The House Financial Services Committee plans to mark-up the reauthorization of the HEARTH Act (H.R. 840) before the end of July.  The HEARTH Act reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chair of the Housing and Community Opportunities Subcommittee, will offer a Manager's Amendment in place of the HEARTH Act that would substantially change the bill to make it more closely resemble the Senate's McKinney reauthorization legislation - the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (S. 1518).

The Manager's Amendment includes several policies supported by NLCHP, including:

·        Moves renewals of McKinney-Vento permanent housing funds into the Section 8 account.  This would allow communities to create more permanent housing because proposals for new housing programs would no longer have to compete against existing programs for HUD McKinney funding. 

·        Discourages criminalization of homelessness by creating penalties for criminalization.

·        Allows permanent housing to be provided for families as well as for adults with disabilities.

·        Expands eligible activities to include re-housing services.

·        Discourages the break-up of homeless families by preventing shelters, permanent housing programs, and most transitional housing providers from refusing to serve families based on the age of their children.

While the Manager's Amendment would be an improvement over current HUD policies, there are several provisions NLCHP will work to improve.  Most significantly, advocates are working to expand the Manager's Amendment definition of homelessness to recognize as homeless those children and families who have been identified as homeless by official personnel under the McKinney Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, the Head Start Program, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program, and the Early Intervention program.

Time is running out for legislative action this year.  It is urgent that you call Members of the House Financial Services Committee and ask them to:

·        Support passage of the Manager's Amendment and work to enact HUD McKinney reauthorization this year.  Passage of a HUD McKinney reauthorization bill this year will provide greater flexibility in eligible activities and increase the resources available. 

·        Support passage of a homeless children's amendment to expand the definition of homelessness to include children and families identified by the four federal programs.  This will enable federal and local officials to more easily coordinate services to homeless families and will provide the families with greater access to state and local-funded programs that use the federal HUD definition of homelessness, including Section 8 housing in communities that have adopted a homeless preference. 

For more information, contact Laurel Weir at lweir@nlchp.org.  To contact House Financial Services Committee Members, contact the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121.  A list of Committee Members with links to their website and contact information is below.

House Financial Services Committee Members