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Yesterday, September 19, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee marked up and voted in favor of S 1518 - the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act, legislation introduced by Senators Reed (D-RI) and Allard (R-CO) to reauthorize the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants (Continuum of Care) program. We would like to thank all the members of the Banking Committee for their hard work on the legislation and congratulate them in passing a responsible and effective bill.
Please thank your Senators for the passage of this bill and ask for their support when the bill comes to the floor. (See below for talking points and specifics.) In addition to continuing to push the bill forward in the Senate, our next steps include working with House Members to pass a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
What To Specifically Communicate to your Senators:
If your Senator is on the Banking Committee, please (1) call the staff person responsible for housing and communicate the following, and (2) send a letter to follow up on your phone call.
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1. "Thank you to you and the Senator, as a Member of the Banking Committee, for passing S 1518 - the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act on September 19."
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2. Ask "What can the Senator do to ensure that this bill is quickly considered on the Senate floor?" (And report back to Phyllis and Sarah what the staff person says in response.)
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3. "I appreciate that the Committee expanded the definition of homelessness in a way that would address the issues of those who move a lot but never establish a residence, i.e. "couch surfers;" but not in a way that would have drawn significant resources from families and individuals who are currently living in shelters, abandoned buildings, cars and on the streets."
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4. "I appreciate that the legislation expands the program's ability to serve children and families, and protects strong initiatives to serve disabled families and individuals."
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5. Thank the staff for any other provisions in the bill that are important to you.
If your Senator is not on the Banking Committee, please (1) call the staff person responsible for housing and communicate a similar message to the above, and (2) send a letter to follow up on your phone call. Say the same as above with the exception of revising the first bullet. Instead you could say "I understand that the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee passed S 1518 on September 19. I am in strong support of this legislation..."
Thank you for your work on this legislation and other federal policy issues. Together, we can pass a McKinney reauthorization bill that ensures that every community has the essential tools to end homelessness for all populations of homeless people.
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More Information on the Legislation and Yesterday's Markup
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Advocates and communities have won, in S. 1518, significant new resources and tools, including those that will help at risk families and prevent homelessness. S. 1518, as amended in Committee, would do the following:
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Expand the definition of homelessness to include doubled-up households that move continuously and never establish a residence, i.e. "couch surfers;"
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Provide significant new funding to prevent homelessness for people who are at risk of homelessness, doubled up, living in hotels, or in other precarious housing situations;
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Provide new resources to immediately re-house families that lose housing;
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Tailor funding to the needs of rural communities, enabling them to assess where the need for assistance is greatest;
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Include families in the definition of chronic homelessness.
Although some had been asked to do so, the Senators chose not to expand eligibility for limited homeless assistance to millions of doubled up households: this step would have at least quadrupled the eligible population without quadrupling the money available, thus drawing significant resources from families and individuals who are currently living in shelters, abandoned buildings, cars, and on the streets. Instead, the Committee adopted a well-crafted compromise (first bullet of above paragraph.)
The bill does several other very important things.
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Designates 20 percent of total funding to the Emergency Shelter Grants program, now called the Emergency Solutions Grant Program, and dictates that at least 40% of ESG funding goes to homelessness prevention and rehousing for homeless people and people who are doubled up, in hotels or in other precarious situations. This provision ensures that every community receives funding for prevention that it can use to house doubled up families that are most at risk of ending up on the streets. This is instead of the creation of a new prevention program as was recommended in earlier versions of the legislation.
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Funds renewals of permanent housing outside of the homeless assistance account, freeing up homeless assistance resources for people who are currently homeless.
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Authorizes $2.2 billion for homeless assistance.
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Creates a simplified, more flexible program for rural areas and ensures that they have a better chance at getting funding than under the current program.
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Includes a unified 25 percent match while grandfathering any grants that previously had a lower match requirement.
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Includes incentives to build on the progress we have made at housing homeless people with severe disabilities.
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Allows 7 percent to be used for administrative costs for project sponsors, as well as 3 percent for collaborative applicants and 6 percent for collaborative applicants that are also unified funding agencies.
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Legislative Updates 
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This audio conference covered the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.
This video highlights how communities across the country are decreasing homelessness among families. Thanks to the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it’s yours to use for free. 