Obama's 2011 Budget Request proposal

Information shared from NAEH...
On Monday, President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget request. The proposal will move next to Congress where the House and Senate must approve the final budget.

Among the budget items is a $190 million (10 percent) increase in McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, to $2.055 billion. Included in this figure is $200 million for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). Though this marks a $40 million increase from the FY 2010 level, it falls short of what would be allocated to ESG if the HEARTH Act was fully implemented.

President Obama's proposal would also combine Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing vouchers with funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mainstream programs to serve approximately 10,000 homeless or at-risk households. Forty percent of these vouchers would be allocated for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers to serve chronically homeless individuals who are enrolled in certain Medicaid programs. The remaining 6,000 vouchers would target homeless families. Applicants for this assistance would have to demonstrate how they are coordinating the vouchers with state TANF assistance. To best target these families, the Department of Education would help identify at-risk families through its network of homeless liaisons.

Also noteworthy is a substantial increase in funding for programs serving homeless veterans, rising by $265 million (50 percent) from $534 million to $799 million. The budget also extends supplemental funding for the TANF emergency Contingency fund for an additional year, giving States up to $2.5 billion for short-term emergency assistance.

AJC Op Ed: Cutting Investments in Children Will Do More Harm Than Good"

Today, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an Opinion Editorial by VOICES FOR GEORGIA's CHILDREN Executive Director Pat Willis under the title, "Cutting investments in children will do more harm than good"

We urge you to share this link with your personal networks and encourage them to do the same. http://www.ajc.com/opinion/cutting-investments-in-children-241706.html

If you want to write a comment to the AJC in support of today's Opinion Editorial, send it to letters@ajc.com. As always, we at VOICES are eager to get your feedback on this OpEd in today's AJC or any issue related to children. Send your comments to info@georgiavoices.org

Alliance Hosts Virtual Discussion on HPRP Implementation

Alliance Hosts Virtual Discussion on HPRP Implementation
Editor: Amanda Krusemark (mailto:info@naeh.org)

Spotlight On...

On Thursday, November 12, the Alliance will host a Virtual Discussion on implementing the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Starting at 10 am ET, staff from the Alliance, as well as some of our national partners, will be available throughout the day to respond to your HPRP questions. The Virtual Discussion will be held on Community ShareNet, the Alliance online community.

To participate in the discussion, simply register (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102803304176&s=8570&e=001a_jC-Fc7Y3BNuVE6aoEgtJKiD7t_SBCLHPvrdaEBDA-l0pRAqqW57L5kAWE-35kxeU_HzeoY8TP-e_mktmYXx2smXHVgCp7UDuOh16-YtgogZKBKGG6q0Ot_gG24S5DP8mFrACEyH92_8_X-HGiP5XCZIKrS58r2zIIi-nHCU583vM-DSwtUSN_YR3rj9Ha7SfMmbnbk7Y5YG39pl24SPA==)
for Community ShareNet. You will receive email confirmation of your
registration, along with a link to the Community ShareNet site. On the day of the Virtual Discussion, log in to Community ShareNet using the email and password you created when registering. Click on the "Discussion" tab at the top of the page, and look for the "HPRP Implementation"
discussion thread in the middle of the page.
You can post a question you have or challenge you are facing, and Alliance staff and our partners will respond. Participants should also feel free to check the website periodically to follow the discussion.

Register for Community ShareNet
(http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102803304176&s=8570&e=001a_jC-Fc7Y3BNuVE6aoEgtJKiD7t_SBCLHPvrdaEBDA-l0pRAqqW57L5kAWE-35kxeU_HzeoY8TP-e_mktmYXx2smXHVgCp7UDuOh16-YtgogZKBKGG6q0Ot_gG24S5DP8mFrACEyH92_8_X-HGiP5XCZIKrS58r2zIIi-nHCU583vM-DSwtUSN_YR3rj9Ha7SfMmbnbk7Y5YG39pl24SPA==)

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY 2010 T-HUD Bill

From NAEH.....


Last Thursday, July 30, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed fiscal year
(FY) 2010 spending legislation for Transportation, Housing, and Urban
Development (T-HUD). The full House passed its legislation in July. Full details of the Senate legislation are not yet available, but the legislation does include:

* $1.875 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, nearly $200 million more than in FY 2009. The House bill included $1.85 billion.

* $18.1 billion for tenant-based rental assistance, including $16.3 billion for
renewing current vouchers, $75 million for new HUD-VASH vouchers, and $20 million for new Family Unification Program (FUP) vouchers. Overall, this represents an increase of $1.2 billion over FY 2009. The House bill included $18.2 billion total.

* $8.1 billion for project-based rental assistance, $1 billion more than in FY 2009.
The House version included $8.7 billion.

* $785 million for Section 202 Housing for the Elderly, $20 million above FY 2009. The House bill provided $1 billion.

* $265 million for Section 811 Housing for People with a Disability, $15 million more than in FY 2009. The House version included $350 million.

* $320 million for Housing Opportunities for Person with AIDS (HOPWA), $10 million above the FY 2009 level. The House bill included $350 million.

The legislation also included $3.99 billion for the Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) program, $1.825 billion for the HOME Investment Partnership program, and $250 million for the new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, which would serve as a successor to the HOPE VI program. The full Senate is expected to consider the legislation in September.

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Bill

On July 30, the Senate Appropriations Committee also approved the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS-Education) spending bill. Full details of the bill are not yet available. However, the legislation does include $7.2 billion for Head Start programs, $122 million more than in FY 2009. The full Senate is expected to consider the legislation in September.

No change in the level of homelessness from 2007 to 2008

HUD Releases 2008 Homelessness Data
From: NAEH Editor: Amanda Krusemark (mailto:info@naeh.org)

Last Thursday, July 9, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, which reveals virtually no change from 2007 to 2008 in the level of overall homelessness.

The report, the fourth of its kind, includes point-in-time count data from January 2008 and twelve months of shelter use data that comes from Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) in over 200 communities. This is the first release of national homelessness data that was collected since unemployment began increasing up in the Spring 2007 and since the recession began in Fall 2007. The result appears to suggest that the economy is having an impact of homelessness, as the "no change" result reflects an abrupt halt to the decreases in family, chronic, and overall homeless measured from 2005 to 2007. The full report can be downloaded from the HUD website.

Note that homelessness is actually UP in Adults in Families and Children in Families, even though the overall change was insignificant.

You can also view the Alliance's press release and blog post for more information about the findings and the Alliance's response. A presentation on these results by the authors of the report will occur during the "New Data on Homelessness" workshop at the Alliance's National Conference of Ending Homelessness later this month. Download the Report

Homeless in the Suburbs

Read this terrific article in Parenting Magazine. The piece highlights the poignant stories of 3 families caught in a crisis.

CBS News - A day in the life of a precious, homeless child

Watch this compelling video from CBS News about the day in the life of two homeless children. With just 5 minutes, you can begin to understand how tough this situation is. Please consider donating to the Atlanta Children's Shelter so we can stop this crisis in our own backyard.