Advocacy Update: Quarterly Report

Advocacy Update | 14 Jan 2010

Author: National Alliance to End Homelessness

National Alliance to End Homelessness - Advocacy Update

January 14, 2009

Advocacy Update: Quarterly Report

Happy New Year! Thank you so much for your partnership on our 2009 federal advocacy and policy achievements. Together, in 2009, we achieved new federal funding for key homelessness and housing assistance programs and passed the HEARTH Act, which made significant improvements to federal homelessness assistance. We hope you will continue to work with us in 2010--by educating and building relationship with policymakers, you play THE key role in making sure we have sufficient resources to prevent and end homelessness across the United States.

Beginning this month, the Advocacy Update will provide you with two types of periodicals. We will send a "Quarterly Report" on several current federal policy priorities, and you will also receive a "Call To Action" when immediate support from your Senators and Representatives is needed. If you want to be more closely involved in our advocacy campaigns, please email Sarah Kahn, the Director for Field Mobilization, for additional information.

Below is a Quarterly Report on several recent policy initiatives. Join us to kick-off our 2010 policy and advocacy agenda by participating in our annual Federal Budget Briefing on February 2. For more information about the webinar and to register, click here.

Federal Budget and Appropriations

Thank you to those of you who pushed, and pushed, throughout 2009 for increases in funding for key Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, particularly for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants and Section 8 programs. Last month, Congress finally passed a FY 2010 Appropriations bill for HUD, which included increases for McKinney ($188 million increase) and Section 8 ($75 million for new HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers and $15 million for new Family Unification Program Vouchers).

Now, we are gearing up for FY 2011. The President will release his budget proposal on February 1, launching this year's federal budget and appropriations process and our federal advocacy campaigns

We need your help to gain a LARGE boost for Homeless Assistance Grants funding in FY 2011. Last year, Congress passed the HEARTH Act to reauthorize the McKinney program. The legislation includes great new advances in prevention and assistance for families, as well as continuing to make progress on housing for homeless people with disabilities, but this ambitious agenda can only work if there are new federal dollars for the program. Without adequate appropriations funding to pay for some of these investments, there may be CUTS to certain McKinney activities.

Please join us on Tuesday, January 26 from 1 p.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET for a webinar to discuss our FY 2011 McKinney Appropriations Advocacy Campaign. Click here to register for the webinar.

$1 Billion For NHTF and HPRP in Upcoming Jobs Bill

Congress is working to pass a second economic stimulus bill that is focused on creating new jobs, and Members of Congress hope to move forward with the legislation immediately following passage of a final health care reform bill. The Alliance and several partners are advocating for a final jobs bill that includes $1 billion to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) and $1 billion to expand the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Before the holidays, the House passed its version of the legislation, which included funding for the NHTF but not for HPRP. The Senate has not yet released its jobs bill proposal, but it is expected to be released shortly.

Please continue to ask your Senators to contact Senator Durbin (D-IL) (the lead Senator working on the jobs bill) to ask him to include in the Senate jobs bill $1 billion for the NHTF and $1 billion for an HPRP expansion.

NHTF resources

HPRP advocacy information

Medicaid Improvements in Health Care Reform

The Alliance has been working with the Corporation for Supportive Housing and several of our national, state, and local partners to push Congress to pass a health care reform bill that would improve access to health care for homeless populations. Health care services are essential in helping those experiencing homelessness acquire and maintain stable housing. Both chambers of Congress have passed a version of health care reform legislation, and the two chambers must now reconcile their respective versions. We are working to ensure that any final legislation:

Expands Medicaid coverage to everyone who has an income of at least 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
Expands Medicaid services for people who are homeless and have multiple chronic physical and behavioral health conditions.

Both the House and Senate bills include provisions which address these priorities. The Senate legislation would expand Medicaid eligibility to people with incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, while the House version would expand it to people with incomes of up to 150 percent. In addition, the Senate bill would create a new Medicaid option to reimburse providers for coordinated services for people with multiple chronic disabling conditions. Both bills have a provision to establish a Community-Based Collaborative Care Network Program to support providers to coordinate services for people with chronic conditions.

Thank you to everyone who advocated for these provisions over the past few months. We will continue to update you on these and other important health care reform provisions through the Advocacy Update and our Alliance Online News. For additional information on our health care reform priorities, please visit our website.

TOOLKIT

McKinney Appropriations Campaign

President's Budget Briefing

HPRP and NHTF in Senate Jobs Bill