Senate may approve reauthorization in November
As we reported on October 3rd, by a vote of 355 to 61, the full U.S. House of Representatives approved the HEARTH Act, S.1518 / H.R. 7221, legislation to substantially improve the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. The bill is a compromise between a version that passed the House Financial Services Committee in July 2008, and one that passed the Senate Banking Committee in September 2007. The week of November 17th Congress will return for a post-election session. During that session, the Senate may take up the same bill that was passed by the House. If the Senate passes the bill, it would likely be signed by the President and enacted into law. To read all the details click here to read a summary prepared by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH).
The bill would make numerous changes to HUD’s homeless assistance programs:
- Homelessness prevention would be significantly expanded.
- New incentives would place more emphasis on rapid rehousing, especially for homeless families.
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The existing emphasis on creating permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness would continue, although families could also be considered chronically homeless.
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Rural communities would have the option of applying under a different set of guidelines that offer more flexibility and more assistance with capacity building.
In addition, for the first time, the entity that applies for funding would be known as a Collaborative Applicant. HUD would allow the Collaborative Applicant to be eligible to receive 3 percent of its community’s funding for administrative costs. If the Collaborative Applicant is also a Unified Funding Agency – the recipient of the funds that would then sub-grant the funds – it could receive 6 percent.
To read all the details click here to read a summary prepared by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH).
