Committee Expected to Consider Legislation to
Expand “Homelessness” This Summer
The House Financial Services Committee is expected to consider the Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2011 prior to the August recess. The legislation, H.R. 32, was approved by the Financial Services Subcommittee on February 7, 2012.
The bill would expand HUD’s definition of “homelessness” to align with one that the U.S. Department of Education uses. The expanded definition would enable some children living in “doubled up” situations to receive benefits under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
Some advocates remain concerned that without additional funding the bill would dilute existing resources intended to serve people experiencing homelessness, which would result in the households in the most need of help receiving assistance.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) takes the position that the motivation behind H.R. 32 is positive, but in the absence of additional resources to serve the people who would be made newly eligible for HUD homeless services, simply expanding the definition of who is homeless does not offer meaningful reform.
Meanwhile, HUD is still implementing the HEARTH Act, enacted in 2009.
Monarch Housing Associates
Building Homes
Transforming Lives
1990-2013
Tagged as: CoC, Federal Budget, HEARTH, homeless-youth, McKinney-Vento, NLIHC, people experiencing homelessness
Kate Kelly joined Monarch Housing Associates in March of 2011. Prior to that, she worked for seven years at the Partnership for Strong Communities in Hartford, Connecticut as the Reaching Home Campaign Manager. Managing the statewide effort to end long-term homelessness, Kate effectively implemented statewide advocacy campaigns to fund over 700 new supportive housing units for individuals and families. She has experience directing fundraising events and presenting federal and state conferences. At the Partnership, she educated state and federal legislators and staff about supportive housing homelessness issues and advocated for new funding sources. She has also developed public forums that led to formal policy recommendations and educated local constituencies such as policymakers, legislators and funders. Ms. Kelly received her B.A. in government from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S.W from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. Click here to send Ms. Kelly an email.
Kate has written 958 awesome articles.
Subscribe to Monarch Housing's feed via RSS or EMAIL to receive daily or weekly updates.
