What began two years ago as an act of faith that partnership could trump partisanship on the issue of homelessness, when United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano partnered with the U.S. Conference of Mayors in issuing a challenge that 100 Mayors develop 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness, has grown into a national movement involving more than 175 cities and counties, big and small, from coast to coast. This week that movement took another step forward when 39 Mayors representing cities from Anchorage to Key West signed a Covenant of Partnership with each other and with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness agreeing to collaborate in the exchange of data, share best practices, and welcome other cities to join the collaboration. (See related e-news articles on the Covenant and its signatories.)

The signing of the Covenant took place at a meeting of the Hunger and Homelessness Task Force at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting in Washington. The Task Force, which in recent years has met only during the USCOM National Conference, met under the leadership of its Co-chairs Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and Cedar Rapids Mayor Paul Pate, responding to the growing level of interest among Mayors in the 10-year planning effort. Planning is built on the premise that ending chronic homelessness across this nation is doable by building a partnership involving all levels of government, the private, philanthropic, faith based and business sectors, all working together to share and implement new evidence-based strategies which emphasize adopting effective prevention policies while making available permanent housing resources and treatment services for those already on the streets and in shelters.

Mayors who spoke during the Task Force meeting about their experience in leading a 10-year planning effort in their community included Gastonia, NC Mayor Jennifer Stultz, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum. Their endorsement along with other Mayors demonstrates that chronic homelessness is not contained in the large urban cities, but exists across America, and solutions are at hand when communities join this partnering effort. Mayor Blum was among those attending the meeting who indicated that they had originally been skeptical about the value of the planning process but were now ready to join the effort. Mayor Rybak noted that the federal initiative had 're-energized' mayors in their local efforts, creating what Mayor Newsom affirmed as "changed expectations."

Director Mangano expressed appreciation to Task Force Co-chairs Purcell and Pate for their leadership, not only in their own communities, but also within USCOM on this issue and acknowledged the help of USCOM Assistant Executive Director Gene Lowe. "Our collective efforts must and will lead to visible, measurable, and quantifiable change on the streets of our cities and in the lives of homeless people, " he indicated. Shown here are some of the Mayors who attended the Task Force convening.

Also participating in the Covenant event were 10- Year Plan leaders and public and private sector representatives of cities providing leadership in ending chronic homelessness, including: Philadelphia Deputy Managing Director Rob Hess and members of his staff, San Francisco Plan Chair Angela Alioto, San Diego Leadership Council Co-chair and San Diego County United Way President/CEO Fred Baranowski and consultant Hannah Cohen, Common Ground Community Founder and Executive Director Rosanne Haggerty, and 10-Year Council Region IV Coordinator Michael German. [Special Thanks to Dr. Joseph Blum for the photos of the event.]

With this story, the e-news continues its coverage of this week's signing of a Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness by 39 Mayors during a meeting of the Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Task Force at the Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC. Following is the text of the Covenant.

As Mayors of cities across our country, we have committed ourselves and our cities, in partnership with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, to end chronic homelessness in the United States within ten years. In our local communities, we have invited a diverse array of stakeholders including the public, private, non-profit, and faith-based sectors, and homeless people themselves, to collaborate with us and one another to create plans to achieve this urgent goal.

Now, as leaders in this national initiative to end chronic homelessness, we declare our intention to collaborate with one another in this effort. As a group of cities varying in size and geography, we will explore and implement strategies that will create a visible, measurable, and quantifiable reduction of chronic homelessness on our streets and in our shelters with the intent of ending this national disgrace.

Our objective is to hasten the achievement of our collective goal by establishing successful, replicable practices that lead to ending chronic homelessness nationwide.

Initially, we will pursue in common efforts to reduce chronic street homelessness in our cities.

• We will be guided by research and data, results and performance.
• We will seek the most innovative initiatives in cities across our country and the world, including those in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and London, to achieve this goal.
• We will serve as leaders for other cities that seek to follow our example.
• We will commit to creating strategies to reduce deaths of homeless people on the streets of our cities.
• We will ensure that homeless veterans are prioritized in our individual and collective efforts.

To advance these efforts, we covenant with one another:

• To design a common methodology for conducting repetitive counts of street homelessness, to establish a baseline number, to monitor results, and to share that information with each other;
• To advance productive partnerships that establish in each of our communities a central, cross- agency record of persons experiencing chronic homelessness, their involvement with public and private agencies, and the resources that can assist with their housing placement;
• To share with one another on a regular basis our progress in placing persons experiencing chronic homelessness into housing;
• To develop and maintain mental health, substance abuse, life skills, and other resources that engage and support individuals and end chronic homelessness;
• To test and advance new messages to reframe the issue of homelessness in our communities through a coordinated public education/communications campaign; and
• To meet regularly to review our progress in achieving our goal and to study together the latest developments that will support our direction and commitment.

We further covenant to assist each other in implementing these measures; to report openly on our learning and progress; to explore other complementary and replicable strategies to prevent and end chronic homelessness; and to welcome additional cities into our collaboration.

We commit together to end chronic homelessness.

Shown here are (right to left): Sodexho Executive Senior Vice President Steve Brady, Task Force Co- chairs Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and Cedar Rapids Mayor Paul Pate, Council Director Mangano, Topeka, Kansas Mayor James McClinton, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Here are the names of the 39 Mayors from Alaska to Florida who this week joined in signing a Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness during a meeting of the Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Task Force at the Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC. (See related e-news stories.)

Signatory Mayors to the Covenant are: Anchorage, Alaska Mayor Mark Begich, Asheville, North Carolina Mayor Charles Worley, Atlanta, Georgia Mayor Shirley Franklin, Augusta, Georgia Mayor Bob Young, Barranquitas, Puerto Rico Mayor Francisco Lopez, Burlington, Vermont Mayor Peter Clavelle, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Mayor and Task Force Co-chair Paul Pate, Charleston, South Carolina Mayor Joseph Riley, Chattanooga, Tennessee Mayor Bob Corker, Columbus, Ohio Mayor Michael Coleman, and Corozal, Puerto Rico Mayor Roberto Hernandez, and

Denver, Colorado Mayor John Hickenlooper, Durham, North Carolina Mayor Bill Bell, Fairbanks, Alaska Mayor Steve Thompson, Fajardo, Puerto Rico Mayor Anibal Melendez, Frankfort, Kentucky Mayor William May, Gastonia, North Carolina Mayor Jennifer Stultz, Hartford, Connecticut Mayor Eddie Perez, Indianapolis, Indiana Mayor Bart Peterson, Key West, Florida Mayor Jimmy Weekley, Knoxville, Tennessee Mayor Bill Haslam, Miami, Florida Mayor Manuel Diaz, Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor R.T. Rybak, Nashville, Tennessee Mayor and Task Force Co-chair Bill Purcell, Orocovis, Puerto Rico Mayor Jesus Berlingeri, Patillas, Puerto Rico Mayor Benjamin Cintron, Philadelphia Mayor John Street, Portsmouth, Virginia Mayor James Holley, and Richmond, California Mayor Irma Anderson, and

Sacramento, California Mayor Heather Fargo, San Diego, California Mayor Richard Murphy, San Francisco, California Mayor Gavin Newsom, Santa Barbara, California Mayor Marty Blum, St. Paul, Minnesota Mayor Randy Kelly, Tallahassee, Florida Mayor John Marks, Topeka, Kansas Mayor James McClinton, Waukegan, Illinois Mayor Richard Hyde, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Mayor James Joines, and Yauco, Puerto Rico Mayor Abel Nazario. Shown here are Mayors at the Task Force session following the signing of the Covenant.

These Mayors in signing the Covenant have agreed to work with each other in realizing their 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness in their cities.

The U.S. Department of Labor Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Touching Lives and Communities Technical Assistance Program (TLC- TAP) has announced an upcoming conference, Making It Real!: Creating Universal Access and Improving Performance Through Faith-Based and Community Partnerships. The conference will provide the vision and tools necessary to encourage Workforce Investment Boards (WIB) to create meaningful faith-based and community organization (FBCO) partnerships that will expand access for needy populations and improve WIB performance. The conference is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, 2005, from 8:30 am - 5:00 pm at the Marriott Crystal City at Reagan National Airport, 1999 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia.

The strategies covered in the conference will be immediately usable for local WIB and One-Stop leadership and staff committed to developing new partnerships with grassroots FBCO that can help move limited-English, welfare-to-work, ex-offenders and other targeted populations into good paying jobs. This conference will also cover what Workforce Boards and One-Stops must know about the new regulation protecting the rights of faith-based service providers. These strategies will also be useful for an upcoming Employment and Training grant competition for WIBs focused on high-growth job opportunities for high-poverty communities.

The conference is designed to empower large faith- based and community organizations to serve as financial agents, technical assistance providers, and capacity builders for FBCOs. This conference will help intermediaries who work with grassroots organizations or networks of congregations understand how they can provide the critical link between grassroots organizations and the WIA system. Registration information is available at www.dol.gov/cfbci/events.htm for this event which will include tracks for both government entities and intermediaries, as well as focus on building capacity of faith-based organizations to work with the Workforce System program design for performance- based intermediaries, Job Corps and faith-based partnerships, working with high growth industries, and technology, workforce development and faith- based and community initiatives.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its focus on elements of the Title V federal surplus property and opportunities to secure resources for homeless programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Following are properties listed in the most recent Federal Register notice of suitable and available land and buildings.

The January 14 Notice includes properties listed as suitable and available, including: Modesto County Federal Building and other California buildings; several VAMC properties in Grand Junction, Colorado; Jacksonville, Florida, Job Corps Center; several VA properties in the Marion, Indiana, Campus; a Schenectady, New York, Naval Depot building; a Federal Building and SSA Building in Randolph, North Carolina; VAMC property in Montgomery, Ohio and Lebanon, Pennsylvania; as well as land parcels in Alabama, California, Iowa, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Title V provides that state and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations, are eligible to apply for land and buildings that have been determined by the federal government to be "suitable and available" for eligible uses to benefit homeless people. More than two dozen agencies of the federal government are included as "landholding" agencies that may have property.

The Title V program is historically an interagency initiative involving the federal landholding agencies, and with specific roles for the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration, and the U.S Interagency Council on Homelessness. The Council and its federal partners in the Title V process have convened a policy work group on the Title V program to support the Administration's commitment to end chronic homelessness in 10 years and expand policy coordination and collaboration to benefit people experiencing homelessness. The Interagency Council's web site includes a link to the latest weekly Federal Register notice regarding federal surplus property available under Title V of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Under "Funding" look for the link to the Title V notice.