Advocacy Letters | 2 Feb 2010

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(Date)

The Honorable ____________________
U.S. House of Representatives / U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20515 (House Zip) / 20510 (Senate Zip)
Attn: ___ (include the name of the DC staff person who works on homelessness or housing issues)
Fax: (Ideally, letters should be emailed. They can also be faxed with a cover sheet with your contact information.)

Dear Representative / Senator ______,

On behalf of (Organization), I would like to thank you for your commitment to ending homelessness and for enacting the HEARTH Act last year, which reauthorized HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. Please continue to show your support for this program by asking the leaders of the Appropriations Committee to provide the necessary funding level of $2.4 billion—a 28 percent increase over last year’s level—for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants in FY 2011. We would also like to invite you to visit our program when you are in town over the next Congressional recess to personally witness why these programs end homelessness for people in your district.

The HEARTH Act changes the way funds are allocated and increases funding for homelessness prevention, assistance to families with children, and rural programs. However, without a funding level of $2.4 billion to pay for these activities, (City) will likely get little to no funding for new projects in FY 2011.

Include a few local talking points. For example, you could:

• Describe a local McKinney-funded program; how it helps people experiencing homelessness, any program accomplishments, and / or data (how many people have been served / re-housed, etc...).
• Describe what your program or your community could accomplish with more funding.
• Write about the local need to address homelessness among families and a local program serving families that would benefit from new McKinney funding.
• Talk about why a local program is important to you and / or how it has ended homelessness for you or someone you know.
• If you live in a rural area, discuss how your community will benefit from the new rural program (which will offer more flexibility regarding who rural programs can serve and more resources for capacity building).
• Explain how McKinney impacts your community’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.
• Describe how McKinney funding could help your city or state deal with the effect of the recession.

HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants are critical to our ability to make progress in preventing and ending homelessness in (CITY/STATE). We hope we can count on you to express your support for this critical funding level to the Appropriations Committee.

Sincerely,