August 27, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20500

Dear President Obama:

We are writing to urge you and your administration to give urgent attention to the needs of America’s most vulnerable population – homeless persons.  We are grateful for your leadership in championing the economic stimulus package, and indeed its funds have saved many of the most important safety net programs and the people they serve.  As the economy continues to struggle and unemployment remains high, communities around the country are still finding great difficulty in combating homelessness.

Your strong leadership is needed to end this crisis and protect vulnerable individuals and families who are on the verge of losing their housing.   Solutions to address this crisis exist and they are centered on affordable housing and healthcare, supportive services for those who need them, and adequate incomes.   These solutions recognize that homelessness is more than just a charitable concern, but an issue of basic human rights that affects the overall wellbeing of our country.   

As leaders of the movement to end homelessness in America, we call upon you to build on your Administration’s work to date by committing to take, and ask the Congress to take, these six key steps to move us significantly towards the goal of ending homelessness in America:

1.  Commit to End Homelessness—Now

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has only formally met once during your administration and has yet to have a permanent executive director appointed to lead its activities.  The recently enacted HEARTH Act requires the ICH to develop, no later than May 20, 2010, a national plan to end homelessness.  We urge you to hold a White House Conference on Homelessness no later than next Spring at which the federal, interagency plan to end homelessness in the United States is presented.  The plan should have concrete goals and timelines and should be developed in consultation with homeless advocates and local communities.  Additionally, we urge you to put processes in place to ensure oversight and implementation of the plan. The plan should include and address the priorities below:

2.  Increase Access to Affordable Housing

The nation requires significant federal investment in affordable housing to prevent and end homelessness in America.  Federal funding for affordable housing has been sorely inadequate over the past 30 years, and now is the time to renew our commitment toward the production of new housing opportunities.  Priority should be given to expanding a range of affordable housing opportunities to end homelessness for single adults, families, veterans, and youth, including:  Section 8, permanent supportive housing, the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Family Unification Program Vouchers, Youth Transitional Housing, prevention and rapid rehousing services, and new, innovative programs.

3.  Ensure Adequate Incomes

Ensure that every American has an annual income—whether through wages, public income assistance, tax credits, or a combination thereof—sufficient to obtain and maintain permanent housing that costs no more than 30 percent of the household’s income.

4.  Expand Access to Affordable Health Services

Ensure that the health care reform legislation guarantees access and eliminates all financial barriers to comprehensive health services – including behavioral health care – for all Americans.  This would include expanding Medicaid to all low-income people and allowing reimbursement for proven effective services that help reduce the use of more costly emergency and hospital care (such as medical respite care and supportive services within housing programs).   

5.  Ensure Access to Education for Homeless Children and Youth

Strengthen educational access and stability for homeless children and youth, including young children and unaccompanied youth, through the reauthorization and the full funding of the education title of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and expanded access to Head Start and higher education.

6.  Protect Homeless People from Discrimination

Homeless persons’ civil rights to vote, to frequent public places, to utilize public facilities, and to enjoy equal protection of the law must be supported and advanced.

We urge you to adopt these recommendations as a first step towards ending homelessness in America.  A more detailed explanation of the recommendations and their rationale is enclosed. We stand ready to assist you and your staff. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you or your staff.

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For more information, please contact Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, at 202-638-2535, x209.

Respectfully,

National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
America’s Road Home
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Give Us Your Poor
National AIDS Housing Coalition
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
National Center for Housing and Child Welfare
National Center on Family Homelessness
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
National Housing Law Project
National Low Income Housing Coalition
National Network for Youth
National Network to End Domestic Violence
National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness

1.  Commit to End Homelessness—Now.

Background:  Solutions to homelessness exist and thousands of programs are implementing them across the country, but these groups do not have the resources to bring them to the scale needed to solve the problem. Further, many state and local governments have created plans to end homelessness in their communities, but they are hampered by limited federal support.  Public opinion surveys consistently show that the American people favor government action to end homelessness, and would pay higher taxes to fund it.  Coordinated federal action, funding and leadership are needed, and White House leadership is essential to mobilizing the political will to end the crisis.

Recommendation:  The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has only formally met once during your administration and has yet to have a permanent executive director appointed to lead its activities.  The recently enacted HEARTH Act requires the ICH to develop, no later than May 20, 2010, a national plan to end homelessness.  We urge you to hold a White House Conference on Homelessness no later than next Spring at which the federal, interagency plan to end homelessness in the United States is presented.  The plan should have concrete goals and timelines and should be developed in consultation with homeless advocates and local communities.  Additionally, we urge you to put processes in place to ensure oversight and implementation of the plan. The plan should include and address the priorities below:

2.  Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing

Background:  Federal funding for affordable housing has been sorely inadequate over the past 30 years; in the private market, gentrification has replaced inexpensive housing with luxury residential or commercial property, without provision for those displaced.  Currently, in no U.S. county can a minimum wage worker afford a one-bedroom apartment, according to federal affordability guidelines.  According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), approximately 5.99 million low-income households had worst case housing needs in 2005, the most recent year for which data is available.  That number does not include persons who were homeless or who were living doubled up.  Even emergency shelter is insufficient: according to the most recent data from HUD, approximately 280,000 persons were unsheltered on a single night in 2008.

Subpopulations of homeless and at risk people have particular needs.  Homeless veterans, both men and women, account for 30% of the adult homeless population, and the numbers threaten to rise as a result of inadequate support for those returning from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For women, domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness but there is a severe shortage of housing for women fleeing abuse.  Unaccompanied youth also face a shortage of housing options – in 2008, programs funded by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act made street contacts with over 740,000 youths, but only 6% received shelter or housing options.  Additionally, many homeless persons have disabilities or suffer from addictions and need permanent, supportive housing.   For example, access to affordable housing is critical for persons with HIV/AIDS – a 15-year longitudinal study by Columbia University found housing to be one of the primary needs for persons living with HIV/AIDS and housing with supportive services provided a critical pathway to HIV care and treatment. 

Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers are one of the most important safety nets in preventing homelessness, yet funding shortages are leading some communities to raise residents’ rent burden and consider the elimination of vouchers. 

Recommendations:  Fund at least 200,000 new housing vouchers each year to help address the critical shortage of rental housing affordable to people with extremely low incomes who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and ensure HUD has sufficient resources a) to ensure no current voucher holder loses that voucher, and is not forced to abruptly increase their rent contribution, and b) improve cost modeling to ensure sufficient annual funding is provided to this program so the funding gap experienced in 2009 is not repeated.

In addition, address the needs of specific subpopulations as follows: Create and sustain 90,000 additional units of permanent supportive housing to meet the needs of persons with disabilities and/or addictions; fulfill your commitment to abolishing homelessness among our nation’s veterans by providing the appropriate mix of emergency, transitional and permanent housing for each of the approximately 131,000 veterans who are currently homeless; provide $60 million per year to fully fund the housing programs created by the Violence Against Women Act, sponsored by Vice-President Biden; prevent the break-up of homeless families and ease the transition to adulthood for youth aging out of foster care by funding 19,000 Family Unification Program vouchers annually; double the funding of the Transitional Living Program under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act; and offer substantial increases in funding to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs to prevent homelessness and offer rapid rehousing services. Additionally, quickly promulgate regulations for the National Housing Trust Fund, capitalize the Trust Fund at $10 billion over two years, and fulfill your budget recommendation of at least $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund in Fiscal Year 2010.

3.  Ensure Adequate Incomes

Background:  Approximately 44% of the adult homeless population has performed some type of work for pay in any given month, yet most do not make enough to afford housing.   Many more homeless persons may be unable to work due to disabling conditions – some 31% of homeless adults experience mental illness, addiction or both in a year; and approximately 45% suffer from chronic health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, or lost limbs.  Yet, while many are eligible for disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) programs, only 11% receive SSI and only 8% receive SSDI benefits.

Recommendation:  Ensure that every American has an annual income—whether through wages, public income assistance, tax credits, or a combination thereof—sufficient to obtain and maintain permanent housing that costs no more than 30 percent of the household’s income.

4.  Expand Access to Affordable Health Services

Background:  Homeless people suffer from multiple chronic and acute health problems at a rate far higher than the general U.S. population, yet 70% have no medical insurance (only 22% receive Medicaid).  The experience of homelessness causes poor health, and likewise, poor health causes homelessness.  In addition, when homeless persons are hospitalized, they remain in the hospital longer than housed persons with similar ailments, and have higher rates of hospital readmission. 

Recommendation: Ensure that the health care reform legislation guarantees access and eliminates all financial barriers to comprehensive health services – including behavioral health care – for all Americans.  This would include expanding Medicaid to all low-income people and allowing reimbursement for proven effective services that help reduce the use of more costly emergency and hospital care (such as medical respite care and supportive services within housing programs). 

5.  Ensure Access to Education for Homeless Children and Youth

Background:  School is a place of safety, structure, and opportunity. Yet homeless children and youth face unique barriers to education. These barriers include being unable to meet enrollment requirements, high residential mobility, lack of transportation, lack of school supplies and clothing, and poor health, fatigue, and hunger. When these barriers are not addressed, homeless children and youth often are unable to attend, or even enroll in, school, which prevents them from obtaining the education that is guaranteed under law and is their best hope of escaping poverty as adults. The McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program was created specifically to remove the barriers to education, including early childhood education, caused by homelessness. It was amended most recently in Title X, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Recommendation:  By 2010, strengthen educational access and stability for homeless children and youth, including young children and unaccompanied youth, through the reauthorization and the full funding of the education subtitle of the McKinney-Vento Act.

6.  Protect Homeless People from Discrimination

Background:  Homeless persons encounter many challenges not faced by housed persons when trying to exercise basic civil rights.  Homeless persons seeking to vote or register to vote may face obstacles because of their inability to prove residency or because they lack the necessary identification documents such as a photo ID.  The lack of ID also may cause them to be denied access to government buildings, such as Social Security offices, even when the purpose of their visit is to obtain replacement identification documents.

City ordinances frequently serve as a tool for criminalizing homelessness – prohibiting persons from engaging in necessary, life-sustaining activities in public spaces even when those persons have nowhere else to go.  Furthermore, some cities have taken the criminalization of homelessness a step further, by prohibiting public feeding of groups of homeless persons or limiting feeding to certain parts of the city.

The recently enacted HEARTH Act requires the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) to develop constructive alternatives to the criminalization of homelessness.

Recommendation:  Homeless persons’ civil rights to vote, to frequent public places, to utilize public facilities, and to enjoy equal protection of the law must be supported and advanced.  The ICH and its member agencies should work with advocates to develop information about constructive alternatives to criminalization of homelessness; actively promote these alternatives and discourage ordinances that criminalize homelessness.  Constructive alternatives to criminalization should include Housing First approaches for persons on the streets, combined with mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and health care as needed.