PRESIDENT'S FY 09 BUDGET PROPOSES RECORD LEVEL OF MORE THAN $5 BILLION IN TARGETED RESOURCES TO PREVENT AND END HOMELESSNESS
WASHINGTON, DC - February 5. With the release of the President's FY 2009 Budget this week, a record $5.04 billion in targeted federal resources to prevent and end homelessness has been proposed.
"While the budget proposal represents increases, level funding, and some decreases, the total amount of resources to be invested is once again increased in following data, research, and policy to move beyond managing the crisis to ending the disgrace," indicated United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano. "Not too many years ago, we were hopeful that resources might exceed $2.5 billion. With the President's 2009 request, we have now more than doubled the proposed resources targeted to homeless people within this decade."
This story provides highlights from the budgets of individual federal agencies with regard to targeted resources.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. The President's Budget continues to provide record levels of funding for medical care for veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides nationally recognized care to over five million veterans at more than 800 locations nationwide. The projected investment of VA medical care to treat homeless veterans for FY 2009 is over $2.2 billion, an increase over both the prior President's Budget and the FY 2008 omnibus spending bill.
VA Grant and Per Diem Program. The VA's key transitional program is proposed at $137.8 million, or an increase of 12%. Grant funds may provide up to 65% of the cost to acquire, renovate, or construct facilities that will be used to provide transitional supportive housing (up to 24 months) and/or service centers (offering services such as case management, vocational development, crisis intervention, counseling, etc.) for homeless veterans.
Health Care for Homeless Veterans and Domiciliary Care. The targeted VA Health Care for Homeless Veterans program is proposed at $77.6 million, an increase of $2.8 million. The Domiciliary Care program is proposed at $83.8 million, an increase of $3.1 million. VA's Compensated Work Therapy program, a non-McKinney Act program, is slated to increase to $23.2 million, or over 3%.
The Budget proposes a number of expansion measures to mainstream VA programs for care and benefits, including expanding mental health and substance abuse services, including post-traumatic stress disorder, refocusing resources on treating veterans with disabilities resulting from military service, lower incomes, and special needs or who are returning combat veterans, and expanding treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Expedited access to benefits will support priority processing for returning combat veterans by accelerating processing of disability compensation claims for service members returning from active duty service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Improved collaboration with the Department of Defense will help agencies implement ways to transfer records between the two agencies; share critical medical information electronically; process disability and other claims understandably and quickly; and in every way possible, support the transition from active duty to civilian life.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. $1.711 billion - a record level of resources targeted to homelessness - is proposed for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs and HUD-VASH, representing both a record $1.636 billion for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs and a $75 million proposal for the HUD-VASH supportive housing program for veterans. The FY 2008 level for the McKinney-Vento programs is $1.586 billion.
The Budget notes that the Administration's initiative to end chronic homelessness resulted in the recent announcement of an 11.5% national reduction in chronic homelessness from 2005 to 2006. "Many communities have made great strides in creating comprehensive approaches to ending chronic homelessness through the development of State Interagency Councils and local plans," the Budget notes. HUD will continue to emphasize permanent housing through the award of 30% of resources to permanent housing, and to create permanent supportive housing to forward the goal of ending chronic homelessness through a $50 million Samaritan Housing Initiative bonus in the annual competition.
According to the Budget, since 2001 the Department's expanded efforts to end chronic homelessness have provided additional permanent housing units for over 57,000 individuals. The Budget emphasizes that programs receiving awards of HUD McKinney funds will be required to coordinate and integrate homeless programs with other mainstream health, social services, and employment programs for which homeless populations may be eligible, including Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, and services funding through the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Block Grant, Workforce Investment Act, and the Welfare-to-Work grant program.
The Administration will seek legislative action to combine HUD's three competitive grant programs - Shelter Plus Care, Supportive Housing, and Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy - into a single program with flexibility to better meet community needs. Notes the Budget: "The Department continues to pursue expanded interagency efforts to meet the needs of the homeless and to accomplish the Administration's goal of ending chronic homelessness."
The HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (VASH) provides permanent housing subsidies and case management services to homeless veterans with mental illness and substance addictions. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) screens homeless veterans for program eligibility and provides case management services to enrollees. HUD allocates rental subsidies from its Housing Choice Voucher program to the VA, which then distributes them to the enrollees. The FY 2009 Budget request for $75 million will add an additional 9,800 vouchers to the program which received $75 million in the FY 2008 Budget. The VASH program serves a segment of the homeless subpopulation also targeted by the Administration's initiatives to reduce the number of chronically homeless Americans.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. At a budget briefing, HHS Secretary and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Chair Michael Leavitt announced expanded HHS resources for treatment and prevention, as well as to continue the President's Health Center expansion initiative, capacity-building for faith-based and community organizations through the Compassion Capital Fund, and initiatives for foster care youth.
Health Centers Expansion. The FY 2009 Budget includes $2.1 billion for Health Centers, an increase of $27 million over FY 2008. In FY 2008, the Health Center Program surpassed the President's goal of expanding or creating 1,200 new Health Center sites throughout the Nation. In FY 2009, the President's goal of expanding Health Centers in high poverty areas, which builds on the success of the Health Center Initiative, will fund up to 40 new access point grants and 25 planning grants for applicants demonstrating that they will serve areas with high levels of poverty and no access to an existing Health Center site. The Health Centers account funds the Health Care for the Homeless Program.
Projects in Assistance In Transition From Homelessness (PATH). The PATH program is proposed at $60 million, a $7 million increase from the FY 2008 level of $53 million. PATH is a formula grant program to the states to support service delivery to individuals with serious mental illnesses, as well as individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders, who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. States and Territories match at least 33% of the Federal investment in this program, enabling more clients to be enrolled in services.
The Budget proposes several expansions to mainstream programs and resources that will help prevent homelessness and increase stability in the community. New resources are proposed for services in Special Courts, increases in the Access to Recovery voucher program and Compassion Capital Fund, performance awards for the Substance Abuse Block Grant, and an increase for the Mentoring of Children of Prisoners program.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) is proposed at $25.6 million, an increase of $2 million. The Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program (HVRP) was the first nationwide Federal program focused on placing homeless veterans into jobs and was authorized under the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act in 1987. DOL's Veterans Employment and Training Administration (VETS) administers the program through a competitive grant process. HVRP provided employment and training services to 13,890 homeless veterans in FY 2007 at an average cost of $1,560. The program increase of $2.0 million will allow VETS to serve an additional 1,280 homeless veterans, and also enable VETS to support the President's initiative to end chronic homelessness among veterans.
UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS. The President's Budget notes progress in the Administration's goal of ending chronic homelessness: "Many communities have made great strides in creating comprehensive approaches to ending chronic homelessness through the development of State Interagency Councils and local plans." The Budget affirms the National Partnership constellated by the Council to achieve results with every level of government and the private sector. The Budget provides $2.66 million in investment in the Council's results-oriented initiatives driven by the President's Management Agenda. The resources will sustain and expand partnership, innovation, investment, and results in ending homelessness with 20 Federal agencies, 53 Governors of states and territories, and more than 325 local jurisdictional officials leading 10- Year Plans, as well as the private sector, and a broad array of community stakeholders, through the investment of incremental resources in the work of Regional Coordinators across the country. The unprecedented partnership constellated by the Council since 2002, combined with innovation and investment across the nation - including both record Federal resources and new public and private investment through 10-year business plans - has achieved new results in ending homelessness. The Budget extends the Council's work to assist states, cities, and counties through a proposed reauthorization of the Council through 2012.
"In a difficult budget season, the Administration has once again increased resources targeted to our most vulnerable and disabled neighbors," indicated Council Director Mangano. "This eight-year pattern of increased resources is in direct relation to the visible, measurable, and quantifiable results that are now being achieved on the streets and in the communities of our nation through our National Partnership, a partnership of the Cabinet agencies and Federal departments in Washington, Governors, County Executives, Mayors, and the private sector. The investment of these new resources calls on us to move beyond identifying inputs to quantifying results."
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