. For the entire 20 years of McKinney-Vento, advocates have recognized that insufficient federal resources dedicated to affordable housing programs have contributed to increases in homelessness. So too have welfare “reform” without meaningful education and training programs, deinstitutionalization without housing, the challenges faced by ex-offenders whose inability to get jobs or housing due to their criminal records continues to punish them long after their release date, and the struggles of children and youth with a child welfare system that all too often leaves them on their own at age 18.

When you attend the Alliance conference, and prepare for the July 11 lobby day, we encourage you to focus lobbying efforts on both systemic and short term solutions to end homelessness. Talk to legislators about the importance of creating and funding a National Housing Trust Fund, to create at least 1.5 million units of affordable housing, and urge your Members of Congress to increase funding for Section 8 and HUD’s other mainstream housing programs such as Housing for Persons With Disabilities (“Section 811” program) and Senior Housing (“Section 202” program). Tell the House and Senate to quickly pass the bipartisan Second Chance Act, to ensure that communities begin to give ex-offenders the housing and services they need to avoid returning to a life of crime. And urge Congress to support meaningful child welfare reform, that gives social workers the flexibility they need to provide families with the housing assistance that would enable them in many cases to reunify – which would both benefit children and save money.

NPACH continues to work on solving these broad problems, one step at a time. However, we also recognize the need to focus on critical short term solutions such as reform of HUD homeless programs, funded through the McKinney-Vento Act. These programs have limited resources – only $1.4 billion per year, much of which is taken up by renewing funding for existing programs, rather than funding new housing and services. But for many homeless children, youth, and adults, HUD’s homeless programs serve as a gateway to permanent housing and supportive services.

In 2007, Congress is considering two pieces of legislation to rewrite the laws governing HUD homeless assistance programs. NPACH and our many partner organizations assisted in drafting the House bill - H.R. 840 – the Homeless Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act. We strongly support this legislation. HEARTH gives communities the flexibility they need to address homelessness. Rather than requiring communities to meet one size fits all priorities set by HUD in Washington, D.C., it allows providers and government officials to apply for funds to meet the most critical needs in their communities – needs that they are best positioned to identify. It also expands the definition of homelessness to include people living in hotels and motels and people who are doubled up, when these living conditions are due to an inability to obtain any other adequate housing. HEARTH is supported by a broad coalition of national, state, and local organizations that focus on homelessness policy.

Read the list of HEARTH Act endorsers

NPACH urges you to lobby for the HEARTH Act, and the principle of local control that it represents.

In contrast, the Senate is considering S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA) – a bill supported by the Alliance and in large part by the Bush Administration. 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 focus on ending chronic homelessness, whether or not this policy meets local needs.

CPEHA does contain provisions that attempt to help communities focus on family homelessness and on ending homelessness in rural areas. However, the proposed homelessness prevention program would be a new program, subject to appropriations and with an overly narrow definition of who can be served. And CPEHA’s rural title does not adequately address the definition of homelessness in rural communities. NPACH believes that the HEARTH approach of expanding the definition of homelessness, allowing local communities to set priorities, and eliminating federal set-asides would address homelessness prevention and rural homelessness far more effectively.

Advocates for homeless children, youth, and families must not remain silent, as we compile example after example of hardship after hardship suffered by people in need of assistance – domestic violence shelters closing because HUD has different funding priorities, families living in motels because they are unable to enter HUD funded homeless programs, youth surviving on the streets because service providers cannot access permanent housing resources, and young children and their parents, living in precarious housing situations, often moving many times during a school year, being told that they are not “homeless” and are therefore ineligible for HUD homeless assistance – children whose lack of housing and school stability may result in them growing up to be the next generation of “chronically homeless” single individuals.

NPACH’s one page document in support of the House HEARTH Act can be found below. We have also posted a similar document on CPEHA, urging advocates to support a set of concrete changes that would dramatically improve the Senate bill. We urge you to use these documents to advocate for balanced McKinney-Vento reauthorization legislation that helps meet the needs of all homeless persons.

Read NPACH's one pager in support of the HEARTH Act

Read NPACH's proposals for amending CPEHA