Impact
ANNUAL HOUSE HOMELESSNESS FUNDING LETTER UNDERWAY
Thanks to your efforts, we’ve gone from 0 to 84 signatories in less than a week. We have until March 24, this Friday, to get other House lawmakers on board. And remember: in this case, more is better because the more Representatives that sign on to the Moore-Bacon letter the more support will be attributed to House efforts to generate more robust homelessness funding.
84 Current Signatories: Adams, Auchinloss, Bacon, Beatty, Bera, Blumenauer, Blunt Rochester, Bonamici, Boyle, Brownley, Carbajal, Casar, Castro, Cicilline, Clarke (NY), Cleaver, Cohen, Connolly, Correa, Costa, Craig, Crow, Davis (IL), Dean, DeGette, DelBene, DeSaulnier, Dingell, Evans, Fletcher, Garamendi, Golden, Gomez, Gonzalez, González-Colón, Grijalva, Hayes, Higgins, Houlahan, Jayapal, Kamlager-Dove, Keating, Kelly (IL), Kildee, Kim, Lee (CA), Levin, Matsui, McBath, McGovern, Meeks, Moore (WI), Moulton, Napolitano, Neal, Pallone, Panetta, Peltola, Peters, Pingree, Plaskett, Porter, Ross, Ruiz, Sablan, Scanlon, Schiff, Schneider, Sherman, Sherrill, Smith (WA), Swalwell, Thompson (CA), Tonko, Torres (NY), Titus, Trahan, Vargas, Veasy, Velázquez, Waters, Williams (GA), Wilson (FL)
Deadline: March 24. Moore: Anna.Whitlam@mail.house.gov Bacon: Matthew.Duglin@mail.house.gov
Here is the letter: FY24 HAG Funding Letter (final)
And here is rhetoric you should feel free to use or lose in obtaining your Representative’s signature:
The National Alliance to End Homelessness urges your Representative to sign on to the bipartisan letter organized by Representatives Moore (D-WI) and Bacon (R-NE) to the House Transportation-Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee to increase funding for Homeless Assistance Grants in FY24. Increased homelessness resources achieve results. Homelessness among people in families with children is down by 6.1%, unaccompanied youth homelessness is down by 12%, and veteran homelessness is down by 11.1%. Why? Because those are the categories where the federal government is focusing resources. HUD pledged to house 100,000 homeless people in 15 months—and it did. VA promised to house 40,000 homeless veterans in one year—and it did. Resources and leadership equal reductions in homelessness.
We appreciate the Administration’s proposal to increase that amount by $116 million, which would cover the increased cost of renewals and continue to fund important priorities like programs for youth and survivors of domestic violence. However, the sign-on letter asks for an increase of $200 million to address several pressing needs. The additional $84 million could be used to pay for
- critical support services to chronically homeless people with behavioral health needs;
Chronic homelessness increased by more than 15% since the last count in 2020. People experiencing chronic homelessness have been outside for far too long and suffer from one or more morbidities (a physical ailment, mental illness, or substance use); they have acute needs and are costly to their communities, and they need to be safely and securely housed, which requires services for rental navigation, case management, and health care.
2. investments to address unsheltered homelessness;
Slightly over half of all people who experienced homelessness as individuals are staying in unsheltered locations, 51 percent or 216,495 people. Unsheltered homelessness increased by 3.4% since the last count.
3. additional Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding to help communities maintain shelter resources and rapid re-housing efforts established with soon-to-expire, one-time CARES Act COVID ESG; and
There is a valuable precedent for such an increase. To aid in the recovery from the Great Recession, communities were provided with significant ESG funding pursuant to the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. Congress, understanding that vital local efforts would otherwise be undercut, increased the annual amount of ESG from $160 million in 2010 to no less than $250 million in all of the following years (except for 2013).
4. a modest cost of living increase for front-line homelessness services staff.
It is imperative that compensation for front-line homelessness services workers be made more competitive. At a March 8 Senate Banking subcommittee hearing, the HUD witness said it was “critical” for this problem to be addressed and suggested increasing CoC funding so as not to reduce services but still increase staff compensation. At the same hearing, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness witness said the homeless services workforce is in a “crisis” and that providers were experiencing 50% turnover before COVID.
The non-profit services providers, on which local homelessness systems depend, are struggling to compete for workers, especially given the stress from working in homeless services—and this is having an adverse impact on the provision of services. Homeless programs consist of rents (rental assistance, leasing, and operating) and supportive services, and the biggest cost of supportive services are the salaries of employees who provide those critical supportive services. Rents are adjusted for increases in fair market rents, but supportive services (which include coordinated entry costs as well as supportive service costs in other housing grants) are not. The cost of supportive services should be adjusted annually, as is done already for rents.
Thanks for your consideration.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely, John Threlkeld, National Alliance to End Homelessness, (202) 255-6215
Summary
Please let the Alliance’s John Threlkeld (jthrelkeld@naeh.org) know if you have any questions about legislation.