Alliance Online News: Alliance releases Sample Veteran Homelessness Master List

Alliance Online News View in browser www.endhomelessness.org Tuesday, April 28, 2015 spotlight on... Alliance Resource: Sample Veteran Homelessness Master List The Alliance has published a sample master list that is meant to serve as a model for communities following the Alliances “Five Steps to End Veteran Homelessness.” Creating and maintaining a master list of homeless veterans in your community will ensure that service providers and partners that are working together to end veteran homelessness are on the same page and have a clear set of people who require housing. Also included with the sample list are answers to several frequently asked questions. Access the resource » hill update House Subcommittee Draft Spending Bill Wouldn’t Fund New Housing Proposals On Tuesday, April 28, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (T-HUD) released a draft fiscal year (FY) 2016 spending bill that includes $2.185 billion for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program, a $50 million increase over the FY 2015 funding level. The Alliance estimates that this funding level would cover all Continuum of Care project renewals, but would not fund any additional projects. The bill would also eliminate new funding for the National Housing Trust Fund, and preclude any new vouchers through the Housing Choice Voucher program. This bill is based on the "sequestration-level" spending caps that are in place under existing budget law. The House T-HUD Subcommittee will mark up this bill on Wednesday, April 29 at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Bill summary and text » For further information on this and more, including: House Appropriations Subcommittees’ Allocations Determined See our legislative update page, WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE HILL. Media Resource: Trends in Homelessness Is homelessness in the U.S. increasing or decreasing? Are there more homeless children today than this day last year? In this resource, “Trends in Homelessness,” which is intended for members of the media, the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute examines what the most recent national data collected by federal agencies say about answers to these and other frequently asked questions about homelessness trends in the U.S. Access the resource » Interactive Map: Ending Veteran Homelessness The Alliance has updated our veteran homelessness interactive map with the most recent information on the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in communities from 2011 to 2014 and data on communities that have ended veteran homelessness. We are actively tracking reports of increases and decreases in veteran homelessness in communities across the country. If you know of a new report on homelessness, either from your local Continuum of Care or from a media outlet, you can help the Alliance’s effort to track veteran homelessness by alerting Alliance program and policy analyst Kate Seif by email at cseif@naeh.org. Access the map » Conference Reminder: Scholarships Opportunities Available The Alliance is currently accepting applications for our scholarship program for our 2015 National Conference on Ending Homelessness, which will take place at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC, from July 15 to 17. The deadline to submit an application for the scholarship program is Wednesday, May 20. Only individuals who are currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness in the past are eligible to apply. More information about the scholarship program is available on the scholarships page of the conference website. Scholarship opportunities » from the blog Ending Homelessness Today the official blog of the national alliance to end homelessness Do Homeless People Need Housing First or Employment First? Let's Do Both! by Mindy Mitchell and Emanuel Cavallaro Ask anyone who is experiencing homelessness what they need most, and they will almost always provide the same answer: housing and jobs. Back when I was a case manager working with homeless families, the families I worked with weren’t broken families in need of fixing. They were homeless families in need of housing, headed by parents who were either unemployed or underemployed. Sure, like everyone, they had their other issues, but it wasn’t up to some social worker like me to make the determination that they couldn’t succeed in life until they addressed them. Read more » comments » | Ending Veteran Homelessness Step Three: Setting Benchmarks by Kate Seif The national goal of ending homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015 is only about seven months away, for those of you keeping track. That’s not a lot of time. So it makes sense for communities like yours who are working toward it to keep track of the pace of their progress. To reach that ultimate goal in your community, you’re going to need to set and meet benchmarks along the way. That’s why we made step three in our Five Steps to Ending Veteran Homelessness setting a clear numerical goal and timeline for reaching it. This should keep you and your partners focused on your progress and always mindful of how well you are doing. Read more » comments » | The State of Homelessness in America 2015: Trends in Chronic Homelessness by Liza Doran Here at the Alliance, we like to say at homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring. For many people who experience homelessness, this is true. But for 15 percent of the homeless population, the opposite is true: they experience homelessness repeatedly and/or for long periods of time, and they have a disability (such as serious mental illness, chronic substance use disorders, or chronic medical issues). These people are chronically homeless. People experiencing chronic homelessness tend to be the most difficult to stably house and, as a result, are the most vulnerable people in the homeless population. Many communities, with the support of the federal government, have targeted interventions toward chronic homelessness in the past decade. Research shows that most effective intervention to end chronic homelessness is permanent supportive housing, which combines stable housing with supportive services. Read more » comments » |