Homeless Emergency Assistance & Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2008
October 2, 2008
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA]: Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7221, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act. This is a major piece of legislation that has taken an enormous amount of work to bring to this point. I believe that, if enacted, this bill would substantially improve HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs, by far the largest component of the Federal response to homelessness, with an annual appropriation in the last fiscal year of $1.586 billion.
Before getting to the substance of the bill, first I'd like to acknowledge the work of Senators REED and ALLARD, who both worked diligently for many years on S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act. Senator Reed and his staff, in particular, devoted enormous amounts of time to this issue. Due to scheduling factors beyond their control, the Senate was not able to send the bill over to us, but H.R. 7221 certainly reflects all of their work, including the personal commitment of time by the Senators to come over to this side to testify before my Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee last October.
I would also like to remember my late colleague, Representative Julia Carson, who introduced H.R. 840, the original HEARTH Act, and worked tirelessly on the bill until her untimely passing. I believe that she would be proud of the work we have undertaken to bring her bill to this consensus outcome. I am so pleased that her grandson, Representative ANDRÉ CARSON, is an original cosponsor of H.R. 7221.
I would also like to thank Representative GWEN MOORE, who stepped into Representative Carson's shoes and spearheaded the further movement of this bill. I appreciate Representative Moore's commitment, because addressing homelessness--starting with reauthorizing the HUD's McKinney-Vento programs for the first time in 14 years--was a top priority for my subcommittee. This bill is informed by 2 days of subcommittee hearings in the fall, at which 26 witnesses testified on the HEARTH Act.
Finally, I would like to thank Representative GEOFF DAVIS and Representative JUDY BIGGERT for their tireless and passionate advocacy on behalf of homeless children and their families. Representative Davis is the lead Republican cosponsor of H.R. 840, the version of HEARTH that we marked up in the Financial Services Committee on July 31. Representative Biggert, formerly the ranking member of my subcommittee, is one of Congress's leading advocates for vulnerable families and their children. I am proud to say that both of them, as well as Ranking Member CAPITO, are also original cosponsors of H.R. 7221.
This is because we, as well as Chairman Frank, remained committed to continuing our dialogue on the heart-wrenching issue of who qualifies as "homeless" under the HUD McKinney-Vento programs, even after a challenging markup. Thanks to this shared commitment to improving HUD's homeless programs, despite strong disagreement among well-intentioned outside stakeholders, we were able to negotiate a compromise that allows us to move forward.
To be clear, the conversation around the definition is not over. Indeed, the leadership of the Financial Services and Education and Labor Committees, as well as Representatives BIGGERT and DAVIS, just sent a letter to the GAO to obtain the best information available so that we can continue the discussion productively. I look forward to working with them to ensure that our Nation's most vulnerable families and children obtain the housing and social services they need.
Notably, while we were considering H.R. 840, they released important new data on homelessness. First, the number of chronically homeless people living in the Nation's streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent in the last 2 years. This impressive reduction of people stuck in the homeless system for literally years at a time is largely the result of targeting a portion of HUD McKinney-Vento resources over the last decade to an effective intervention--permanent supportive housing. Therefore, in reauthorizing these programs, we wanted to make sure not to lose this focus in HUD's homeless programs.
Unfortunately, HUD also reported a more discouraging statistic--that fully 1.6 million people experienced homelessness over the course of the year studied.
Too many of these are families with children. Over time, we have learned that the best way to stop family homelessness is to prevent families from having to enter the homeless system at all, and to move those who do enter it back into permanent housing as quickly as possible. In reauthorization, then, we also wanted to increase resources available to homeless and at-risk families.
H.R. 7221 strikes the right balance between these two goals. In terms of permanent supportive housing, the bill ensures a continued commitment to this intervention, both by setting a floor on the annual investment HUD must make to new permanent supportive housing, and equally importantly, places the renewal funding of rental assistance and operating subsidies to existing permanent supportive housing on firm footing.
With respect to homeless families and children, the bill, first, revolutionizes the approach of HUD's formula ESG grant. Today, this program receives only 10 percent of the annual appropriation, and a mere third of that, about 3 percent of the total appropriation, can be spent on homeless prevention. The "Emergency Solutions Program" created by this bill emphasizes the solution we know works, namely, homelessness prevention. Therefore, a minimum of half of the now 20 percent of the annual appropriation dedicated to the new ESG program must be spent on homelessness prevention; that is, on households that don't fall into the HUD definition of homelessness.
Second, H.R. 7221 expands the definition of homelessness to include doubled-up and other poorly housed families who face the loss of their current housing within the next 2 weeks, as well as clarifying that anyone fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence or another dangerous condition is to be considered homeless.
Finally, as a result of our discussions after markup, we have also included doubled-up and otherwise poorly housed families who have not lived independently for a period of time, and have undergone a series of moves that harm children, and face significant obstacles--such as disabilities or multiple barriers to employment--to obtaining stable, independent permanent housing.
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Contact: Michael Levin
202-225-2201
