President Barack Obama
signed into law the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to
Housing Act (HEARTH Act). The legislation, which reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento
homeless assistance programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, was included
within the larger Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (S. 896, P.L.
111-022) legislation on May 20, 2009.
The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) commends Congress for taking
action to reauthorize the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs of the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Interagency
Council on Homelessness. This
action represents the first formal reauthorization of HUD’s homeless
assistance programs since 1992 – a reauthorization long overdue. Moreover, the wide margin of support for the addition of the
HEARTH Act to the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 is indicative of
the bipartisan interest among Members of Congress in responding to homelessness.
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Adds additional homelessness prevention activities and populations at risk
of homelessness into the current Emergency Shelter Grants program, which is
renamed Emergency Solutions Grants.
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Allows Congress to finance the renewal costs of permanent housing projects
initiated with HUD McKinney-Vento funds from the Housing Choice Voucher account.
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Increases the administrative
expense limit for project sponsors.
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Prohibits shelter and housing projects receiving HUD McKinney-Vento funds
from requiring a family to separate any child or youth member of the family from
the whole unit as a condition for the family’s admission into the shelter or
housing.
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Improves collaboration
between Continuum of Care jurisdictions and HUD-funded homeless assistance
providers and local educational agencies with regard to homeless child and youth
access to elementary and secondary education.
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Requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on rural
homeless assistance, including offering recommendations on the appropriate
federal agency or agencies to administer a rural homeless assistance program.
In
other areas, the legislation falls short of NCH’s aspirations. Among them:
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The authorization level for HUD McKinney-Vento programs is set at $2.2
billion in FY 2010, far below the minimum $3 billion level of annual funding
need identified by NCH and other homeless advocacy organizations, particularly
as homelessness prevention activities are introduced as eligible activities into
HUD McKinney-Vento programs.
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The bill relegates homeless people and service providers to consultative
roles in the Continuum of Care application process, rather than assuring them
decision-making roles.
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The new definition of homeless individual for HUD programs (and by
extension other federal, state and local programs that use the HUD definition of
homelessness) continues to exclude several subpopulations recognized in other
federal law to be homeless, including homeless families living in shared housing
for more than two week duration and single adults and childless couples living
in shared housing due to loss of housing and economic hardship. Furthermore, the
new definition is overly complex and likely to prove unwieldy for people to
understand whether or not they are eligible for homeless assistance, or why they
may be eligible for some homeless programs, but not others.
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The bill permits jurisdictions with low rates of homelessness to use
Continuum of Care funds for people who are not homeless under the HUD definition
but are homeless under other federal definitions, but limits this flexibility
for jurisdictions with higher rates of homelessness, thus creating inequity in
access to HUD-funded homeless assistance services across jurisdictions.
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The legislation limits flexibility of jurisdictions receiving Continuum of
Care funds to spend resources on the full range of eligible activities by
establishing priorities, incentives, and bonuses for some activities over
others.
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The legislation limits flexibility of jurisdictions receiving Emergency
Solutions Grant (formerly Emergency Shelter Grant) funds to spend the full
amount of ESG resources on emergency shelter, outreach, and essential services.
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The bill codifies into law the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
without assuring privacy protections for homeless people or controlling use of
HMIS data for decision-making.
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The bill misses the opportunity to elevate the Executive Director of the
Interagency Council on Homelessness to a Senate-confirmed position, or to have
the ICH Director report directly to the White House rather than to an annual
rotation of Cabinet secretaries.
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The bill’s definition of “rural area” for purposes of a new rural
homeless assistance set-aside program permits metropolitan cities within some
western states to remove themselves from the main Continuum of Care program and
instead secure funds through the rural account.
“NCH regrets that the
above-mentioned weaknesses in the legislation were not adequately addressed in
the HEARTH Act prior to passage,” according to NCH Executive Director Michael
Stoops. However, they have
pledged to work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and
other stakeholders to assure implementation of the HEARTH Act in a manner as
inclusive and protective as possible as the law affords for people experiencing
homelessness and for homeless assistance service providers. The brief two-year
authorization period for HUD McKinney-Vento programs provides a quick
opportunity to ask Congress to redress weaknesses with the new law.
Copyright Homeless
Grapevine Issue #87 in July 2009 in Cleveland Ohio.