HOUSING JUSTICE

BREAKING NEWS

• April 23: Foreclosure to Homelessness: the Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis
• April 14: HUD’s latest Annual Homeless Assessment Report has been released.

RECENT ITEMS

• November 2: Homeless Shelters: A Feeble Response to Homelessness by Betty Reid Mandell (an article in NewPolitics)
• October 4: Statement for the Record of Barbara Anderson (NCH board member) before the
  Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, at a hearing on The Reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. [pdf file]
• October 4: NCH's comment on the Reed Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA, S. 1518).
• August 27: Legislative Action Alert: Weigh-In On HUD McKinney-Vento Reauthorization.
• July 20: NCH Calls on Congress to “Bring America Home” at National Event Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act.
• July 1: Legislation establishing a National Housing Trust Fund was introduced Thursday, June 28th. The Trust Fund has been an integral component of the Bringing America Home Act in both the 108th and 109th Congress. We are hoping to see it included in the 110th bill to be introduced later this summer.
• June 25: Read NCH’s position on S.1518 and HR 840, the two bills to reauthorize McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program currently in Congress. There is also a side-by-side comparing the two bills (note: These are pdf files).
• May 17: NCH mentioned in New York Times article "Gay Youths Find Place to Call Home in Specialty Shelters."
• May 16: The Minneapolis Public Schools endorse the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH Act).
• May 9: Legislation Introduced to Make Attacks on Homeless a Hate Crime.
• April 30: The Twentieth Anniversary of the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act: A Consensus Statement on Five Fundamentals (pdf file)
• March 4: The Counting is Done; Let the Housing Begin: a response to HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.
• February 27: HUD Continuum of Care and Emergency Shelter Grants Announced.
• February 12: Press Release on Housing Programs Affected by President’s FY08 Budget.
• September 27: Fire HUD's Alphonso Jackson, a piece about a top U.S. housing official by Rev. Chuck Currie.

Core Principles

• Every member of society, including people experiencing homelessness, has a right to basic economic and social entitlements of which safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing is a definitive component.
  
  
• It is a societal responsibility to provide safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing for all people, including people experiencing homelessness, who are unable to secure such housing through their own means.
  
  
• All people, including people experiencing homelessness, who are able to secure safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing through their own means need economic and social supports to enable them to do so.
  
  
• People experiencing homelessness deserve access to safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing through the same systems and programs available to people with housing.
  
  
• People experiencing homelessness have unique needs and life circumstances that may be addressed through housing programs designed specifically for them.
  
  
• All people should have equal access to safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing regardless of their unique needs or life circumstances.
  
  
• Universal access to safe, decent, accessible, affordable, and permanent housing is a measure of a truly just society.
  

ARCHIVED NEWS ITEMS

• February 14: Bush Budget Leaves No Millionaire Behind as He Proposes Massive Cuts To Programs for Homeless and Low-Income People.

For more information contact, Michael Stoops, Acting Executive Director, 202.462.4822, ext. 19; mstoops@nationalhomeless.org.