Federal Plan to End Homelessness to be Released Tomorrow

Press Type: Press Release   Associated Program: Housing

Released: 06/2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2010

Federal Plan to End Homelessness to be Released Tomorrow

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A year after the passage of the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, which mandated the creation of a federal plan to end homelessness, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will release the plan to Congress and the public tomorrow.  

The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness will be the Obama Administration's official policy position on homelessness. It will give direction to the federal agencies and guidance to state and local governments. The plan is expected to encourage cross-agency collaboration in an effort to reform federal systems.

During the Bush Administration, state and local governments bore the burden of working to end homelessness. Advocates hope the Obama Administration will present a plan for federal policy leadership that contains specific, measurable goals and which calls for sufficient new federal resources to reach those goals.

In March 2009, President Obama said, "I'm heartbroken that any child in America is homeless....it is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours."

The plan has been shaped by the recommendations of state and regional interagency councils on homelessness, national and local advocacy groups, direct service providers and the general public.

Maria Foscarinis is the executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, whose advocacy helped lead to the passage of the law requiring the federal plan.

She explained, "When submitting our recommendations, the Law Center emphasized the importance of affirming that housing is a basic human right. If, in fact, the Administration believes that homelessness is 'not acceptable,' as the President said, it should have no trouble making this explicit statement in its plan to end homelessness."

She explained, "Above all, the plan is about creating accountability. A plan, no matter how powerful, will not house a single homeless person, but a good plan, effectively implemented, is an important step toward creating the systemic change necessary to end homelessness."

The Law Center's recommendations for the plan centered on issues viewed by many advocates to be key in the effort to end and prevent homelessness: housing, income, health care, education, civil rights and a recognition that housing is a human right. It also recommended increased federal leadership to end homelessness.

The Law Center welcomes calls for comment on the plan.

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