This brief describes needed legislative activity around the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) homeless veteran programs in the upcoming 114th Congress. The Alliance and its national partners will be advocating for these changes to improve the effectiveness of VA’s efforts to end veteran homelessness.
Category: Policy
Making Effective Use of TANF
The resource provides an overview of how some communities are using TANF funds for short-term rent assistance and how TANF agencies can help improve the self-sufficiency of families.
National Housing Trust Fund
The goal of the Trust Fund is to provide ongoing, permanent, dedicated, and sufficient sources of revenue to build, rehabilitate, and preserve units of housing for the lowest-income families.
LGBTQ Youth National Policy Statement
As many as 20 percent of the runaway and homeless youth population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ). This suggests as many as 80,000 LGBTQ youth are homeless for over a week each year. These young people face particular difficulties. Ending homelessness for LGBTQ youth will require specific policies to address those difficulties.
Changes in the HUD Definition of “Homeless”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a final regulation to implement changes to the definition of homelessness contained in the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act. The new definition is outlined here.