[Senate Hearing 110-919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 110-919
WORKING TOWARDS ENDING HOMELESSNESS:
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE McKINNEY-VENTO HOMELESS ASSISTANCE ACT
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING,HOUSING,AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
CONSOLIDATING HUD'S HOMELESSNESS PROGRAMS, INCREASE FUNDING FOR
PREVENTION PROGRAMS, AND INCORPORATE LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT HOMELESSNESS
SINCE THE PASSAGE OF THE MCKINNEY-VENTO ACT
__________
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs
Available at: http: //www.access.gpo.gov /congress /senate /
senate05sh.html
----------
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Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut, Chairman
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama
JACK REED, Rhode Island ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado
EVAN BAYH, Indiana MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey JIM BUNNING, Kentucky
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire
ROBERT P. CASEY, Pennsylvania ELIZABETH DOLE, North Carolina
JON TESTER, Montana MEL MARTINEZ, Florida
Shawn Maher, Staff Director
William D. Duhnke, Republican Staff Director and Counsel
Jonathan Miller, Professional Staff
Jennifer Fogel-Bublick, Counsel
Kara Stein, Legislative Assistant
Mark A. Calabria, Republican Senior Professional Staff Member
Tewana D. Wilkerson, Republican Professional Staff Member
Joseph R. Kolinski, Chief Clerk and Computer Systems Administrator
George Whittle, Editor
C O N T E N T S
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THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
Page
Opening statement of Senator Reed................................ 1
Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of:
Senator Shelby............................................... 2
Senator Akaka................................................ 3
Senator Martinez............................................. 4
Senator Casey................................................ 5
Senator Sununu............................................... 6
Senator Brown................................................ 8
Senator Crapo................................................ 8
Senator Allard............................................... 9
WITNESSES
Roy A. Bernardi, Deputy Secretary, Department of Housing and
Urban Development.............................................. 11
Prepared Statement........................................... 44
Response to written questions of:
Senator Crapo............................................ 137
Adrian M. Fenty, Mayor, District of Columbia..................... 13
Prepared Statement........................................... 50
Shirley Franklin, Mayor, City of Atlanta, Georgia................ 14
Prepared Statement........................................... 53
Lloyd S. Pendleton, Director, Homeless Task Force, Department of
Community and Culture, Division of Housing and Community
Development, State of Utah..................................... 28
Prepared Statement........................................... 61
Response to written questions of:
Senator Dodd............................................. 138
Carol Gundlach, Executive Director, Alabama Coalition Against
Domestic Violence.............................................. 30
Prepared Statement........................................... 72
Moises Loza, Executive Director, Housing Assistance Council...... 32
Prepared Statement........................................... 102
Linda Glassman, Secretary, Board af Directors, National AIDS
Housing Coalition.............................................. 34
Prepared Statement........................................... 113
Response to written questions of:
Senator Dodd............................................. 138
Nan Roman, President, National Alliance To End Homelessness...... 37
Prepared Statement........................................... 121
Additional Material Supplied for the Record
Letter from Homes In Partnership, Inc............................ 139
Letter from the Kern County Homeless Collaborative............... 140
Letter from the Oswego Housing Development Council, Inc.......... 141
Letter from Mike Lowry, former Member of Congress and former
Governor, State of Washington.................................. 142
Letter from the National Alliance to End Homelessness............ 143
Letter from the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness........ 144
Letter from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and
the National Equity Fund (NEF)................................. 145
Letter from Columbus House, Inc.................................. 146
Letter from the Corporation for Supportive Housing in Connecticut 148
Letter from the Technical Assistance Collaborative............... 150
Letter from the National AIDS Housing Coalition, Inc............. 151
Letter from the National Housing Conference...................... 152
Letter from Enterprise Community Partners, Inc................... 154
Letter from the Housing Assistance Council....................... 156
Letter from the Partnership for Strong Communities............... 157
Letter from multiple agencies in support of S. 1518, The
Community Partnership To End Homelessness Act.................. 158
Letter from multiple rural housing organizations and advocates in
support of S. 1518, The Community Partnership To End
Homelessness Act............................................... 160
Letter from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)....... 162
Letter from the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities........ 163
Letter from the City and County of San Francisco Local Homeless
Coordinating Board............................................. 165
Letter from the Keuka Housing Council, Inc....................... 167
WORKING TOWARDS ENDING HOMELESSNESS: REAUTHORIZATION OF THE McKINNEY-
VENTO HOMELESS ASSISTANCE ACT
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THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met at 10:04 a.m., in room SD-538, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Senator Jack Reed, presiding.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR JACK REED
Senator Reed. Let me call the Committee hearing to order.
Today we are beginning a hearing entitled ``Working Toward
Ending Homelessness: Reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act.'' The purpose of this hearing is to
determine how we can best reauthorize the housing assistance
titles of this groundbreaking legislation.
While Congress has continued to appropriate funding for
housing assistance for those who are homeless, the McKinney-
Vento Act has not been comprehensively reauthorized since 1994.
We want the hearing this morning to focus on lessons learned
during the past decade regarding how to best prevent and end
homelessness, as well as our witnesses' perspectives on S.
1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act, a
reauthorization bill that Senator Allard and I recently
introduced.
S. 1518 would reauthorize and amend the housing titles of
the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act of 1987.
Specifically, our bill would realign the incentives behind the
Department of Housing and Urban Development's Homeless
Assistance Programs to better accomplish the goals of
preventing and ending homelessness.
We are particularly proud of the new prevention program and
rural homelessness program in the bill. According to the
Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End
Homelessness, as many as 3.5 million Americans experience
homelessness each year. On any one night, approximately 744,000
men, women, and children are without homes. Another study by
the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimated that
nearly 200,000 veterans of the United States Armed Forces are
homeless on any given night and about one-third of homeless men
are veterans.
The statistics regarding the number of children who
experience homelessness are especially troubling. Each year it
is estimated that at least 1.35 million children experience
homelessness at some time. Over 40 percent of homeless children
are under the age of 5. Whatever their age, we know that
children who are homeless are in poorer health, have
developmental delays, and suffer academically.
In addition, we know that many of those who are homeless
have a disability. According to the Homelessness Research
Institute, about 23 percent of homeless people were found to be
chronically homelessness, which under the current HUD
definition means that they are homeless for long periods of
time or homeless repeatedly and they have a disability. For
many of these individuals and families, housing alone, without
some attached services, may not be enough.
Finally, as rents have soared and affordable housing units
have disappeared from the market during the past several years,
even more working Americans have been left unable to afford
housing. According to the National Low Income Housing
Coalition's most recent ``Out of Reach'' report, nowhere in the
country can a minimum wage earner afford a one-bedroom home; 88
percent of renters in cities live in areas where they cannot
afford the fair market rent for a two-bedroom rental, even with
two minimum wage jobs. Low-income renters who live paycheck to
paycheck are in precarious circumstances and sometimes must
make tough choices between paying rent and buying food,
prescription drugs, or other necessities. If one unforeseen
event occurs in their lives, they could end up homeless.
So why should the Federal Government work to help prevent
and end homelessness? Simply put, we cannot afford not to
address this problem. Homelessness leads to untold costs,
including expenses for emergency rooms, jails, shelters, foster
care, detoxification, and emergency mental health treatment. It
has been 20 years since the enactment of the Stewart B.
McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, and we have learned a lot
about the problem of homelessness since then. It is now time to
take what we have learned during the past 20 years and put
those best practices and proposals into action.
There is a growing consensus on ways to help communities
break the cycle of repeated and prolonged homelessness.
Clearly, Senator Allard and I have been thinking about this a
fair amount, and we look forward to hearing from our witnesses
today about how we can best work together--work together--on
reauthorizing the housing titles of the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act to focus on preventing and ending long-term
homelessness.
And before I introduce our witnesses, I would like to
recognize the Ranking Member, Senator Shelby, for his comments.
Senator.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator Reed.
Homelessness is an issue facing not only larger cities, but
also small towns and rural communities across our country. The
causes of homelessness are as diverse as the communities that
it affects.
The programs which reside in many of our Federal agencies
have attempted to address the full spectrum of the problem.
Some have succeeded, some have not. While this Committee's
primary responsibility includes HUD's homeless assistance
programs, we should keep in mind the interrelation between
HUD's programs and those found at other agencies. Differing
rules and program definitions often decrease the effectiveness
of how Federal programs operate at the local level. This is an
area on which I hope we will focus some today.
I also want to thank all of today's witnesses for their
willingness to appear before the Committee. In particular, I
would like to thank someone from my State, Ms. Carol Gundlach,
for her participation. Ms. Gundlach is the Executive Director
of the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a position
in which she has served since 1990. She has also served as the
State coordinator of the Alabama Coalition Against Hunger and
as a member of the board of directors of the National Network
to End Domestic Violence. She was instrumental in helping to
bring many of Alabama's rural communities into HUD's continuum
of care process.
Ms. Gundlach, I am looking forward to you on the second
panel testifying here today, and I welcome all the witnesses
today, including the Deputy Secretary of HUD. But, Senator
Reed, I think we are served well by the former Secretary of
HUD, Senator Martinez, who knows a lot about this program,
knows a lot about housing, having served as Secretary of HUD
before he became a United States Senator.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Shelby. I concur. And I
also want to particularly thank again Senator Allard and his
staff who have worked so diligently on this issue. We have over
the last several years shared responsibilities as Chairmen of
the Subcommittee on Housing, and we have done it I think in a
very cooperative way.
Senator Shelby. Well, you and Senator Allard worked
together when the Democrats were in power and when we were in
power, vice versa, because you have a common goal.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and now Ranking
Member.
Senator Akaka, if you have comments.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR DANIEL K. AKAKA
Senator Akaka. Yes, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman and Ranking Member Shelby. I want to add my welcome to
our witnesses today, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
conducting this hearing on such an important issue.
My home State of Hawaii is struggling to meet the housing
needs of our residents. In the National Low Income Housing
Coalition's ``Out of Reach 2006'' report, Hawaii ranked 51st in
terms of housing affordability, and, Mayor Fenty, Hawaii was
only above the District of Columbia in that report.
Hawaii has the highest median monthly rental cost in the
country. Having a job is not enough to ensure access to
adequate housing. We have a tremendous shortage of affordable
housing. It will take long-term, coordinated Federal, State,
and county efforts to help increase access to affordable
housing.
In addition to limited access to affordable housing, there
are numerous other causes of homelessness which can include
suffering from a debilitating illness, substance abuse, or
domestic violence.
Mr. Chairman, any hearing on homelessness must include
attention to the fact that there are far too many homeless
veterans. Veterans comprise approximately one-third of all the
homeless population. As Chairman of the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs, I have introduced legislation, S. 1384, which would
enhance and improve VA services for homeless veterans. This
bill would modify the funding mechanisms for community-based
services to homeless veterans, expand capacity of services for
women veterans, and improve outreach to servicemembers and
incarcerated veterans who are at risk of becoming homeless.
I recognize that permanent supportive housing is one of the
most effective ways to end homelessness, and I am working with
my colleagues on both this Committee and on the Veterans'
Affairs Committee to provide such housing.
Today we will focus on what must be done to meet the
immediate housing and social service needs of the homeless and
preserve existing affordable housing units as we work toward
reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This
legislation will help provide much needed Federal resources and
flexibility to local communities to create adequate housing for
their residents.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate all of the work that you and
your staff, and particularly Kara Stein, did in putting
together this reauthorization legislation, and I want you to
know that I am proud to cosponsor the legislation. I look
forward to helping bring about enactment of this and other
legislation needed to improve the lives of people without
adequate housing.
I want to again thank our witnesses for appearing today,
and I look forward to their testimony. Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Akaka, and I will
recognize my colleagues in order of arrival.
Senator Martinez.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR MEL MARTINEZ
Senator Martinez. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I
appreciate your comments earlier as well, and let me also
welcome the witnesses here today, very especially my good
friend Secretary Bernardi, who served with me at HUD and
continues to so ably serve there. And I particularly also want
to recognize my good friend Nan Roman who worked so tirelessly
on this issue with me while I was at HUD, and I know continues
to work there as well on all of these very important issues
relating to homelessness.
In the year 2002, President Bush made ending chronic
homelessness within 10 years one of his top national
objectives, and then I as HUD Secretary began to implement some
new directions to try to fulfill that commitment. We needed to
make Federal programs that help the homeless more responsive to
the people they were designed to serve, and I committed the
resources of the Department to this goal and took steps to
reengage the Interagency Council on Homelessness. I am very
proud of what the Interagency Council has accomplished in just
5 years. Unprecedented Federal, State, and local collaborations
have been created through the council's leadership, and this
would not have occurred but for the dynamic leadership of
Philip Mangano, who I was fortunate to entice to come and head
this council, and his hard work and dedication have paid off.
Under his direction, the council has forged a national
partnership that includes 20 Federal agencies, 49 Governors,
over 300 mayors and county executives. Countless private sector
participants have also worked, and all are working together to
accomplish the goals of preventing and ending homelessness.
At the root of the problem is the issue of chronic
homelessness, and that is what this program attempts to try to
put an end to. I am pleased to convey that mayors and county
executives across the country are able to report for the first
time in 20 years that the number of individuals experiencing
long-term homelessness on the streets or in shelters has, in
fact, decreased. Miami, Florida, reports a decrease of 50
percent; Portland, Oregon, 70 percent; San Francisco,
California, 38 percent; Philadelphia, 50 percent; Dallas, 43
percent. And the list of cities goes on and on.
I would like to note that these accomplishments would not
be possible without the strong commitment of Federal resources.
We have experienced 7 years of record targeted Federal
assistance in homelessness spending with a record of the 8th
year request now before the Congress. Federal funding provides
the vital leverage needed for State, local, and private sector
investment. Many of these Federal dollars flow through the
program we have come here to discuss today, the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act. The legislation was originally passed
as a response to an emerging crisis in homelessness. Since
then, many homeless services and governmental agencies have
used McKinney-Vento as an important tool to provide housing and
services to homeless people throughout our country.
By all accounts, McKinney-Vento is working very well, but
as with most things, there is always room for improvement. I
would like to thank Senators Reed and Allard for introducing
legislation that would reauthorize the housing titles of
McKinney-Vento and improve the existing programs in order to
make assistance more flexible, performance-based, and
accountable. This legislation recognizes the importance of
consolidating programs that represent a national consensus goal
among advocates, providers, and government sectors. It also
presents an opportunity to streamline the Federal role and
administration while bringing a new set of expectations to the
programs. Finally, the proposal emphasizes performance,
innovation, prevention, and permanent housing solutions, as
well as collaborative local planning in the public and private
sector.
I would like to welcome our witnesses here today. Thank you
for taking time out of your schedules to join us and share your
perspectives on this very important issue, and I look forward
to your testimony.
Thank you very much.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator Martinez.
Senator Casey.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROBERT P. CASEY
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, and
thanks for bringing us together and for your work on this,
along with Senator Allard.
I do want to say first thank you to our witnesses today,
Mayor Franklin and Mayor Fenty and Secretary Bernardi. We
appreciate your presence here today, and we are honored by your
appearance and the testimony that you will give.
I just have a few comments about some of the numbers that
we have heard already this morning, the numbers of Americans
who are homeless who happen to be children and veterans, a
tremendously disproportionate number for this country. And I
think that is one of the things that brings us together today
to try to work in a bipartisan way, not just to tinker with a
piece of legislation or to reauthorize but to really make a
commitment to ending homelessness. And we are so grateful for
the work that has already gone on prior to this
reauthorization.
I had a chance just in the last couple of days--I guess it
was 2 or 3 days ago now--to sit in my office with two young
people, a young man and a young woman who were homeless, in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, our capital. And they had fought
through that and are a tremendous example of how people can
overcome just awesome obstacles in their way, a tremendous
testament to the human spirit. And the focus of these two
individuals is higher education. They wanted to climb out of
their own situation of homelessness to attend a community
college and to get higher education. So I think it is that kind
of commitment and that kind of dedication to moving beyond
their own problems that we see in a lot of our families who
happen to be homeless.
In many ways, this issue and this legislation is a test of
our common humanity. How we deal with this issue is a test for
all of us in both parties, and I think there is a moral test
that Hubert Humphrey set forth a long time ago about how we
treat people in the dawn of life, the twilight of life, and in
the shadows of life. And I think if he were here, he would
include the homeless in the shadows of life.
A couple of basic questions. Senator Martinez talked about
chronic homelessness. We have got to deal with that definition
and how we define that by statute. Post-traumatic stress
disorder, whether or not that should be a qualifying
disability. I think it should. That is something to talk about.
And also research, to continue the research into homelessness
so we can better inform this Committee and the Congress
generally on this legislation.
So, Mr. Chairman, I am grateful for the fact that we have
this opportunity today, and I think it is a real test of all of
us how we deal with this issue.
Thank you very much.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Casey.
Senator Sununu.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN SUNUNU
Senator Sununu. Is that me, Senator Reed?
[Laughter.]
Senator Reed. Say it fast.
Senator Sununu. Thank you very much, and I very much
appreciate the work that has been done on this legislation. I
know a lot of it went on in the last session of Congress, and
hopefully this is a bill that we can act on in a timely way in
this session of Congress.
Whenever I speak to people in New Hampshire about the issue
of homelessness and the Federal support that, as Senator
Martinez pointed out, is very important, they highlight three
critical items, and that is, of course, the level of funds that
Senator Martinez spoke about--and the level of funding has been
good. We need to make sure that we have good authorization
levels and that funding continues to be available. Second is
timely access to the funds, and here we often deal with some of
the inevitable bureaucracy that comes with any program of
Federal oversight and administration. But I think the
legislation recognizes that and tries to make sure that access
to and availability of funds is handled in an effective and
timely way. And then last, and maybe most important,
flexibility, and that is because there are dramatic differences
from community to community, State to State, city to city,
regarding the fundamental needs in the homeless population,
differences in numbers, whether there is chronic homelessness
versus more transient family oriented homelessness or
homelessness that might be created by a domestic situation.
There may be greater or lesser prevalence of substance abuse,
and in a similar fashion, there might be better or weaker
substance abuse programs, which are critical to dealing with
some of these issues. And then there are many other areas where
there will be differences. All of that speaks to the need for
flexibility.
Senator Casey mentioned the issue of defining chronic
homelessness. This is extremely important because if we define
it too broadly, then we will weaken our ability to handle those
individuals and families that are most in need of the
assistance that comes through these programs. So I think all of
these issues need to remain in front of us as the legislation
moves forward so that we can try to improve any weaknesses that
come to light.
Three particular areas where I am most concerned is one
with the targeting and consolidation that this bill recognizes
is important. It takes four programs, consolidates them down--
it consolidates three of the four programs into one so we see a
reduction in the numbers, but then it creates two more. And I
think we need to look long and hard before we start creating
additional programs provided that the funds will get and can
get to the local level and be used flexibly to treat these very
needy individuals. We should always be concerned when we are
creating more programs to target the same population.
Second is the criteria we use to judge applicants, the
grant applicants. I know that the administration recommended
that we establish six criteria for judging grants. I do not
know if they are the right criteria or not, but I believe in
the underlying bill we have 24 criteria. I am very concerned
that as you expand that number of criteria, you slow down the
process and you start to affect the access issue, the timely
access to the funds. And I would certainly be interested to
hear the mayors' perspective on the complexity of the criteria
for the grants and the issue of consolidation and whether or
not for someone that is in a leadership position at the local
level those issues of flexibility and access are truly a
concern.
And then the third area has to do with shifting budgetary
authority for the contract renewals to the Section 8 program,
and that is something I would be interested to hear the
Secretary's thoughts on, whether or not Section 8 is really the
right place to handle those contract renewals. The Section 8
program works effectively in many parts of the country, but it
is a fundamentally different program. It has its own
administrative and oversight challenges, and I am concerned
that if we move that contracting into the Section 8, we might
lose some of the focus and the effectiveness of the McKinney
programs that I think everyone on the Committee recognizes as
being very important to the homeless population.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I very much look
forward to hearing our panel address those specific questions.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Brown.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR SHERROD BROWN
Senator Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your
leadership on the reauthorization bill, and, Mayor Franklin and
Mayor Fenty, thank you very much for your public service.
About 5 years ago, I read a book by Barbara Ehrenreich
called ``Nickel and Dimed,'' and in her book she pointed out
that in the 2000 Presidential election, not once did the major
party candidates mention the word ``housing'' that she could
find. And I think that 2004 was not much different in the
Presidential race. The candidates simply did not talk much
about housing and the fundamental problem in this country of
enough high-quality, good, available, accessible affordable
housing for people. I know that is only part of the problem we
address today. But I am hopeful that your presence today, the
Deputy Secretary and two of the most prominent, best mayors in
the country, can help to put this on the national agenda for
this Senate and for the House and for the Presidential race.
We are facing in part the difficult obstacle of we are
still spending more than $2 billion a week on a war we should
not be in, and there are some that want to extend tax cuts that
have gone overwhelmingly to the wealthiest 1 percent of people
in this country, making funding of all the kinds of things that
you have advocated in Washington and in Atlanta and I advocate
in Cleveland and in rural areas in southern Ohio that we need
to do on health care and housing and education. But I am
hopeful that your efforts and your continuing to speak out on
issues of homelessness, on issues of housing, on issues of
economic justice generally, will help to focus this country's
attention as we move into a Presidential year on the issue of
homelessness and housing for both parties and that it is
actually debated instead of ignored.
Thank you.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Crapo.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR MIKE CRAPO
Senator Crapo. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I
want to join those who have commended you and Senator Allard
and Senator Shelby for your previous work on the
reauthorization of this legislation and on this critical issue.
Most of the points of my colleagues are well taken, and I
will not repeat them all. There is one issue that has not been
addressed yet that I just wanted to highlight, and then I will
focus on it a little more in the questions. But I come from a
State that has a lot of rural areas--Idaho--and one of the
concerns that we always have in rural areas with regard to any
Federal program that has some kind of a formula for the
distribution of funds is whether the formula is set up in a way
that does not create a disproportionate allocation of funds to
the urban areas of the country. The rural areas do not have
necessarily the organizational capacity that a lot of the
organizations that deal with homelessness in the urban areas
do. And so they to a certain extent do not have the competitive
edge in competing for these kinds of grant monies and dollars
that urban areas might have.
And so I am going to be interested to be sure that the
performance-based application procedures in the legislation are
going to be able to be implemented in a way that do not
disproportionately move funding away from rural areas. I do not
think that I am saying that the rural areas should get more
than their share, but they certainly should get their share.
And so that is an issue that I think we need to pay attention
to.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Crapo.
Let me recognize Senator Allard now and thank him
personally for his help on this effort, but also his great
leadership over many years with respect to the Housing
Subcommittee. It has been a pleasure working with you, Wayne,
and thank you very much.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR WAYNE ALLARD
Senator Allard. Well, thank you, Acting Chairman Reed, and
I also would like to thank Chairman Dodd for allowing us to
hold this meeting, and certainly my Ranking Member, Senator
Shelby, has been most helpful on this particular issue.
It has been a team effort, and so I am particularly pleased
that I could work with my friend from Rhode Island. And you and
I have been working on this issue for some time, and I am
pleased that we are moving forward.
In 1987, Congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless
Assistance Act, now known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act. The act was the first comprehensive law
addressing the diverse needs of the homeless, including
programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, the
Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the
Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Housing and
Urban Development. Until enactment of this law, the problems
confronted by the homeless were mainly addressed at the State
and local level. The McKinney Act represented a consensus that
had developed that a major Federal commitment was required in
order to end homelessness.
Currently, the Federal Government devotes significant
resources to the homeless. For fiscal year 2007, HUD's homeless
grant programs are funded at $1.44 billion. Yet, despite the
enormous Federal resources directed toward homeless, the
problem persists. We need to bring more accountability to
homeless assistance, increasing funding for successful programs
and initiatives, and replacing those that are ineffective.
There seems to be consensus that the McKinney-Vento Act has
been an important tool to help some of society's most
vulnerable members and that the first step should be
reauthorization of the act. There also seems to be a consensus
that the second step should be consolidation of the existing
programs.
I originally introduced consolidation legislation in 2000,
and then Senator Reed offered a proposal in 2002. HUD has also
advocated for a consolidated program for several years now.
While we differed in some of the details, including the funding
distribution mechanism for a new program, these proposals
offered consensus on the important starting point of
consolidation.
After extensive discussion, Senator Reed and I introduced
the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act. The bill
will consolidate the existing programs to eliminate
administrative burdens, multiple applications, and conflicting
requirements. The streamlined approach will combine the
efficiencies of a block grant with the accountability of a
competitive system. Localities will submit applications
outlining the priority projects for their area based on
outcomes and results. I am especially supportive of approaches
such as this one that focus on results rather than processes.
The Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act also
attempts to acknowledge that homelessness is not confined to
urban areas, although the solution in rural areas will be
different for rural areas. This is important in States like
Colorado which have both urban and rural homelessness
challenges.
I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the work of
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Since he took office, Mayor
Hickenlooper has been on the forefront of the effort to end
homelessness in Denver. He has shown tremendous leadership and
was instrumental in creating Denver's 10-year plan to end
homelessness. So far the plan has shown very encouraging
results. Mayor Hickenlooper's feedback was helpful in
formulating a bill that would support and encourage such plans.
Unfortunately, Mayor Hickenlooper was unable to be here today
to express his support for the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act.
Senator Allard. He has been a good friend on this issue,
and I look forward to working with him to end homelessness in
Colorado and across the Nation.
I appreciate this opportunity to hear from a variety of
witnesses regarding consolidation of HUD's homelessness
programs, including the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act. I believe it is a thoughtful bill and was
introduced after extensive consultation with many different
groups. However, Senator Reed and I have both been clear that
we are open to feedback and willing to continue to work with
people in order to move the bill forward.
I would like to thank all our witnesses for being here
today. Your testimony will be helpful as we move to enact
legislation to better prevent and end homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator Allard.
Before I introduce the witnesses, I would like to
personally thank the staffs for their great work on this
legislation, but particularly Kara Stein in my office and
Tewana Wilkerson in Senator Allard's office. They have done a
remarkable job, and if we pay attention to them, we will be all
set.
Secretary Bernardi, welcome. Roy Bernardi as Deputy
Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is
charged with managing HUD's day-to-day operations, a $32
billion annual budget and the agency's 9,100 employees. As
HUD's chief operating officer, Mr. Bernardi is responsible for
improving ethics and accountability within HUD's programs and
among its grants recipients. Mr. Bernardi formerly served as
HUD's Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and
Development, helping to develop viable communities by promoting
integrated solutions to the challenges facing the Nation's
cities. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Mr. Bernardi
was the 51st mayor of the city of Syracuse, New York, and is
still affectionately referred to as ``Mayor Bernardi'' in the
Department. Welcome, Mayor Bernardi. Thank you.
We have two other mayors here. We are delighted to welcome
Mayor Adrian Fenty, the mayor of Washington, D.C. Mayor Fenty
was elected as Washington's youngest ever mayor in November
2006, carrying every precinct in the city in both the primary
and the general elections. He assumed office with a resounding
mandate. Mayor Fenty began his electoral career on the
Washington, D.C., Council in 2001, winning a hard-fought
battle. Councilman Fenty brought a new standard of constituent
service to his ward, attracting new jobs and homes, fighting
against nuisance properties that generated crime and decay,
heightening police responsiveness, expanding community
policing, and working to expand affordable housing. Mayor
Fenty, welcome and thank you for your service.
We are also joined by Mayor Shirley Franklin, the mayor of
Atlanta, Georgia. Mayor Franklin was elected in 2001 and is the
first female mayor of Atlanta and the first African American
woman to serve as mayor of a major Southern city. Since her
inauguration in 2002, Mayor Franklin has worked to build a
best-in-class managed city by strengthening existing
frameworks, implementing progressive changes, and making the
tough decisions necessary to improve Atlanta. Her
accomplishments include establishing a commission of city
leaders to study the problem of homelessness in the city and
creating the blueprint to end homelessness in Atlanta in 10
years. The flagship project, the 24/7 Gateway Center, designed
to serve 500 people a day with needed personnel and health
services, opened in July 2005. Again, Mayor, thank you for
joining us today.
All of your statements will be made part of the record. I
would ask you to take 5 minutes to make your presentations, and
you can summarize or extemporize as you wish.
Secretary Bernardi.
STATEMENT OF ROY A. BERNARDI, DEPUTY SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF
HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Bernardi. Thank you, Chairman Reed, Ranking Member
Shelby, and Members of the Committee, a special hello to
Secretary Martinez, my old boss.
It is nice to be here with fellow mayors. It says
``Secretary Bernardi'' here, but as you indicated, Mr.
Chairman, people still refer to me as ``Mayor.''
We are here today to do the reauthorization of the
McKinney-Vento Act and the consolidation HUD's homeless
programs--those are three programs: the Supportive Housing
Program, the Continuum of Care, and the Single Room Occupancy--
into one consolidated program.
Mr. Chairman, I want to give a special thanks to yourself
and to Senator Allard and your staffs for the hard work that
you have done over the years working with the staff at HUD in
the Special Needs Assistance Program to bring this forth,
acknowledging that your bill, S. 1518, represents a major step
forward in the effort to consolidate the programs that I
mentioned and to codify them in statute. It will provide
greater flexibility, which in turn will enable improved
performance and effectiveness of HUD's Homeless Assistance
Grant Program, a program that I believe works very, very
effectively.
I am pleased to report the administration's homeless bill
was transmitted to Congress yesterday, and the proposal, as I
mentioned, was to consolidate the three programs into one. We
believe very strongly that it will provide more flexibilities
to the localities. Some of the Senators here mentioned rural
homelessness. We believe it will provide more flexibility. It
will transfer, if you will, the grantmaking responsibility to
the local decisionmaking bodies, and I would think that the
mayors to my left would be in approval of that. It also funds
prevention of homelessness for the first time. As you know,
those three programs plus the program that is a program that is
done by formula, Special Needs Assistance Program, Emergency
Shelter Grant, that is the only program that has prevention as
part of it now. So putting prevention up to 32 percent of the
resources, we are together with your bill and our bill on that,
I think that would be terrific.
Another big point Senator Sununu mentioned was the
requirement, the time that it takes under the present system
evaluating 6,000 applications with 450 continuums. Each one of
those applications has to be evaluated, passed on, and then put
into place, and it takes a year. If we consolidate these
programs, we could move it all down to about 3 months.
The bills are very complementary, and while there are some
differences, the common ground, I think, is very, very strong.
When it comes to matching requirements, we need to do a
single match, and both bills indicate that. Right now the
Supportive Housing Program has three different matches for
three different areas. Our bills will say 25 percent will be
the match for all of the programs.
While they are similar, we do have some differences. It was
mentioned the selection criteria. We have six selection
criteria in place. We feel that that is sufficient. The Senate
bill calls for significantly more criteria.
Ending chronic homelessness, that has been a goal of this
administration and of this Congress. The bill keeps that in
place and the definition in place.
It increases the efficiency in the award of competitive
funds by consolidating existing programs into a single program
application, where the Senate bill adds two additional
programs--one for prevention and one for rural housing. We feel
very strongly--and in the question-and-answer period I can tell
you why we feel so strongly--that perhaps we do not need to do
that. But I also want to say that obviously whatever you all
decide, we can implement it.
We want to maintain the source of funding for permanent
housing renewals as the homeless assistance grants, whereas the
bill, Senate bill 1518, provides for renewals in the Section 8
project-based rental assistance account.
In closing, Senator, I just want to indicate that I would
be happy to answer any questions, and it is a pleasure to be
here.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Mayor
Fenty, please.
STATEMENT OF ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Mayor Fenty. Thank you, Chairman Reed, Ranking Member
Shelby, other Committee Members. Thank you for having me. For
the record, my name is Adrian M. Fenty, the fifth elected Mayor
of the District of Columbia, and I am pleased to testify in
support of the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of
2007, a huge priority of our administration in Washington, D.C.
I will talk briefly about the District Government's efforts
to end homelessness in the Nation's capital. Homelessness is a
significant challenge in Washington, D.C., as it is in every
other major city in this country. The homeless population has
decreased in Washington, D.C., but the high cost of housing and
the high rate of poverty in many of our neighborhoods are still
major concerns.
According to 2007 data, on any given night we have more
than 5,700 homeless residents, including 1,760 who are
chronically homeless. This represents a 6.5-percent decrease
from 2006, and of these 5,700 residents, many are in emergency
shelters, transitional housing, and some still on the street,
as every Senator here knows firsthand. We also have more than
18,000 people who identify as homeless on our Housing Choice
Voucher Program waiting list, a waiting list that now numbers
over 50,000.
The District continues to increase its stock of affordable
housing, including permanent supportive housing, where 38
percent of our homeless population resides. This is an increase
of 11 percent over last year, which means that 3,582 formerly
homeless people are now living in permanent housing. We are
thankful to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for
its support of the District's continuum of care. We are just
submitting our new application requesting more than $17 million
in funding for many important renewal projects and five new
permanent housing projects. This application reflects the
city's commitment to the objectives laid out in our own
Homeless No More plan, implemented in 2004 with a goal of
ending homelessness in 10 years.
We are also committed to a Housing First strategy that
focuses on, first, getting a roof over one's head and then
providing the needed services to keep people in permanent
housing. And we have created a new locally funded rent subsidy
program to provide permanent housing to hundreds of homeless
residents in the Nation's capital.
Our efforts in the District are spearheaded by our local
Interagency Council on Homelessness for the purpose of
facilitating interagency, Cabinet-level leadership. The
District Government supports the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act of 2007 because it is consistent with our own
comprehensive housing strategy.
Several significant changes we think are noteworthy. First,
consolidating and simplifying current funding programs--
Supportive Housing, Shelter Plus Care, and Moderate
Rehabilitation/SRO--into a single community homeless assistance
program. This allows flexibility in funding preventive services
and programs for the chronically homeless, including families
and people with disabilities. The bill also increases
accountability and rewards high performance--approaches our
administration have begun to implement throughout the city.
The act has a significant focus on prevention, including
separate funding for doubling up of households, one of our
highest indicators of being at risk of becoming homeless. The
prevention focus is important and builds off our successful
Emergency Rental Assistance Program, begun in December of last
year, which helps families that may become homeless because of
a significant event in their life--loss of a job or emergency
medical expenses. This program helps these families stay in
their current living situations instead of becoming homeless.
Since January, we have assisted almost 1,500 households with
their rental payments, providing an average of $1,713 per
household to keep them in their current living situation and
not become homeless.
Mr. Chairman, I believe having a single homeless person is
too many in the Nation's capital--the capital of the world's
most prosperous democracy. Having almost 6,000 homeless people
is tragic. But I am fully confident that we can end this
tragedy with the continued support of the Federal Government.
Thus, I urge you to pass Senate bill 1518 without delay.
This concludes my prepared remarks, and I am open for
questions.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mayor.
Mayor Franklin.
STATEMENT OF SHIRLEY FRANKLIN, MAYOR, CITY OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Ms. Franklin. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking
Member Shelby, and Members of the Committee. It is my pleasure
to join my colleagues this morning with testimony in support of
the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Act as it is critical
to our continuing efforts in Atlanta to end chronic
homelessness.
The partnership between the Federal Government and local
communities has provided the primary source of funds, over $85
million since 1995, for our regional efforts toward identifying
and filling the gaps in services for the homeless.
This funding has helped Atlanta and our two neighboring
counties--Fulton and De Kalb--develop and sustain permanent
supportive housing units, transitional housing units, and the
wrap-around services that are crucial to serving the
population. HUD's emergency shelter grants, over $5 million
since 1995, also help us develop and sustain emergency
shelters, although we hope that someday this particular type of
housing will no longer be needed.
In Atlanta, we approach the challenge of ending
homelessness from both a humane mandate as well as a
financially sound policy.
We know that the chronically homeless who migrate through
our public systems--from the streets to the public hospitals,
nonprofit agencies, to the jails and back to the streets--are a
very expensive way to provide services. According to various
studies from places as diverse as New York City, Portland,
Oregon, New Hampshire, going back as far as 1987, each of these
individuals can cost communities from $40,000 to $50,000 per
year. We are in the midst of documenting the actual cost in
Atlanta, and we anticipate the number is going to be extremely
high.
We also know we can more effectively serve those
individuals by getting them into housing with appropriate
services for an annual cost of between $15,000 and $20,000 a
year and can move many of them toward self-sufficiency, which
they desire.
In Atlanta, we have taken this message to our residents and
to the business community. We have challenged the local
community to step up with local resources to do our part to
match the Federal HUD dollars.
Two years ago, the city of Atlanta issued $22 million in
Homeless Opportunity Bond funds to build and develop supportive
housing. We are developing over 500 new units. The matching
Federal dollars are critical to matching each of these project
budgets. And through our Regional Commission on Homelessness,
comprised of leaders from Atlanta and seven surrounding
counties, we have developed our 10-year Plan to End Chronic
Homelessness, and we have appealed to the business community to
join our effort. The business and philanthropic community has
responded with over $30 million in additional funds for housing
and services to be developed throughout our region. We could
not have been successful in our appeal if we did not use the
Federal funds as leverage.
This reauthorization would allow us even to expand those
initiatives. Several of the components have been discussed by
my colleagues, and I will just add one or two points.
It creates separate funding for projects that focus on
economic reasons for homelessness and prevention. It allows
more quick authorization of the projects, allowing us to spend
more time on those who are chronically homeless. The funding
for ongoing renewal projects will be separated so that we can
add funding for much needed new projects without jeopardizing
the well-run and very essential existing projects.
It decreases the time period for the review process and
technical submissions, moving it to within a year instead of 2
to 3 years. My written testimony will identify other advantages
we see in this.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the tremendous effort
of the Interagency Council on Homelessness with whom I have
worked over the last 3\1/2\ years. The Interagency Council has
provided tremendous leadership and guidance to cities like
Atlanta, to cities like Denver and others, in developing our
own plans to end homelessness.
I am more than happy to answer any questions that will come
up. I know that this is a very serious matter for the city of
Atlanta, and I would just note that in the case of the city of
Atlanta, the responsibilities for human services fall largely
to our county government. So we have made special efforts to
collaborate with our county governments so that we both in the
cities, in the jurisdictions around Atlanta, and the counties
can have a comprehensive way of approaching this problem.
We thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I
have provided written testimony as well.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you all for
your excellent testimony and for your great leadership in the
communities and at the national level, Secretary Bernardi.
Mr. Secretary, let me ask you a question. Do you think the
HUD definition of homelessness should be expanded?
Mr. Bernardi. Homelessness, the definition that we operate
under, is any individual who is living on the street or living
in a facility, and I feel that covers it adequately.
Senator Reed. In your testimony, Mr. Secretary, you state
that the HUD bill and legislation sponsored by myself and
Senator Allard would decentralize the Federal role in the
selection of specific projects for each continuum of care. Can
you talk about the practical impact at the local level for this
decentralization?
Mr. Bernardi. As I mentioned in my opening statement, 6,000
applications, there is approximately 450 continuums in the
country. This consolidation of the three programs into one
would basically--we would be down to about 450 applications,
and it would be up to the local continuums and their boards to
make a determination to prioritize their needs. And I can think
of no better way to do that than by passing this legislation.
It would give them the opportunity to make the prioritization.
I do not have the concern that perhaps some do that the
local continuums would perhaps play favorites with it. You
know, the homeless population, we just completed a report, the
Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, and that report was
issued in February. It will be issued every year now. It was a
long time in coming. But the numbers show that 75 percent of
the people that are homeless are in urban areas and cities; 25
percent are in suburbia and in the rural areas. Right now under
the present continuum, 10 percent of our projects fund rural
programs. So I believe the continuums look at everything very
critically and address the needs.
So I feel very strongly--and I know you all agree--to push
this into one consolidated program. That one consolidated
program, as I mentioned in my opening statement, it would take
us a few months to get through it, as opposed to now the
funding--notice of funding availability goes out in February,
all of the applicants, the continuums, have until the middle of
June to return it to us, and then staff has to go through those
6,000 applications, and if we are fortunate, by December or
January of the next calendar year, the decisions are made. I
know Secretary Martinez always had asked when we had to go
through that process, you know, we want the continuums and the
communities to get the money in the year that we are working
in.
Senator Reed. Well, thank you, Mr. Secretary.
I have a question for both Mayor Fenty and Mayor Franklin.
That is, you are where all this happens, at the local level,
and if you could just elaborate on your testimony by indicating
those aspects of current Federal policy that help you and those
that are unhelpful. We will start with Mayor Fenty, then Mayor
Franklin.
Mayor Fenty. Well, if I had to choose one, I think our
directors believe that being able to apply it to one single
program would not only make things happen quicker, but simplify
what we need to have done. Thus, we applaud that effort of the
bill.
We need to have certainty. A lot of this money is going
into projects that we are trying to leverage money from the
private sector and other government programs. Certainly, the
funding and the timing of it, it is essential for us to be able
to build more housing for our homeless neighbors.
Senator Reed. Thank you.
Mayor Franklin.
Ms. Franklin. I would agree with that, and I would add the
point that the flexibility to identify, the flexibility to use
the funds based on community need through a series of
assessments that local communities use. In the case of Atlanta
and Fulton and De Kalb counties, we are actually funding
programs to match. So we have to be concerned about the use of
those funds in a way at the local level that are not even
engaged in the Federal funding process. So we feel confident
that we can make the judgments, as been described by the
Secretary, in identifying community need based on research,
objective research, which is already gathered on an annual
basis.
Atlanta is not in the position that I have heard several of
the other presentations referred to where we have seen a
reduction. We actually have a slight increase in the number of
people with our most recent survey in 2007. We can document who
we are serving, and we see people moving to self-sufficiency.
But because of the draw of population that we are experiencing
in Atlanta, we have about the same number of people today that
we had 6 years ago--I mean a year ago and even 6 years ago.
So we know that we are going to have to be invested in this
area for a long time, and the quicker that we can get the
funds, the quicker we can move people, take care of people who
are about to fall through the cracks and become homeless or
address the issues of chronic homelessness and the lag time
between, as have been described by the Secretary and the Mayor,
really do put us at a disadvantage.
Our ability to leverage funds is knowing how much money we
are going to have and then making the direct appeal either to
the governmental entities--in my case, the city of Atlanta and
the council--or to my neighboring entities. And if I am making
the pitch not knowing when the funds are coming or how much, it
is harder to get into the local budgets.
Senator Reed. Thank you. Thank you all, again, not only for
your testimony and responses to the questions, but for your
great leadership.
Senator Shelby.
Senator Shelby. Mayor Fenty, this is not totally aimed at
you because we know you have not been in office that long, but
I admire what you are starting out doing. Also, other than
living in Alabama, I live in the District, too, and I see some
changes, and I wish you well as you tackle those and recognize
those, which you do.
But the District of Columbia has received on a per capita
basis more Federal homeless assistance than any other
jurisdiction in the country, yet the District of Columbia in
the past has only made minimal progress in reducing
homelessness in recent years. I admire you for tackling this
and recognizing the problem here.
You talked about a number of initiatives in your written
statement you are undertaking to improve the District's record
on homelessness, and I commend you for this. Could you take
just a few minutes, if you would, and tell us how these new
steps are different from the past ones that have been
unsuccessful? In other words, what lessons have you learned in
the District from past mistakes? And how are you putting those
lessons--because you are doing it in other areas in education,
and it needs to be done, and you have to do it while you are
fresh on the job, don't you?
Mayor Fenty. It is an excellent point, Ranking Member. The
District's strategy, I would say even 5 years ago, was really
just to shelter, just put the homeless residents in shelter,
and it was not very good shelter.
With the leadership at the Federal level and the national
level, I think we have turned that to focus on housing, and now
even more up-to-date a focus on prevention.
And so what we tried to highlight in the testimony was that
through local dollars we have put millions in for rental
assistance because in the District the price of renting a place
is so high that you can indeed have a job and yet can be on the
brink of homelessness because you cannot pay your rent or other
utilities. And so we have tried at the local level to put
dollars into that, and our rental assistance program is very
successful. We have actually also put local dollars into the
housing voucher program just because the number of people on
the list is growing and we want to at some point reduce that
list.
But I think some of the things that are in this legislation
go right to the guts of what we are trying to do here in the
District of Columbia, and that is, No. 1, to really focus on
preventing homelessness from happening. And so the money for
the doubling up of households we feel is critical, as we do
focusing on residents who may be disabled or have some other
ailment that may lead them to being homeless.
So I would say, Senator, to sum up, we are putting a lot
more responsibility on our local government to do prevention,
and we are not wasting dollars in shelter. We are building
housing, and we would use Federal dollars along those lines as
well.
Senator Shelby. Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Bernardi. I would just like to add that the first
continuum of care demonstration grant was right here in the
District of Columbia in 1994, and, Ranking Member Shelby, last
year it was about $16 million to the continuum in the District
of Columbia. And they were funded at about 96 percent of their
ask, but they were looking for new programs, and that is one of
the difficulties that we have. About 85 percent of the funding
of that $1.2 billion that goes to the continuums, 85 percent of
that is for renewals. So new projects, very difficult to fund.
I also want to say that the District of Columbia has
tremendous private participation by local government and other
entities that support their homeless program.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Mr. Secretary, Hurricane Katrina, as you well know, because
you work in this, displaced thousands of families, many of whom
remain homeless today. What steps has HUD taken within its
homeless assistance program to address the increase in
homelessness resulting from Hurricane Katrina?
Mr. Bernardi. Providing vouchers to the homeless population
that----
Senator Shelby. That lets them shop?
Mr. Bernardi. Pardon me?
Senator Shelby. Lets them shop.
Mr. Bernardi. Yes. Vouchers for the homeless population. At
the same time, other continuums of care around the country came
to the aid of the Gulf Coast during its time of need. And also
we are providing technical assistance through the Department to
all of the continuums in the affected area.
Senator Shelby. It is a challenge, though, isn't it?
Mr. Bernardi. Oh, it is a tremendous challenge. There are
so many challenges, but that perhaps is the most daunting of
all, when people do not have the wherewithal, the ability,
whether it is substance abuse, the reason that they are out
there in the street. And it is an effort that we all recognize
and we are all working together on.
Senator Shelby. Mr. Secretary, how is HUD addressing within
the continuum of care process the disadvantages faced by small
towns and rural communities in their ability to compete for
grants? Senator Crapo raised that earlier in his opening
settlement.
Mr. Bernardi. The capacity of rural areas obviously is not
that of urban or suburban areas, but we have found, as I think
I mentioned earlier, that the continuums work well in totality,
making sure that all of the areas within their particular
jurisdiction are represented and receive assistance. I did
mention that 10 percent of the projects that we fund are in
rural areas, and perhaps they are about maybe 10 percent of the
homeless population.
I also believe prevention, as Mayor Fenty indicated, that
is going to go an awfully long way, especially when you have
people that are just on the edge. Those prevention dollars I
think will go a long way in the rural areas--a lot of people
are probably doubled up--to not have them fall into
homelessness, to making sure that the resources are there in
prevention, up to 30 percent the continuum can use with the new
legislation, hopefully it will be passed soon, and utilize
those dollars to assist people with a utility bill or a rent
payment so that they do not fall into homelessness.
Senator Shelby. Well, as you are aware, most States--and
particularly my State of Alabama, we have large cities like
Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, and Montgomery and so forth;
and then we have a lot of small rural areas that will be
impacted. And we want to make sure there is fairness in these
programs.
Mr. Bernardi. And the numbers that I mentioned, we are very
cognizant of the fact that--we have a Homeless Management
Information System, and of the 450 continuums, about 413, I
believe, are now part of our Homeless Management Information
System, and what that does is they get extra points in the
competition to count the homeless population. Where is that
population? What are the needs? And how are you addressing it?
Senator Shelby. Thank you for your indulgence, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Shelby.
Senator Casey.
Senator Casey. Yes, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And
I wanted to thank the witnesses for their testimony. For
purposes of this hearing, we will refer to all of you as
``Mayors,'' if that is all right. But we appreciate the fact
that you are literally, depending on whatever the military
analogy is, on the front line, in the trenches. All those
apply. So I think your perspective on this issue, but in
particular the reauthorization, is especially relevant and
pointed and focused. So I wanted to ask you about, I guess,
currently where things are and, second, how this legislation
would positively impact your work to end homelessness in your
communities.
I was particularly interested in the question of families
that have children with chronic disabilities or other more
difficult circumstances and whether or not what is happening
now under current law as opposed to what would be the case
under the reauthorization, and in particular the Reed-Allard
bill, how that would positive--I hope positively--impact that
situation. If any of you can speak to that, and certainly the
Secretary is more than familiar with the current status of that
issue in terms of how we deal with chronic illnesses with
children.
Mr. Bernardi. Approximately 50 percent of the resources
that we spend are to help the homeless with children. We do not
list that as chronic homelessness unless there is a disability
there. We feel very strongly that the chronic homeless
population that exists in this country--and it is numbered at
about 170,000 right now--that those are individuals--and I
believe it was Senator Reed in his opening statement mentioned
that they are chronic. They have been out on the street for a
significant period of time. They have had multiple incidences
of homelessness. A very difficult-to-reach population. As
mayor, I recall seeing the same individuals that you try to
assist and the revolving door and they would be back out on the
street.
So we feel very strongly we need to put those individuals
in permanent housing--not at the expense of families and
children. As I mentioned, 50 percent of our resources go for
families and children. But that chronic population--of 750,000
homeless people, we have 170,000 of them. They use about 50
percent of the emergency resources in this country. So we
really need to take those individuals, provide them the
emergency shelter, obviously the transitional, but get them
into permanent housing. That is why we offer more points than
the competition for continuums that do permanent housing. We
feel that is the way to have those people hopefully be able to
come back to a life of respect for themselves and of
dependency, if you will, on themselves, but never at the
expense of taking care of families and children.
Senator Casey. Thank you.
Mayor Fenty or Mayor Franklin?
Ms. Franklin. I would like to just add ``ditto'' to that,
because we look at our numbers from 2007, there are two aspects
of the changes that will help us. One is the flexibility and
the ability to work toward prevention. Those two are really
important to us because the flexibility gives us the chance to
look at where the services are currently provided for homeless
individuals or families with children and, therefore, assess
where the greatest need is in the course of our work.
But our numbers show that we have 17, almost 18 percent of
our homeless population which is families and family members,
which tells you very quickly that our numbers track much of
what the Secretary has said, large number of adult males who
have to be served if we are going to serve the homeless
population successfully. So we really have to work on both
ends. And, frankly, the hardest piece in a city like Atlanta in
our urban area, where we experience the most NIMBY factors are
with the single men. So we would hope that the bill would
speak--would allow us the flexibility to deal with both,
depending on where the need is.
Mayor Fenty. Two quick points, Senator.
One, there is in the District of Columbia, less than 4
miles from here, a homeless shelter that we are actually trying
to close and move those families into the type of supportive
apartment-style living that the country would be proud of. And
it is just so tough in the District, and so I cannot
overemphasize how important any scarce dollars are for this
purpose. And I think families are a very reachable population,
and so the second point I would just make is that the
preventive dollars that I talked about in this legislation are
just so critical, because obviously no one wants to become
homeless, but I think that is even more so with families. And
so the more we can help them pay rent, pay utilities, or some
other bill that could put them on the brink of homelessness, I
think we are doing a lot not just for that individual parent
but for the young kids who then could fall into a system or a
pattern of homelessness themselves.
Senator Casey. Thank you.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator Casey.
Senator Martinez.
Senator Martinez. Well, thank you, Senator Reed.
Secretary Bernardi, are we making progress with the chronic
population, which to me seems to be the very crux of the
problem. As I look back to what my goals were, I was always
focused on the chronic population, which seems to take such a
disproportionate share of the dollars compared to the rest of
the homeless population and who are afflicted with other
ongoing problems which caused their homelessness in the first
place.
Mr. Bernardi. We are, Senator. Over 200 continuums have
reported in 2006 that their numbers of chronic homeless has
decreased, so progress is being made in that area. A very
difficult population to serve, as you know, Senator, but we are
pointed in the right direction. And we feel that the
continuums, not only the 200 but others, with the programs that
we have in place, with the consolidation especially with the
preventiveness of it, we can utilize additional resources to
take care of that population.
Senator Martinez. It seems to me a good idea to commend
Senators Reed and Allard for their bill as well as the HUD
proposal, which I think are very, very similar. Certainly
consolidating the grant programs seems to be an idea whose time
has come, and it would be a great thing.
But the one thing I would hope as we go forward is that
there continues to be a focus on the chronic population as a
key component of our strategy to end homelessness. And so I
presume does not do anything to change that.
Mr. Bernardi. Our bill does not, no. We want to continue
that definition of chronic homelessness and work on that. I
think as Mayor Franklin indicated, the predominance of single
individuals, predominantly men, who are out on the street, you
know, that recidivism, we just really need to continue our
efforts on that, and not at the expense of anyone else out
there, but at the same time making sure we continue to reduce
those numbers.
Senator Martinez. I think as we reduce those numbers, there
will be more dollars available to help the remaining
population, which oftentimes are more inclined to not fall back
into homelessness. You know, what the mayor is trying to do
with prevention and things like that, I mean, those are folks
that are not going to be homeless but for the circumstances
they find themselves in at a moment in time.
Mr. Bernardi. You find in many instances that it is a
single occasion for most people and families. They enter into a
homeless situation because of a job loss or a domestic
situation, and they are in and out of the system. But it is the
chronic homeless that, as you mentioned, take a significant
amount of the resources. So I think to continue the attention
and the focus on that is extremely important.
Senator Martinez. Mayor Fenty, I know that we are not--when
I was at HUD, we worked very closely with your predecessor in
terms of the special relationship with the District that I know
HUD has enjoyed, and I am sure that will continue in the
future. But I want to commend you for your efforts.
I know that my own interest in this issue was sparked by my
first coming to D.C. and seeing in our Nation's capital the
condition of homelessness, which I know President Bush also
reacted to. And I think he and I and I know many others share
in your goal that our Nation's capital ought to be a place
where homelessness is a thing of the past. So I look forward to
helping you in any way that I can.
Mayor Franklin, I wanted to touch on something else, too,
which I think just to commend you for the great job that your
city does with your housing authority and Renee Glover, who is
such a great leader in that area, and yesterday we were in this
room talking about HOPE VI and the reauthorization of HOPE VI
and the hope that it brings to communities. And I know that you
are a fine example of that, so thank you for being with us
today and continue your good work in Atlanta, to you and Ms.
Glover as well.
Ms. Franklin. On that point, I would like to add that the
housing authority is engaged in initiatives around eliminating
chronic homelessness by designating vouchers that assist us in
placing the chronically homeless in our housing authority
projects. So they are a full partner, and I am not here to
testify on that, but I would have been yesterday. Thank you.
Senator Martinez. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Senator Menendez.
Senator Menendez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you
holding this hearing. I appreciate your leadership on this
question of homelessness. You know, we have 20,000 people in my
home State of New Jersey that are homeless every day. We have
three-quarters of a million people on any given night in
America that are homeless. In my mind, that is really not
acceptable. And when we talk about this issue, you know, home
in my mind is the fundamental essence of strong families and
strong communities. It is where we are brought to when we are
born. It is where we are nurtured during the course of our
lives. It is where we come to for celebrations and where we go
through bad times. It is in essence where our heart is, and it
is the very essence of creating, as I said, strong communities
and strong families. As a former mayor myself, there is nothing
that bothered me more than to see someone who did not have a
place to call home.
So this is a critical issue, and, you know, Mayor Fenty, I
appreciate the fact that--I think it was just reported that
here in the District homelessness was reduced by 6.5 percent
and chronic homelessness by 6 percent last year. I know the
Ranking Member asked you some questions, and that is clearly
progress, so we applaud you on that.
Let me ask you, though, I think in your testimony you said
families that are forced to double up are not considered
homeless for the purposes of technically homeless, but as you
say, they are at a high risk for becoming homeless. With your
experience, how are you trying to deal with that issue?
Mayor Fenty. Well, it really is housing, primarily, to make
sure that the residents have the ability to live on their own
instead of having to double up, and that is why the dollars
that we are talking about here today are so important.
The other thing I just want to say kind of goes to
Secretary Martinez's point, and that is, the amount of help
that comes from the Federal Government really leverages the
local official. And as a former mayor and all of us as mayors
and former mayors know, the chronic homeless, the people who
need our employment agency to work with them or a mental health
agency, the more housing we provide, the more we get at the
people who are kind of the ``lower-hanging fruit,'' the more my
administration can focus on the really tough problem that you
are really just going to have to work with one on one through
our Department of Human Services.
So as much as I think this bill is forward-thinking and
going after the people who may become homeless or the families
who may just have become homeless, it will help our
administration be able to put even more resources into the
chronically homeless residents who really are the people who I
think people who are coming into the city, who travel downtown
see hanging out in the parks or under the bridges, and the only
way we can get them is with an infusion of resources by a whole
team of people on the local level.
Senator Menendez. And that is one of the concerns I have,
and that is why I asked you the question, because whether it is
yesterday's hearing on HOPE VI, you know, we cannot continue to
have zero in the budget. And the reauthorization of that I
think is incredibly important. We have great experiences in New
Jersey. And then see a 17-percent cut in the capital funds for
public housing authorities and see the ripple effect and then
the asset-based management that is making it increasingly
difficult for a lot of these public housing authorities.
And so I look at the ripple effect of this, and today we
are focused on homelessness, but at the end of today it is
about how much housing stock do you have, what type of
resources do you have to meet all of these challenges in a
holistic way.
Mr. Secretary, on that final note, let me just ask you:
Senator Reed's bill allows families with one disabled parent to
be included in a category of chronic homelessness. I understand
the administration keeps its definition on chronic homelessness
the way it is and does not include Senator Reed's view.
Don't you believe that when we have an adult in a homeless
family that is disabled that that is a serious crick in the
chain? And, second, on the same question of families, Senator
Reed's bill ensures that 10 percent of national funding goes to
chronically homeless families with children to provide
permanent housing. Does the administration's proposal do the
same? And if not, why not?
Mr. Bernardi. On the disability of an individual in a
family, I would agree with you the answer is yes. I would think
that would qualify--that should qualify as a disabled homeless
person if there is a person in the family that is homeless.
On the bill, the 10 percent, I am not familiar with our
point on that bill, but what I will do is take a look at----
Senator Menendez. Well, we would love to hear back from the
administration.
Mr. Bernardi. But I think we are close on so many of the
areas, and I want to just reiterate what Senator Martinez
stated. Senator Reed and Senator Allard have been working on
this for a few years with their staffs and with our Special
Needs Assistance Program, and I think we are close, and I just
hope that we will be able to put it together. I think it is
long overdue, and it would provide the kind of speed and the
kind of assistance and flexibility that the mayors at the table
here and all over the country need.
Senator Menendez. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate
both for their leadership. But just a last point on families,
at the end I think one of the mayors said no one wants to be
homeless, and we do not want anybody to be homeless. But it
seems to me the ripple effect in our society, particularly when
families are homeless, is such an enormous consequence. It goes
into our schools. It has many dimensions to it, and so I really
applaud both of them and that element of the bill, and I hope
the administration can work its way to find common ground with
them on that and certainly look to be supportive of it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Allard.
Senator Allard. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As you know, Mr. Secretary--or maybe you do not know--I
have taken a particular interest in the PART program, and the
current programs that you have at HUD dealing with the homeless
and everything have been effective programs, according to that.
And so I am curious to see how you are measuring your outcomes
now and how you might measure them under this reauthorization
of McKinney-Vento and if this will actually improve your
ability to measure outcomes.
Mr. Bernardi. Senator, we believe so, and I do know of your
interest in GPRA. Each one of the continuums and the
applicants, they provide an annual progress report, and that
annual progress report is reviewed by the continuum in the area
that it represents as well as by HUD. And as you mentioned, in
the Program Analysis Report Testing through OMB, our Special
Needs Assistance Program did score very, very high. It scored
at 87. It was judged as one of the most effective programs in
the country.
Just some of the statistics on that. The percentage of
formerly homeless individuals who remain housed in HUD
permanent housing projects for at least 6 months, our goal for
2007 is that will be 71 percent. And we met that goal in 2006;
also, the percentage of homeless persons who moved from
transitional to permanent housing, 61 percent.
Now, the employment rate of persons exiting HUD's homeless
assistance programs will be 18 percent. That is another
component, I think Senator Menendez indicated it. You know, we
need to make sure that we prevent people from falling back into
homelessness.
We also plan to create another 4,000 new permanent housing
beds for the chronically homeless. We did that in 2006, just a
couple hundred shy of 4,000, but our goal for 2007 is 4,000.
The performance measurement, we look at that very closely.
The continuums do as well. And I think the consolidation will
just give us an opportunity to have the continuums even more
effectively work with the recipients in their respective
jurisdictions to make sure that the best value for the dollar
is being received.
Senator Allard. Thank you. I am going to address the next
question to both the mayors.
Mayor Fenty, I have watched your new administration here in
D.C., and I congratulate you on a good start. As you know, you
have testified in front of the committee on which I serve on
D.C. appropriations, and also it is good to see you here and
hear what you have to say about homelessness. You know, I do
think that it is important that we have a lot of cooperation
between entities, and I believe that we need to do what we can
to encourage more cooperation.
What are your thoughts about the entities, local entities
that you have in and around Washington, D.C.? Are you all on
the same page on this? Do you come out going on your own? Or
are you so competitive that you cannot cooperate? I would like
to hear some of the comments you have on that and if you think
that this bill will help us straddle some of these multiple
jurisdiction issues.
Mayor Fenty. As you are aware from working, Senator, I
think there is the type of regional cooperation that is a model
for the rest of the country, not only because of the fact that
so many people from Maryland and Virginia work in the city, but
because the District is small geographically and we work with
our regional partners.
So through COG, through the Council of Governments, there
has been an enormous amount of discussion and solutions put
forward on how to deal with affordable housing and the crisis
and how that impacts the homeless population. We will
continue--I do think that the District is so different from the
neighboring jurisdictions that there will not be any
competition, that it will be the exact opposite, that there
will continue to be collaboration. And I think that is also
true with the Federal Government. It is lucky to be here in the
District because we work very closely with the Senate and with
the administration. And one place I think we can do even more
of that is just specifically in the District. I do not know if
it is the case in other cities. Our long waiting list for
housing vouchers is detrimental to anyone who is looking for
affordable housing. But for those who are homeless, they are so
far back on the list that it is not even a useful tool anymore.
And there may be a way going forward that we give more of a
preference to homeless residents or looking into some other
program.
Senator Allard. Mayor Franklin, do you have any comments in
that regard?
Ms. Franklin. Just briefly. The initiative to develop a
plan started as an initiative of my administration, which is
the city of Atlanta, 500,000 in population. We have grown that
collaboration to cover eight jurisdictions, moving from 500,000
to nearly 3 million people are represented by their elected
officials and business leaders on our Regional Commission for
the Homeless. That regional commission is a voluntary service,
so just in 4 years we have been able to show that this
initiative can gain support outside of our own political
jurisdiction. And I would say it is probably one of the best
examples in Atlanta's history of voluntary cooperation on an
initiative.
And to the extent that the flexibility is built in, as I
understand it, certainly not as thoroughly as the Secretary
does, we would be able to work across political jurisdictions
on this continuum of care. And I would note that while the city
issued $22 million in bonds using a car rental tax to finance
those bonds for transitional housing and housing with
supportive services, we make those funds available outside of
our political jurisdiction because of the level of cooperation
that we have developed over the last 4 years.
So we are hopeful that the flexibility will reinforce the
kind of cooperation that we have developed over time.
Senator Allard. Thank you for your comments.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Allard.
Senator Bennett.
Senator Bennett. No questions.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much for your excellent
testimony. We will keep the record open because my colleagues
might have written questions which we would ask you to respond
to, but, Mayor Bernardi, Mayor Fenty, Mayor Franklin, thank you
very much.
Let me call the next panel forward. Thank you very much.
At this time I would like to recognize Senator Bennett, who
will introduce Mr. Pendleton. Senator Bennett.
Senator Bennett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I
appreciate Lloyd Pendleton's being here and the Committee's
wisdom in inviting him. I think he brings a view of this whole
issue that is both unique and very useful. He graduated from
Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in political
science and an MBA, and then worked for Ford Motor Company in
Detroit for 14 years in the finance area before the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reached out for him and
brought him back to Utah, where he has spent the last 25 years
in the church's welfare department implementing a worldwide
humanitarian program, and overseas, the expenditure of millions
of dollars and millions of hours of volunteer labor aimed at
humanitarian activities around the world.
During the last 2 years of his career with the church, he
was a loaned executive to the State of Utah to assist the State
in the development of a 10-year plan to end chronic
homelessness and facilitate an organizational structure for
implementing the plan. And last year he began working full-time
for the State, after having the loaned status, to develop a 10-
year plan, and he is presently employed by the State in the
Division of Housing and Community Development in the Department
of Community and Culture.
So we are very proud of you, Mr. Pendleton, and I am happy
to introduce you to the Committee and welcome you here to the
Senate.
Mr. Pendleton. Thank you.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Senator Bennett.
Let me introduce the other panelists. Ms. Linda Glassman is
the current Secretary for the National AIDS Housing Coalition
Board of Directors. Ms Glassman has been the Executive Director
of the Corporation for AIDS Research, Education, and Services,
CARES, in Albany, New York, for the last 12 years. CARES is a
not-for-profit agency that provides technical assistance and
consulting services to State and local governments, not-for-
profit agencies, and funders regarding the planning,
development, implementation, and evaluation of housing programs
for homeless persons and persons who are living with HIV/AIDS
and other disabilities. Prior to coming to CARES, Ms. Glassman
worked for more than 15 years in the provision of housing to
homeless individuals, including victims of domestic violence,
runaway and homeless youth, and homeless families. Thank you,
Ms. Glassman.
Ms. Carol Gundlach is Executive Director of the Alabama
Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Senator, do you have any
words to say?
Senator Shelby. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I would be glad to
reiterate some of the things that I had said earlier. She is
well known in Alabama for what she stands for and what she has
done. She is the Executive Director of the Alabama Coalition
Against Domestic Violence. She is a member of the board of
directors of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and
she has been very active in the area of ending homelessness,
which we are all interested in housing. It is all connected in
some way some days, and we are proud to have here testifying
today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Senator Shelby.
Mr. Moises Loza is Executive Director of the Housing
Assistance Council, HAC, a national not-for-profit corporation
that works to increase the availability of decent housing for
rural low-income people. The organization provides technical
assistance, training, research, and has a revolving loan fund
with assets of approximately $60 million to assist with the
development of housing for low-income families and hard-to-
serve populations in rural areas. The Housing Assistance
Council has loaned over $218 million, which has helped build
over 60,000 units of housing in 49 States, Puerto Rico, and the
Virgin Islands. It also conducts legislative policy and program
analysis to assist, Federal, State, and public bodies and
others to serve rural areas more effectively. Welcome, Mr.
Loza.
Finally, we have Ms. Nan Roman, who is well known and who
has testified many times before this Committee, and we thank
her for joining us today. Ms. Roman is President and CEO of the
National Alliance to End Homelessness, a leading national voice
on the issue of homelessness. The alliance is a public
education, advocacy, and capacity-building organization with
over 5,000 nonprofit and public sector member agencies and
corporate partners around the country. Under her leadership,
the alliance has developed a pragmatic plan to end homelessness
within 10 years. To implement this plan, Ms. Roman worked
closely with Members of Congress and the administration as well
as with cities and States across the Nation. She collaborates
with alliance members to educate the public about the real
nature of homelessness and successful solutions. She has
researched and written on the issue, is frequently interviewed
by the press, and regularly speaks at events around the
country. Her unique perspective on homelessness and its
solutions comes from over 25 years of local and national
experience in the areas of poverty and community-based
organizations. Welcome.
All of your statements are part of the record, and we would
ask you to take 5 minutes and either summarize your statements
or make any comments you wish, beginning with Mr. Pendleton.
Welcome, Mr. Pendleton.
STATEMENT OF LLOYD S. PENDLETON, DIRECTOR, HOMELESS TASK FORCE,
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND CULTURE, DIVISION OF HOUSING AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, STATE OF UTAH
Mr. Pendleton. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Reed
and Ranking Member Shelby, for this hearing. I am honored to be
able to comment on the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act. I am also grateful for the support of our
Utah Senators--Senator Bennett, who is a Member of this
Committee, and Senator Hatch.
During the last 5 years, the approach to serving persons in
homelessness has shifted dramatically, as been commented here
today. Because of your direction, the McKinney-Vento funding,
and the 10-year planning emphasis, great strides have been made
in Utah the last 3 years on tackling the difficult problem of
homelessness. I will share several initiatives that we have
undertaken in the last 3 years.
One is our State Homeless Coordinating Committee, which was
created in 1988, was restructured with the Lieutenant Governor
as the Chair, and selected members of the Governor's cabinet
and other policy-level decisionmakers were added as members.
Four new committees with statewide responsibilities were
created to focus on improving discharge planning, increasing
affordable housing, increasing and improving supportive
services, and implementing a statewide Homeless Management
Information System.
The Housing First model that has been developed in New York
was introduced in Utah in August of 2005 with taking 17
chronically homeless individuals and putting them into housing,
and they had a 25-year average of being on the street. This
pilot has provided the experience and the confidence for us to
implement other larger Housing First projects.
Twelve Local Homeless Coordinating Committees have been
organized across the State, with local political leaders as the
Chair of each committee. Each has prepared or is preparing a
10-year plan that is aligned with the State's 10-year plan that
implements local programs to meet the local needs. Each of
these Local Homeless Coordinating Committees has implemented or
is implementing a pilot focusing on results-oriented solutions
for the chronically homeless and/or those that are chronic
consumers of resources.
This has especially raised the awareness of the rural
political leaders in addressing the needs of the homeless. The
homeless in the rural areas have not been as invisible as they
are in the urban areas, and so this has made them much more
aware.
Case managers assess their clients and track their self-
sufficiency progress as part of a statewide Homeless Management
Information System using a self-sufficiency matrix that we
learned about that had been developed in Arizona.
A housing project of 100 units for the chronically homeless
opened in March of this year, and another complex of 84 units
will open in March of 2008. And a renovated hotel that is being
purchased this month will be opened up late in 2008 and create
213 permanent units for the homeless.
Utah participated in the SSI/SSDI training that you
provided, and in the pilot we have reduced the decision time
from almost 2 years to 3.2 months.
The HUD McKinney-Vento programs are effective and useful
for us. The programs mentioned above, and others, have created
a momentum and excitement within Utah about our ability to
realize the goal of ending chronic homelessness and reducing
overall homelessness. Much of what we have accomplished is from
more effectively reinvesting existing resources to achieve the
desired outcomes. Continuing to build the momentum, however,
will depend upon additional resources and continued
collaborative efforts with the Federal Government, State and
local governments, nonprofit and faith-based service providers,
private foundations, and businesses. This is a society-wide
problem that requires the cooperative participation of all of
these organizations.
The proposed Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act
addresses much of what has been learned in the last 20 years,
and we applaud the changes to the bill that have been discussed
and are proposed. It will significantly benefit our eight Local
Homeless Coordinating Committees covering Utah's rural areas.
In conclusion, we in Utah support the proposed changes in
the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act. I am proud
of what we have accomplished. These accomplishments have come
from the efforts of many caring and committed people. I am
convinced if there is any State that can end chronic
homelessness and reduce overall homelessness, it is Utah. Our
target date to accomplish this is 2014.
Thank you.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mr. Pendleton.
Ms. Gundlach.
STATEMENT OF CAROL GUNDLACH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALABAMA
COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Ms. Gundlach. Yes, sir. Senator Reed, Ranking Member
Shelby, and distinguished Members of the Committee, my name,
again, is Carol Gundlach, and I thank you for the opportunity
to testify this morning. I speak today on behalf of the Alabama
Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the National Network to
End Domestic Violence.
The interrelated nature of domestic violence and
homelessness is undeniable: 92 percent of homeless women have
experienced severe physical or sexual assault. Experiencing
domestic violence or sexual assault often forces women and
children into homelessness. Because so many women and children
become homeless as a result of domestic violence, it is
impossible to separate the two issues into distinct categories.
If we do not address domestic violence, children will continue
to grow up in fear and in poverty, likely to repeat the cycle
of homelessness.
McKinney-Vento has provided significant funding for
domestic violence shelters, transitional housing programs, and
services. In 2005, over 600 domestic violence programs received
nearly $118 million in McKinney-Vento funding.
Unfortunately, HUD's practice in recent years have caused a
range of problems for victims of domestic violence and for the
programs that serve them. As the Senate moves forward in
reauthorizing McKinney-Vento, domestic violence service
providers would support a bill that returns control to local
communities and works for homeless families by expanding the
definition of homelessness, reducing bonus points and set-
asides, distributing funds to rural areas in a more equitable
manner, and protecting the privacy of service recipients.
Senate 1518 takes great strides beyond current HUD
practice, and we thank Senator Reed and Senator Allard for
their work on this legislation, and we look forward to working
with the Banking Committee to pass a bill that meets the needs
of all homeless individuals and families.
The difficulty in addressing homelessness within Alabama
provides a window into the complexities faced by many local
jurisdictions. In Alabama, the homeless are often invisible,
and it has been a real challenge to conduct a point-in-time
survey in rural counties. We have long stretches of land where
our volunteers run the risk of being shot if they wander
through people's fields looking for homeless individuals who
might be sleeping in barns or sheds.
We see little, if any, chronic homelessness in rural
Alabama or even small towns in Alabama. There are people who
are at risk of chronic homelessness, but they are often from
the local community and are doubled up with friends or family
or sleeping from couch to couch. Many are in substandard
housing conditions, and it is common in Alabama to see two or
even three nuclear families sharing a dilapidated mobile home.
The homeless families and individuals in Alabama may be
less present on the streets or in front of local businesses.
Their needs are just as real. Families and youth doubled up can
be less safe than they are in shelters. Despite the desperate
need for HUD-funded housing and supportive services, these
families and youth cannot access that assistance because HUD
does not count them as homeless.
A broader definition of homelessness would accurately
reflect homelessness in Alabama and be more inclusive of
victims of domestic violence and people in rural areas.
Currently HUD sets aside at least 30 percent of funds for
permanent housing for single adults with disabilities and
awards points to continuum of care applications based on HUD
priorities, including that of serving chronically homeless
individuals. This takes decisionmaking away from the local
service providers and local communities who we believe are best
equipped to analyze the needs of homeless individuals and to
develop effective responses.
In our experience, this top-down decisionmaking can lead to
unintended results. The Coalition Against Domestic Violence
took the lead in organizing a balance of State continuum of
care incorporating most of the rural areas and small towns in
our State. None of our proposals for services have thus far
been funded, except for a small grant to develop a Homeless
Management Information System, or HMIS. So we are in the
peculiar position of developing an HMIS system for a region
with no homeless assistance grantees and, therefore, no
homeless individuals to include in the system.
As a result of the Chronic Homeless Initiative and the 30-
percent set-aside, local domestic violence programs in at least
23 States have lost funding or are being told that they will
soon lose funding because they do not serve the chronically
homeless. The funding situation is much worse in rural areas
because of pro rata share and emphasis on chronic homeless have
heavily favored urban areas. Every community has different
groups who are very difficult to serve, and prioritizing one
over the other at the Federal level does little to help each
State address their unique homeless population.
To ensure that victims of domestic violence, children, and
homeless individuals in rural areas are served, reauthorization
of McKinney-Vento should return decisionmaking to local
communities. This can be accomplished by significantly adapting
or reducing the 30-percent set-aside for permanent housing for
disabled individuals and by removing bonus points that
prioritize chronic homelessness.
Senate 1518 takes several very important steps toward a
balance by expanding the 30-percent set-aside and the
definition of chronically homeless to include families headed
by adults with disabilities, and we applaud this change. We
also believe that Senate 1518 should further expand these
categories to include families with children who are disabled
as well as disabled adults. If combined with a broader
definition of homelessness, these programs would be much more
responsive to the needs of communities, including our rural
areas.
Thank you for your consideration and your support for
domestic violence victims.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much.
Mr. Loza, please.
STATEMENT OF MOISES LOZA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOUSING
ASSISTANCE COUNCIL
Mr. Loza. Thank you, Chairman Reed, Ranking Member Shelby,
and Senator Allard. We thank you for inviting the Housing
Assistance Council to offer testimony on Senate bill 1518, the
Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act.
My name is Moises Loza. I am the Director of the Housing
Assistance Council, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving
housing conditions for low-income rural Americans. I work like
to thank you, Senator Reed, for your work to assist homeless
people, and I also want to thank Senator Shelby for his efforts
on behalf of the rural homeless.
Although homelessness is widely viewed as an urban problem,
rural individuals and families also experience both literal
homelessness and extremely precarious housing situations.
Literal homelessness--living on the street or in a shelter--is
less common in rural areas. Homeless people in rural areas
typically experience precarious housing conditions, moving from
one substandard, overcrowded, or cost-burdened situation to
another, often doubling or tripling up with friends or
relatives.
HAC analysis of the American Housing Survey data shows that
over 6 million rural households experience a precarious housing
condition, threatening their ability to achieve housing
stability, and placing them at risk of homelessness.
The ability of rural organizations to meet the needs of
homeless persons has often been hindered by geographic,
programmatic, and organizational capacity constraints. Several
structural issues limit the creation of these resources in
rural areas. Such issues include a lack of community awareness
and support, a lack of access to services, difficulties in
assessing need, and definitions that limit resources to those
who are literally homeless.
For these reasons, using Federal resources can be difficult
in rural areas. Providers in rural communities have a strong
incentive to emphasize homelessness prevention and permanent
rehousing options. They depend on the best resources available,
including Federal programs created by the McKinney-Vento Act.
The changes proposed in Senate bill 1518 will improve rural
access to essential homelessness assistance resources.
Senate bill 1518 demonstrates a critical and innovative
thinking about the challenges facing homeless persons and
providers and recognizes the realities of homelessness in rural
communities.
Currently, continuum of care funds cannot be used for
prevention activities, but Senate bill 1518 lifts this barrier
for rural communities, and we applaud this change.
The Community Partnership would also consolidate HUD's
three main competitive homelessness programs to reduce the
administrative burden on communities caused by varying program
requirements. Such a consolidation will benefit groups like the
Tennessee Valley Family Services, a nonprofit organization in
Guntersville, Alabama. Tennessee Valley serves the needs of
runaway youth, other homeless youth, and children in need of
supervision. Streamlining the application process for its
varied programs would enable Tennessee Valley staff to spend
more time delivering aid and less time on administrative work.
HAC supports the Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program
because it will help local rural organizations address and
prevent homelessness in their communities. The program uses the
CDBG formula for distribution of funds, and as has been said
before, we as rural advocates are obviously interested in the
fair share going to rural communities.
The value of flexible targeting allowed in the Rural
Housing Stability Assistance Program is demonstrated by the
work of Bishop Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation, a HAC
partner and faith-based organization that serves 13 rural
counties in New York.
A striking story illuminates the work of Sheen Housing that
help keep low-income persons away from literal homelessness. In
this situation, Mr. C, his wife, and his 17-year-old son all
live in housing where the ceiling was literally about to
collapse. Sheen Housing made the needed health and safety
repairs, including replacing the ceiling, repairing the roof,
and painting the interior. Mr. and Mrs. C and their son are now
able to remain in their home.
HAC also supports the simplified application and capacity-
building portions of the Rural Housing Stability Assistance
Program. Across the Nation, rural residents need housing and
services. Yet many of these residents are still crowded into
others' homes, at risk of injury in substandard housing,
unsheltered, or still paying more than they can afford, simply
because community-based and faith-based organizations in their
areas do not have the knowledge or funding to help them.
As an intermediary organization for 36 years, we have
repeatedly said that strengthening the capabilities of local
rural housing organizations can provide immense benefits to
rural communities. The simplified application will help rural
communities access much-needed resources. Capacity-building
funds will provide investments that enable local rural
organizations to meet the needs of homeless and precariously
housed people.
In short, the Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program is
sensitive to the needs of rural communities and presents
crucial, flexible resources for rural organizations providing
homeless assistance programs to their communities.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mr. Loza.
I would note that a vote has just been called, and we have
about 12 or so minutes left to go. So I think the best thing to
do would be to stand in recess for a moment, allow us to vote,
and we can return and you can complete your testimony without
interruption, and then we will get to the questioning. Thank
you for your forbearance.
The Committee will stand in recess until we return from the
vote.
[Recess.]
Senator Reed. Let me call the hearing to order again. When
I left, the lights were brighter and the music was not playing.
[Laughter.]
So I am glad you had the opportunity to relax.
Again, I apologize, but the one unavoidable obligation is
going to vote, and we had to do that.
I believe we are up to Ms. Glassman. Please.
STATEMENT OF LINDA GLASSMAN, SECRETARY, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
NATIONAL AIDS HOUSING COALITION
Ms. Glassman. Thank you, Senator Reed, for allowing us to
give testimony on this most important issue. My name is Linda
Glassman. I am here today representing the National AIDS
Housing Coalition, which is a 13-year-old national not-for-
profit housing organization working to expand resources for
housing persons with AIDS in communities nationwide. I am also
the Executive Director of CARES, a not-for-profit agency in
Albany, New York, which not only provides housing for persons
with HIV/AIDS but also coordinates the McKinney-Vento Act-
funded Continuum of Care process in four counties in
northeastern New York and provides support in understanding the
Continuum of Care process to a variety of communities, both
urban and rural, throughout upstate New York.
Consolidating and streamlining the Federal low-income
housing programs that respond to homelessness is very important
to the National AIDS Housing Coalition because of the
tremendous impact that homelessness has on the health and
longevity of persons living with AIDS. A number of research
studies have now demonstrated that homelessness is a major risk
factor for AIDS, and HIV is a major risk factor for
homelessness.
The National AIDS Housing Coalition's Research Summit
initiative provides a regular forum for researchers, housing
and homeless policy experts, residents of AIDS housing programs
and their advocates to explore the role that stable housing
plays in HIV prevention, care, and treatment. One of the
Research Summit's most important documented findings is that up
to 60 percent of persons living with HIV/AIDS have had an
experience of homelessness or housing instability at some time
during their illness. As a result of this and other compelling
research findings, NAHC has adopted a policy imperative making
housing homeless persons with HIV/AIDS a top prevention
priority.
Because of the documented importance of providing adequate,
affordable housing for persons living with HIV/AIDS, the
National AIDS Housing Coalition has strongly supported the
Housing for Persons with AIDS--HOPWA--program. However, we
estimate that the HOPWA program currently falls $168 million
short of meeting the national need for housing for persons
living with HIV/AIDS and their families. In many communities,
such as my own in upstate New York, more homeless persons with
HIV/AIDS are assisted in acquiring and maintaining stable
housing with McKinney-Vento Act dollars than with HOPWA
funding. Therefore, reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Act
has a direct impact on the provision of transitional and
permanent supportive housing for homeless persons with HIV/
AIDS, along with homeless persons with other disabilities.
The National AIDS Housing Coalition strongly supports the
Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007. The
bill's sponsors have given careful consideration to what has
worked well in the existing legislation and have been able to
retain that, while making needed changes to parts of the
legislation in order to better facilitate local efforts to end
homelessness. The National AIDS Housing Coalition is supportive
of the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act's focus on
community collaboration, its flexibility in the types of
entities that can serve as a collaborative applicant, and its
creation of a standard matching requirement.
There are three particularly positive aspects of the
legislation that we would also like to highlight. The first of
these is the increased emphasis on prevention and rehousing
activities. It makes absolute sense to intervene before people
become homeless, providing them with the temporary support
needed to make a rent payment or cover the cost of utility
bills, rather than to wait until they become homeless to serve
them. It also makes sense to offer rehousing assistance to
individuals and families who have already become homeless but
who are not in need of ongoing supportive services. The
provision of short- and medium-term rental assistance would
enable these individuals and families to be stably housed while
awaiting permanent housing provided by local housing
authorities, Section 8 providers, and other mainstream housing
assistance programs.
Second, we would like to convey the National AIDS Housing
Coalition's support for the proposed Rural Housing Stability
Program. The National AIDS Housing Coalition includes members
from rural communities that, while not having the same sort of
visible homeless--and I think that is a term we have all used
here--that the big cities have, have very high levels of
poverty and homelessness, especially family homelessness. I
work in a number of these rural communities in upstate New York
and know firsthand just how difficult it is to make meaningful
use of McKinney-Vento Act funding, especially with all the
changes that have happened in the last few years.
I know that for many of you the name ``New York'' does not
exactly conjure up images of rural farmland and craggy mountain
peaks, but that is exactly the topography of much of upstate
New York. Many of the communities in which I work are located
in the Adirondack Park in which there is much poverty,
insufficient and poor-quality housing stock, little
governmental infrastructure, and only a smattering of not-for-
profit agencies. These communities, which can span several
counties and 100 or more miles, do not have the capacity to
meet all of the requirements of the continuum of care process,
including holding monthly meetings of all providers, conducting
point-in-time counts of homeless individuals and families--
especially since these are mandated to be held in the last week
of January, when weather conditions can be prohibitive--and
they may not have the resources needed to pay for costly data
collection software. Because they have few major streets, these
communities do not have any ``street'' homelessness; rather,
homeless persons remain hidden from view in encampments,
unheated barns, and other places not suitable for habitation.
Because there are no emergency shelters, homeless individuals
and families are housed by friends, their extended families,
and by compassionate members of local religious congregations
and other local residents, thereby disqualifying them from
being considered ``homeless'' under the existing McKinney-Vento
Act definition.
My own experience is echoed by that of other National AIDS
Housing Coalition board members who serve rural communities in
Alabama, Missouri, Ohio, and even Hawaii. It is clear to us
that these rural communities have different, not lesser, needs
than their urban and suburban neighbors. The National AIDS
Housing Coalition strongly supports the creation of the
proposed Rural Housing Stability Program, which will provide
rural communities with the latitude and flexibility needed to
address their unique challenges. We also hope that sufficient
funding is allocated to make this program a reality.
I would like to add that I say this as the daughter of a
man who spent a number of years in his childhood living in an
abandoned chicken coop because his family had no housing. And I
know that homelessness does not look the same as it does on the
streets of Washington, D.C., and it does not look at the same
as when I was working in Times Square in the late 1990's with
homeless youth, well before Times Square was Disney-fied. But
it is homelessness just the same, and I really applaud you for
addressing it and for allocating appropriate resources toward
it.
The third aspect of the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act of which we are particularly supportive is the
shifting of renewal funding for permanent supportive housing
programs to the Section 8 account. These programs are indeed
meant to house people permanently, and it makes sense to renew
their funding out of an account that is set aside for permanent
housing. Even more importantly, this would free up McKinney-
Vento Act money to be used to serve additional individuals and
families rather than having most of it taken up with funding
renewals. Certainly, the extent of the need for additional
homeless housing resources more than justifies this shift.
Having established our strong support for the Community
Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007, and having focused
on three particularly positive components of the legislation,
we would like to offer just one suggestion, which is to
consider making a modification of the definition of
homelessness used in the legislation. We understand the need to
use this funding to serve individuals and families who are most
in need, but members of our coalition have encountered a small
percentage of truly homeless persons who have not been eligible
for permanent housing under the McKinney-Vento Act because they
are unable to access emergency shelters, one of the only two
means of qualifying as homeless for the purposes of accessing
permanent supportive housing according to the existing Act. The
National AIDS Housing Coalition respectfully requests that the
bill's sponsors consider as homeless the following: one, people
who are temporarily staying with friends or family who have
stayed in at least three different households in the last year
because they did not have the resources to rent a housing unit
consistent with Federal housing quality standards; and/or, two,
homeless people who are temporarily staying with family or
friends whose presence in household in which they are staying
causes the leaseholder to be in violation of the lease, such as
in public housing or in the Section 8 program.
We ask for this consideration because, in areas where there
are no emergency shelters, the two mentioned circumstances are
the two housing options most available to homeless individuals
and families. We want to be clear that we are not asking for a
wide expansion of the definition of homelessness, but just for
geographic parity for those communities in which emergency
shelter is not obtainable.
We would also like to respectfully request that this
definition be placed in the record.
Senator Reed. Thank you. Could I ask you to conclude?
Ms. Glassman. I am just about to. OK.
Having made that request, we just want to express our
strong support for the act, and thank you very much for letting
us testify.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much.
Ms. Roman, your testimony, please.
STATEMENT OF NAN ROMAN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO END
HOMELESSNESS
Ms. Roman. Thank you so much. First, I just want to thank
you, Chairman Reed, so much for the leadership you have shown
on this, and Senator Allard as well. I am sorry he is not here
so I could thank him myself. We appreciate very much all you
have done to try to move this forward and help us make progress
over the years. We are tremendously grateful for that.
I also want to thank you for inviting me to come here to
testify on behalf of the National Alliance to End Homelessness
Board of Directors. This really is, as everyone has said, a
terribly important subject because the HUD McKinney-Vento Act
funds provide resources to meet the needs of 1 percent of all
Americans who become homeless every year and 10 percent of all
poor Americans who experience homelessness every year. So it is
a problem that is very wide-ranging.
The funds are essential to meet the emergency needs of a
diverse group of people, which everyone has described--
families, veterans, people with domestic violence issues. So
the needs are very diverse, and their emergency needs need to
be met. But the solutions to homelessness are also importantly
funded out of this; as well, the process of allocating these
funds really has become the locus over time of community
discussions to try to make progress. So it is pulling a lot of
other resources and agencies into the discussion, and I think
that is an important thing as well.
And most recently, it has played a key role in the
implementation of these 10-year plans. Both Mayor Franklin and
Mayor Fenty talked about the plans to end homelessness they had
in their communities. A major resource that is used to
implement those plans, which about 300 different communities
are now working on, and has really--that planning effort really
has changed the discussion around homelessness in a lot of
places. These are the funds that go to do that.
So we believe that the Community Partnership to End
Homelessness Act does a really good job of codifying existing
practice that is working, while increasing the focus on
outcomes and enhancing community efforts with some new
initiatives. And I will just point out a couple of the
provisions that seem to us to be particular important.
First, the needs of families, homeless families, require
more attention. Your bill contains a host of provisions that
will place attention squarely on solutions to family
homelessness, including homelessness of families, as has been
pointed out, who have domestic violence histories and
experiences.
Among the most significant things I think the bill does is
provide the prevention funding that is available to families,
increase the amount of resources available for housing
services, provide some permanent housing for non-disabled
families for the first time, and including families in the
definition of chronic homelessness, which I think is an
important thing. We can end family homelessness. We are
learning a lot about how to do that, and I think this bill will
help us move forward.
A second thing is that prevention does make sense. But
prevention efforts really do have to be carefully designed and
targeted. There is a huge group of people in this country,
unfortunately, with critical housing problems who could be
candidates for prevention assistance. For example, using
American Community Survey data, we estimate that there are
between 2.5 and 10.5 million people who are doubled up for
economic reasons. That is about somewhere between 4 and 15
times as many people as we currently define as homeless, and we
are not even meeting the shelter needs of half of the 750,000
people we already define as homeless.
Further, there are 13.4 million people who have worst-case
housing needs, another group of people likely to be the target
of prevention efforts. That is 19 times more people than are
currently homeless.
The McKinney-Vento Act programs cannot address the needs of
everybody in the country with serious housing problems, at
least not without significant and commensurate increases in
funding, and even in that case I am not sure it would be a good
idea to run everybody who has housing problems through the
homeless system.
But having said that, prevention does make sense. It can
avert tremendous human suffering. It can avoid expensive
remedial interventions. And your bill I think takes a sensible
and much needed approach, which is to create a modest but
significant pool of funds that communities can use
strategically for people who are really at high risk of
homelessness to avoid them falling over the brink into
homelessness, including many people who are doubled up.
So I think we can address the needs of vulnerable people
without taking on the entire affordable housing crisis into the
homeless system, and I think your initiative is very important
in that respect.
And the third thing which everyone has talked about, which
I think is great, is the rural approach to rural communities.
The problem of homelessness is different in rural communities.
The current programs do not match up very well with the needs
in rural communities. And rural communities have been
disadvantaged in the competition because of their lack of
capacity, and this is a shame because I actually think rural
communities probably have more potential to end homelessness
than urban communities. They have many fewer homeless people,
and they have the mainstream systems more involved. They do not
have this in-between big homeless system, which can be an
advantage. So I think the changes that you propose in your bill
really level the playing field with respect to the competition
for funds, which is probably the main way rural communities are
going to get more resources, and they give them more
flexibility to address the problem as they see it.
So I think all of the things that have been raised, issues
that have been raised about rural communities, the bill really
addresses that, and I thank you for that.
So, in summary, the National Alliance to End Homelessness
strongly supports the Community Partnership to End Homelessness
Act. The act contains significant new and much needed
initiatives on prevention and rural homelessness. It retains
the commitment to meeting the needs of chronically homeless
people, and I just want to mention that there are many
veterans--this came up, and no one has really talked about
that. But there are many veterans who fall into the chronic
population, so that is important as well.
It continues to target assistance to chronically homeless
people and disabled people, including families, not only
individuals. And it rightly expands the chronic initiative to
include families. It additionally has a significant new focus
on families, which is great.
I think it does not pretend to be able to do everything
that can be done about people with affordable housing problems.
But it does really increase the focus on outcomes and move us
forward and provide more flexibility, all of which people have
said was needed.
So we are very grateful for all you have done to move it
forward. At the National Alliance to End Homelessness, we judge
everything by one thing, which is whether it helps us end
homelessness in the Nation, and we think that the act meets
that test. So we are happy to be in support of it here today.
Thank you so much.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much. I want to thank all of
the panelists for their excellent testimony, and we have an
opportunity to ask some questions without being diverted by my
colleagues.
[Laughter.]
Throughout the testimony of all the panelists was the issue
of definition, and we face a very practical problem. We have a
finite resource, about $1.8 billion, and if we expand the
definition, then logically we expand the number of people. And
there is a fear that we lose the focus and the dollars that
could be targeted adequately to address different populations
of homeless.
One of the aspects of the bill--and Ms. Roman talked about
it--is this notion of prevention money with some flexibility to
perhaps go into these populations which are technically not in
the definition of homelessness, but they would fall in the
definition of people who could be homeless and, therefore, the
prevention money could work.
I wonder if you might comment in terms of those two
sections together in terms of this issue of definition, and I
will ask everybody because I think your insights will be
valuable, particularly those who come from areas that are not
big urban centers but have rural populations.
Ms. Roman. Well, I appreciate the focus of the bill on
outcomes, and I think we have heard here today that trying to
achieve outcomes is important. So, you know, if we were to
expand the population of people who are eligible for homeless
assistance by somewhere between 4 and 15 times, which is
essentially the size of the doubled-up--there is no definition
of doubled-up so that is why the range is so large. But at the
very least, we would have to multiply the amount of money that
comes into homeless assistance by 4 to 15 times, and I think we
would also have to relook at the eligible activities because--
focus more on rehousing. I think what you do with the
prevention fund is really allow people the flexibility to
address this on a case-by-case basis for people who really are
on the brink. There are a lot of people who are doubled up,
which has been the proposed change, who are very stably housed.
You know, it may not be the best situation in the world, but
they are stable in their housing. They are not about to become
homeless. But there are a lot of people who are, and I think
Ms. Glassman raised the issue of people who really are couch-
surfing. I would call those people homeless as well, or people
who are about to become homeless, and I think your pool allows,
you know, a strategic use of funds to address that.
We do not want to also pull people into the homeless system
to get housing assistance and services. We want to help them
stay where they are.
Senator Reed. Well, one thing that we all understand, which
is unstated, is that this is one aspect of an affordability
crisis that transcends the whole housing market, and
unfortunately, that crisis is working its way up the income
ranks.
But having said that, Ms. Glassman, your comments, too. And
we will take note of your suggestions, which were very
thoughtful.
Ms. Glassman. Well, there are two things. For me, many of
the people with whom I work are the same people--and I worked
in L.A. and New York--who would qualify for the program because
they went through emergency shelter, but because one simply
does not exist, it is the same mentally ill person, it is the
same person with chronic substance abuse, it is the same person
with HIV. There just is not the entry place into the system. So
for me, for that small population, I would like you to give
other consideration.
The other thing is I would like to get more clarity about
that whole notion of medium-term housing in prevention, because
it looks as if--we all know permanent housing is the solution.
If the medium-term housing could last long enough until people
could get into a Section 8 program or into some other, more
stable housing, it would be very helpful. The problem is, as
you well know, the wait to do that is very long. But it does
not make sense to me to pay first and last month's rent for
somebody who then is going to be homeless 2 months afterwards
because there is no housing stability in the middle of that. So
I would like to give some consideration to that.
Senator Reed. Thank you.
Mr. Loza, again, from your perspective--and also this is an
opportunity--I will announce there is another vote that has
been called, but this is another opportunity to make some
comments for everyone that you had not yet expressed for the
record. Mr. Loza.
Mr. Loza. Thank you, Senator Reed. We appreciate the
challenge of coming up with a definition that works. For a
variety of reasons, getting all the different views together is
difficult, and looking at resources also becomes difficult.
I think Senator Menendez was right. This has to be seen as
part of a much broader issue. We have affordability. We have
the need for new production. We have the need for bettering
substandard housing. And what I think you are trying to do with
this reform with Senate bill 1518 is really to cover that part
that maybe is part of a larger one as opposed to trying to deal
with pieces of different parts.
We are very grateful for a couple of things. One is that
the recognition that rural areas need to be addressed
differently is clearly evident in the bill, and we are very
grateful about that. And the other thing is the openness of
your office and of this Committee to really discuss, you know,
how do we get to those points where we can come to agreement.
And I think that is what it is going to take to sort of reach
the point where not everyone will be satisfied, but at least
everyone has an opportunity to offer important input.
Senator Reed. Well, thank you, Mr. Loza. In that regard,
thank you for helping us, all of you participating. Again, much
of the credit goes to the staff, not to the principals, and I
will once again thank them.
One other point is that we are trying to work through this
government-sponsored enterprise reform bill, and within that
bill in the House, there is a housing trust fund component, for
lack of a better term, which we hope can generate up to $500 to
$800 million for the issue of production for affordable housing
that will take the pressure off a little bit the crisis that
many people face today. But thank you for those comments.
Ms. Gundlach.
Ms. Gundlach. Yes, Senator Reed. I want to, first of all,
second what people have said about the real improvements we see
in your bill and to express our appreciation. I think that the
emphasis on rural issues, emphasis on prevention issues, are
going to go a long way to alleviating some of our concerns.
I will say that while I am cognizant of the concerns of
dumping another 4 to 15 million people into the definition of
homelessness, I do think it is exactly that process of
identifying what the most critical need is that the whole
continuum of care system was created to address. And, again, I
go back to the issue of flexibility in local communities, that
whether we have 100 or 500 homeless individuals in a community,
if we can only serve 20, that local community has got to decide
where the greatest priority is, and that is done through that
continuum of care process.
And so my biggest concern is not so much whether we define
people who are doubled up broadly or narrowly. I think we do
need some definition for couch-surfing certainly as being
homeless. But I think that we really need the flexibility to
those local communities to look at the broad array of homeless
needs and homeless people in their community and decide what
population needs the most targeting and what services need to
be offered.
And so I think that counting the people is not as big an
issue as deciding what we do with them, and that is really the
job of the local community.
Senator Reed. Thank you.
Mr. Pendleton, please.
Mr. Pendleton. Yes. Eleven percent of the homeless people
in Utah are in the rural area because they basically move to
the Wasatch Front where it is very urban. With the changes in
the flexibility and increase in the rural emphasis, it will
give us the opportunity to work in the community where they
live and prevent them from becoming homeless and moving to the
Wasatch Front, to the urban area. So that will be very helpful
for us because then they can stay in their community where they
can get support from their family members.
So that is where we see a great opportunity for us, is to
deal with the homelessness or near-homelessness in the rural
areas. So we think this is a good move.
Senator Reed. Well, this has been very useful for us, and I
will add all of you have, I think, been very active in
contributing through your national organizations and personally
to the preparation of this legislation, and it benefits
dramatically from your input. I thank you for that.
This is, as Allen Ludden once said, ``a toss-up question,''
and I think we are all old enough to remember Allen Ludden--at
least the panelists. Any final comments? I have 4 or 5 minutes
before I have to run out of here and go vote, but any final
comments? Ms. Roman.
Ms. Roman. Well, I would just say I just want to concur
that despite the fact that homeless people do need services, it
is a housing-driven problem. And so we appreciate the efforts
of the Committee to address that. That ultimately is what is
going to solve it moving ahead. And, again, just to thank you
so much for your leadership on this issue.
Senator Reed. Well, I think also Senator Allard has been a
colleague and friend doing this, and we have switched off as
Chair and Ranking Member and Chair and Ranking Member
seamlessly. So it is truly a joint effort. I know your
commendation is to him also, and I would join you in doing
that.
Thank you all very much. We will keep the record open for
about a week or so, 7 days. You might receive requests for
written responses. I would hope you would respond as promptly
as possible.
Thank you again, and there being no further business, the
hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:59 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Prepared statements, responses to written questions, and
additional material supplied for the record follow:]
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RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR CRAPO FROM ROY A.
BERNARDI
Q.1. How does S. 1518 and the Administration's proposal
guarantee that federal dollars will not be disproportionately
allocated to larger urban areas where organizational capacity
offers a significant competitive advantage over rural
communities? For such a critical resource in our state, how is
Idaho's current funding level protected against future erosion
under the competitive allocation process?
A.1. In 2006, the State of Idaho received 99% of the funds
applied for in the Continuum of Care (CoC) funding competition.
The Idaho Balance of State, which represents the entire state
other than Boise, scored 92.5 out of 100 possible points and
had all of its projects funded. With a top national score of 95
points, the Idaho Balance of State showed that a rural CoC can
be a very strong performer in the funding competition.
Reed/Allard Bill, S. 1518, Community Partnership to End Homelessness
Act of 2007
A significant aspect of the Reed bill is the establishment
of a separate program for rural communities that would take
them out of direct competition with well established urban CoCs
while retaining their respective pro-rata need. At Section
404(a), the Reed bill provides rural CoCs the ability to
receive technical assistance for private non-profit
organizations and other nongovernmental entities, States,
metropolitan cities, urban counties, and counties that are not
urban counties that are potential project sponsors, in order to
implement effective planning processes for preventing and
ending homelessness, to optimize self-sufficiency among
homeless individuals and to improve their capacity to become
project sponsors. This assistance will enhance the ability of
rural CoCs to compete in the area of organizational capacity
amongst other rural CoCs if they choose to apply under the
Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program, or with any other
CoC if they choose to apply under the Community Homeless
Assistance Program.
Administration Bill, Homeless Assistance Consolidation Act of 2007
The Administration's bill at Section 423(a)(8) adds
technical assistance as a new eligible activity which will
allow a CoC board to obtain training designed to increase its
capacity to perform its function under the subtitle, including
evidence-based practices. Like the Reed bill, this enhancement
to the current list of eligible activities will benefit
communities, including those in rural areas, which currently
lack the organizational capacity to be competitive in the
funding competition. To accommodate communities that still have
difficulty obtaining funds competitively, the Administration
intends to continue the current policy of establishing a CoC's
baseline of funding at the higher of the pro-rata need or their
total 1-year renewal amount. This would continue to ensure that
lower-scoring renewal requests receive funding for at least 1
year.
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RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR DODD FROM LLOYD S.
PENDLETON
Q.1. How well do we believe the CDBG measures either the
incidence or severity of homelessness across communities?
A.1. In comparing the present CDBG formulas for states
(population at either 20 or 25%, poverty at either 30 or 50%,
pre-1940 housing at 50% or Overcrowding at 25%) with the point-
in-time counts and the HMIS reported homeless, we see no
significant relationship in the incidence or severity of
homelessness. Even though the point-in-time counts are
improving, especially with the recently implemented HMIS, the
numbers are still soft and would create challenges in
allocating funding for the homeless.
Q.2. Briefly comment on whether Congress should be setting up
set-asides for specific homeless populations or whether local
communities should be free to determine their own needs and
priorities?
A.2. Because of the significant difference in Utah with a
fairly urban area where 80% of the State's 2.6 million
population live along the Wasatch Front (a 100 mile strip 5 to
15 miles wide) and the vast rural areas, basically, we believe
the local communities should be allowed to determine and
prioritize their needs. However, there may be one or two
significant homeless programs, such as ``housing first'' for
the chronically homeless, that would benefit from a set aside.
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RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS OF SENATOR DODD FROM LINDA
GLASSMAN
Q.1. HUD uses the Community Development Block Grant (DCBG)
formula to determine the allocation of its competitive
homelessness assistance grant. As we are all aware, there is no
basis in either statute or regulation for using the CDBG grant
formula in this manner.
I would like you to comment on how well you believe the
CDBG measures either the incidence or severity of homelessness
among communities?
A.1. Until the Homelessness Management Information System
(HMIS) becomes fully operational in communities nationwide, the
Community Development Block Grant formula is the best available
proxy for determining the incidence and severeity of
homelessness.
Q.2. One thing, I believe that we have heard from many of
today's witnesses, is that the nature of homelessness differs
greatly by community. I want to ask if you can briefly comment
on whether Congress should be setting up set-aside for specific
homeless populations or whether local communities should be
free to determine their own needs and priorities.
A.2. In order to address homelessness nationwide, research
indicates that some emphasis on ``chronic'' homelessness is
warranted. S. 1518 is crafted with considerable latitude to
focus on other homeless populations, especially after the
demonstrated needs of chronically homeless people have been
met. In addition, the legislation allows rural areas to
identify and address their specific needs.
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