Statement on the Appointment of USICH Executive Director, Robert Marbut

December 3, 2019 — Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Alliance to End Homelessness was informed that Robert Marbut will be named as the incoming Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), replacing Matthew Doherty, who left USICH on November 14, 2019.   

Marbut will lead the only federal agency with the sole responsibility of ending homelessness. USICH accomplishes its mission by working with the 19 different federal departments and agencies that have direct responsibility for helping people experiencing homelessness, and coordinating this work with other levels of government and the private sector. 

His job will be to ensure that federal agencies use their programs and investments to end homelessness through the most effective, efficient, and impactful interventions.  Marbut will also be responsible to ensure the coordination of these agencies in a variety of areas — housing, health care, veteran assistance, education, child care, employment, behavioral health and much more.

“USICH and its dedicated staff of experts have helped the nation to create an effective federal response to homelessness. It is difficult to overstate the Council’s importance, or the immense responsibility to sustain and advance its progress,” said Nan Roman, President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “This work has been neither political nor partisan.  Rather, it has been strategic, evidence-based, and informed by the best practices in ending homelessness, including Housing First approaches.”

“The Alliance hopes to continue to work with USICH, under the leadership of Mr. Marbut, to achieve USICH’s statutory mission of, ‘coordinating the federal response to homelessness and creating a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the federal government in contributing to the end of homelessness.’”