tag:npach.org,2010://4 2010-01-29T15:23:14Z The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness is a grass roots anti-poverty organization. Our mission is to ensure that national homelessness policy accurately reflects the needs and experiences of local communities. Movable Type 3.33 tag:npach.org,2010://4.167 2010-01-29T15:19:16Z 2010-01-29T15:23:14Z

Yesterday, at a town hall meeting in Tampa, President Obama responded to a question about what could be done to help provide ex drug felons with jobs, so that they would not return to a life of crime, by touting...

Jeremy Rosen ]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.166 2009-12-07T19:12:56Z 2009-12-07T19:18:21Z

Our partners at NAEHCY have recently released a report detailing the ways in which school districts and staff can help provide housing for homeless youth, to help keep them stably enrolled in school through graduation. The report provides recommendations to...

Jeremy Rosen Read the report here.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.165 2009-11-30T21:29:13Z 2009-11-30T21:46:12Z

On Thursday, November 19, US Senators Patty Murray and Al Franken introduced the "Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009," S. 2800, and the "Fostering Success in Education Act of 2009," S. 2801. These bills would...

Jeremy Rosen visit the NAEHCY website. ]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.164 2009-10-20T16:42:28Z 2009-10-21T17:41:30Z

At a meeting on Monday, October 19, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness appointed a new Executive Director. The new ED will be Barbara Poppe, who currently serves as the Executive director of the Community Shelter Board in Columbus, Ohio...

Jeremy Rosen Community Shelter Board in Columbus, Ohio - an umbrella organization that oversees housing and services programs for homeless persons in Columbus. We welcome Ms. Poppe to her new role, and look forward to working productively with the Council to ensure that federal efforts to end homelessness are properly coordinated. Our views on how to make this happen were laid out in a memo sent to the Obama transition team. Many of these recommendations have already been implemented - others remain to be accomplished. We will discuss these views with Executive Director Poppe once she officially begins her work. We have long focused significant effort on monitoring the Interagency Council. We've raised strong objections to the Council's singular focus on "chronic" homelessness and its effort to place responsibility for ending homelessness on state and local government and local service providers, while downplaying the role of the federal government. We've exposed the Council's focus on travel and photo opportunities over substantive work. And we've criticized the Council's refusal to put a meaningful focus on ending homelessness for children, youth, and families. We hope and expect that the Council will change course and address these concerns under its new leadership.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.163 2009-10-20T16:25:36Z 2009-10-20T16:39:15Z

Citing the Foreclosure to Homelessness report released this summer by NPACH and a group of national homelessness advocacy organizations, the New York Times reported yesterday on former homeowners who, after losing their housing due to a foreclosure, are now homeless....

Jeremy Rosen Foreclosure to Homelessness report released this summer by NPACH and a group of national homelessness advocacy organizations, the New York Times reported yesterday on former homeowners who, after losing their housing due to a foreclosure, are now homeless. The story relates the reality of homelessness today -- that it can often involve staying with friends and family, or living in motels, for both brief and lengthy periods of time. In doing so, it provides support for our view that the HUD definition of homelessness must reflect these living situations. We look forward to HUD's upcoming release of new draft regulations regarding the definition of homelessness as amended in last spring's HEARTH Act -- our comments will be focused on ensuring that communities have the maximum possible flexibility to cover people in their area who are truly without housing.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.162 2009-10-20T16:18:13Z 2009-10-20T16:22:51Z

Arianna Huffington writes a great column calling on the media to cover homeless children -- not Balloon Boy!...

Jeremy Rosen column calling on the media to cover homeless children -- not Balloon Boy!]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.161 2009-10-01T16:57:38Z 2009-10-01T17:11:31Z

On Wednesday September 30, 2009, Deputy Secretary Ron Sims of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development invited public housing authorities nationwide to apply for $15 million for new Section 8 vouchers to provide permanent housing and services to...

Jeremy Rosen National Center for Housing and Child Welfare.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.160 2009-09-16T19:10:45Z 2009-09-16T19:19:11Z

As the fourth anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and WIlma has come and gone, the Steps Coalition, a group of Mississippi advocates who support efforts to ensure that all victims of the 2005 storms can return to safe, decent, and...

Jeremy Rosen Read the report.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.159 2009-07-14T22:18:45Z 2009-07-14T22:39:18Z

On July 13, HUD released a new notice that discusses changes to the Continuum of Care application process for 2009. These are changes being determined and implemented by HUD - this year's application process is not being impacted by the...

Jeremy Rosen here.]]> Key points in the notice include: * Reflecting the trend of growing family homelessness by turning the Samaritan Bonus for permanent supportive housing to end long term single adult homelessness into a broader Permanent Housing Bonus to provide permanent housing for homeless individuals or families with a disabled head of household. This is a positive, if incomplete, move towards greater local flexibility in the use of McKinney-Vento funds. * Making Shelter Plus Care and Supportive Housing Program renewal awards soon after applications are reviewed, rather than later in the year along with funds for new programs. As a result of this decision, housing emphasis scores will be calculated based on new programs only, further encouraging a trend towards new programs focusing on housing as opposed to supportive services. This new proposal would likely reduce local flexibility. * Requiring CoC's to coordinate with HUD Recovery Act or "stimulus package" grants such as Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) or Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds. More details on these and other new 2009 proposals will be provided by HUD when the NOFA is released. The release date is not publicly known, but it is expected to be soon. tag:npach.org,2009://4.158 2009-07-14T21:48:20Z 2009-07-14T22:16:00Z

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD, approved proposed FY 2010 (beginning on 10/1/09) funding levels for HUD programs. The full House Appropriations Committee will approve the bill later this week, and it could go to the...

Jeremy Rosen here.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.157 2009-07-13T22:04:38Z 2009-07-13T22:49:38Z

Last week, HUD released its annual Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), containing data on homelessness through September, 2008. As with all past AHARs, the data paints a thoroughly incomplete picture, as it does not count individuals and families temporarily staying...

Jeremy Rosen Last week, HUD released its annual Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), containing data on homelessness through September, 2008. As with all past AHARs, the data paints a thoroughly incomplete picture, as it does not count individuals and families temporarily staying with others, or living at their own expense in motels. Individuals and families in these dire circumstances are erroneously viewed as housed, to be considered homeless only when they wind up on the streets or in emergency shelters. The newly passed HEARTH Act requires HUD to begin defining many of these individuals and families as homeless. This is a good, though woefully incomplete, first step toward providing them with the housing and supportive services they need. Unfortunately the bill also contains troubling language that would inhibit HUD's ability to gather data any of the newly added groups - it simply prohibits the Secretary from requiring communities to count people living in these conditions. Presumably, this was done out of a concern that undertaking such counts would be difficult. But we have to try - without reasonable local estimates of the prevalence of homelessness, even as newly defined by HUD, how can communities properly plan to address it? From the limited information we do have, what new statements can be made about homelessness in the United States? Because the new data is nearly a year old, it does not appear to fully reflect the impact of the economic and foreclosure crises. However, the report does contain some important information, which is consistent with what NPACH is receiving from advocates and service providers from across the country. The demographics of homelessness are changing. More families are becoming homeless, and homelessness is growing fastest in suburban and rural communities. These trends are not surprising to anyone who works on homelessness policy issues, and we can only expect them to continue in next year's report - which will provide the first data on homelessness after the September 2008 beginning of the economic crisis. We look forward to working with the new Administration - at the White House, HUD, and the US Interagency Council on Homelessness - to focus more attention on short and long term solutions to the growing crisis in family homelessness, and to help suburban and rural communities increase their capacity to provide homeless assistance. The first step in this process will be implementation of the new HEARTH Act, which completely re-wrote the law governing HUD's homeless assistance grant programs, and will require HUD for the first time to draft and publish comprehensive governing regulations. We hope and trust that the Administration will reach out and work with us, to ensure that the new law's flexibility is used to meet our most pressing emerging needs. tag:npach.org,2009://4.156 2009-07-13T18:30:04Z 2009-07-13T18:47:05Z

A Sunday, July 12 New York Times Op-Ed by Barbara Ehrenreich does a brilliant job of describing how government "public benefit" programs stigmatize low income people and impede their efforts to overcome poverty. The failure of our nation's social safety...

Jeremy Rosen Read the article]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.155 2009-07-07T15:58:49Z 2009-07-07T16:24:24Z

The current housing crisis has occupied much of our time at NPACH, just as it has likely occupied the time of most homeless activists and service providers. But as we continue the push for additional housing resources to help end...

Jeremy Rosen http://www.familiesusa.org.]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.154 2009-07-06T17:10:04Z 2009-07-06T20:16:49Z

A group of national organizations, including NPACH, NAEHCY, and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, recently released a new report entitled "Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009." The report details results from a survey of service providers assisting homeless children,...

Jeremy Rosen Read the report]]> tag:npach.org,2009://4.153 2009-07-06T16:58:57Z 2009-07-06T17:09:29Z

Just prior to the holiday weekend, HUD awarded local housing authorities 2,551 Section 8 vouchers under the Family Unification Program (FUP). These vouchers can be used to provide housing for families where children have been placed in foster care due...

Jeremy Rosen website.]]>