Michelle Obama Announces Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness

June 10, 2014
		ISSUES  |  POLICY  |  SOLUTIONS  |  NEWS & EVENTS Forward Editor: Emanuel Cavallaro
		Spotlight On... Michelle Obama Announces Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness Last week, first lady Michelle Obama kicked off the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness initiative, enlisting the support of more than 80 state and local officials in the Administration's effort to end homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015. Among the mayors lauded by the First Lady in her remarks were Mayor Greg Stanton of Phoenix and Mayor Ben McAdams of Salt Lake City, cities that have eliminated chronic veteran homelessness. "Now we have to finish the job once and for all, because when a veteran comes home kissing the ground, it is unacceptable that he should ever have to sleep on it," Mrs. Obama said. More information

Hill Update Senate Appropriations Committee Marks Up HUD Spending Bill Last Thursday, June 5, the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its fiscal year (FY) 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) spending bill for programs under its jurisdiction, including the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program and various other low-income housing programs. The bill, which passed through the Committee with a bipartisan vote of 29-1, largely includes the same funding levels for homeless assistance and affordable housing programs that were included in the Subcommittee's draft bill, including $2.15 billion for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. The full House began consideration of its version of the T-HUD bill yesterday, and is expected to pass the bill soon. The full Senate is expected to begin consideration of this bill in the upcoming weeks. Hearing audio, bill text, and summary Senate Appropriations Subcommittee to Mark Up Spending Bill Today at 2:30 p.m. ET, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet to mark up the fiscal year (FY) 2015 appropriations bill for programs under its jurisdiction, including Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) programs and SAMHSA Homeless Services programs. The markup audio will stream live today, Tuesday, June 15, at 2:15 p.m. ET on the Senate Appropriations Committee website. House Returns from Recess The House returned from recess to resume session on Monday, June 9. Partnership with Alliance Reduces Homelessness in Virginia by Almost 8 Percent Last week, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that homelessness in the Commonwealth of Virginia declined by 7.9 percent from 2013 to 2014, with the governor's office attributing the progress, in part, to its collaboration with the Alliance and the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness. The collaboration, which was funded through the Freddie Mac Foundation, transformed the way the commonwealth addresses homelessness by bringing about the reallocation of state resources from traditional shelter services to rapid re-housing, and placing greater emphasis on moving people into permanent housing quickly.

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Last Week on Ending Homelessness Today

We're Going to Have a Lot of Youth Homelessness Workshops at our DC Conference
By Mindy Mitchell
Each year our national conference includes many workshops exploring ways to end youth homelessness. In this post, we provide an overview of the workshops will appear in the Youth Track of our upcoming 2014 National Conference.
Here's What We Know About Homeless Youth - The State of Homelessness 2014
By Sam Batko This month we are highlighting content from our recently released annual report "The State of Homelessness in America." In this post, we take a look at what the report has to say about one homeless subpopulation that has previously gone uncounted: unaccompanied children and youth.

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