WASHINGTON, DC. A new Disaster Voucher Program (DVP) is replacing the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP) to provide temporary rental assistance for people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who were homeless, lived in public housing, or had a voucher at the time of the storms. DVP, which is expected to continue until September 30, 2007, was created through a $390 million supplemental appropriation in the U.S. Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2006. It replaces KDHAP, which expired on January 31, 2006, and was funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Families currently participating in KDHAP who are eligible for DVP will have their KDHAP assistance converted to DVP. DVP also will assist eligible HUD-assisted and special needs/pre-disaster homeless families displaced by the hurricanes who are not presently assisted by KDHAP. Pre-disaster homeless families and families that received assistance through a Special Needs Housing program will get DVP assistance in combination with extensive case management services, which can be provided by homelessness assistance providers.

HUD has waived all requirements related to income eligibility and tenant contribution for DVP participants for up to 18 months. The rent currently charged by an owner will not be affected, nor will the term of the lease unless the initial KDHAP lease was less than 12 months and needs to be extended. Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) will administer DVP under their regular voucher Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract.

HUD has established Referral Call Centers (RCCs) to help families displaced by the storms living around the nation. The toll-free number is 866-373-9509. For families that lived in public housing or project- based Section 8 before the disasters, an RCC counselor can tell them whether their project is ready for occupancy. If their project is not ready, they will be assisted under DVP. If a family does not want to return to their project-based unit, they can receive DVP assistance until September 30, 2007, at which time they must re-apply for permanent assistance.

RCCs can also help voucher families determine whether there are available units of suitable size administered by their home PHA or another PHA if the family prefers to move elsewhere. Families can also directly contact a PHA regarding DVP assistance. PHAs are responsible for providing intensive housing search assistance for families.

A notice of instructions regarding ongoing temporary rental assistance was posted on February 3, 2006, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Public and Indian Housing. The notice (PIH Notice 2006-12) is available at www.hud.gov/offices/pih/publications/notices/index.cfm. Pictured here at the September 2005 Full Council meeting are HUD Secretary and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Chair Alphonso Jackson (second from right), Secretary of Veterans Affairs and former Council Chair R. James Nicholson (second from left), Council Director Philip Mangano (right), and Assistant Secretary of Labor Charles Ciccolella (left).

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. In the midst of a street outreach and services event, the City of San Juan unveiled its 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness last week at a ceremony hosted by San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini. "The 10-Year Plan is part of a national movement to eradicate 20 years of homelessness as a problem of deep social magnitude. Through the adoption and support of this initiative, San Juan will diminish the number of chronically homeless people that live on the streets of San Juan," said Mayor Santini.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano joined Mayor Santini for the announcement. "With this plan, Mayor Santini, the Committee, and all of you here in San Juan are reaching up to the moral arc of history to bend it into the lives of your poorest citizens," stated Director Mangano. "That's the ambition of this plan. I congratulate the Mayor for his leadership and political will, and I applaud the Committee for their effort." Mayor Santini is shown here signing the Plan, while Director Mangano looks on.

Also present were San Juan Office of Federal Affairs Director Maria del Carmen Munoz, San Juan Family and Community Department Director Dalia Marti, United States Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Planning and Development Director Jose Ruben Rivera, Homeless Assistance Coordinator Michele Smith, and HUD Operations Specialist Efrain Maldonado, as well as Council Regional Coordinators Michael German and Ed Cabrera.

The development of the Plan was commissioned by Mayor Santini in February 2004, when he designated a 20-person committee led by the City's Office of Federal Affairs and External Resources (OFAER) to oversee the Plan's development. Through an extended working group and a series of meetings and public forums involving a wide group of stakeholders, the committee collected data and information about people experiencing homelessness in San Juan, as well as the service delivery system, housing, and other resources. The Plan emphasizes substance abuse treatment, employment, and a reorganization of resources to better achieve results.

The unveiling took place in conjunction with Iniciativa Hacia La Esperanza ("Initiative for Hope"), a City-sponsored, mobile one-stop event similar to Project Homeless Connect, which provides intensive services, treatment, and detoxification "without barriers or waiting lists" in areas frequented by people experiencing homelessness. Since its establishment in 2001, Iniciativa Hacia La Esperanza has conducted over 300 one-stop events. Results thus far indicate over 7,824 people have been admitted to treatment and rehabilitation programs, of which 5,929 are now in the follow-through stages. Of those, 292 have obtained employment and 573 have returned home to their families. "Homelessness is a social problem of great importance that has been met with success through the program, Hacia la Esperanza, directed by Dalia Marti, Director of the Department of the Family and Community of San Juan," said Mayor Santini.

While in Puerto Rico, Director Mangano and Council Regional Coordinators German and Cabrera made presentations at a 10-year planning workshop co-hosted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a private foundation, Fundacion Chana & Samual Levis. Foundation Director Yvette Perez-Toro and HUD Community Planning and Development Director Jose Ruben Rivera received officials from the municipalities of San German, Cabo Rojo, Mayaguez, Cayey, and Comerio, as well as San Juan. Participants reviewed effective processes for 10-year plan development and the essential components needed to create results-oriented plans.

Director Mangano also traveled to Cidra to meet with Mayor Angel L. Malave Zayas. During the meeting, they discussed the development of that city's 10-Year Plan.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. The City of San Francisco moved closer to its goal of creating 3,000 units of supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness by 2014 with the opening of two new housing facilities this month. The Boyd and Armada Hotels, newly refurbished and leased to the City by their owner, will add 194 new homes to the 1,983 supportive housing units opened since 2004 when the City, at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction and at community champion Angela Alioto's convening, launched its 10-Year Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness.

Located in the City's Tenderloin District, both facilities include counselors on site to help residents with jobs, substance abuse, mental health, or other issues. The Tenderloin Housing Clinic will oversee the Boyd and its counseling services, and the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center will manage the Aranda.

Both facilities have adopted a 'Housing First' approach, an innovation adopted by many 10-Year Plan communities around the country that moves people with drug addictions, mental health conditions and other issues directly from the streets into housing where they can receive intensive counseling, treatment, and case management.

San Francisco is home to another innovation, Project Homeless Connect. Organized by the Mayor's office, Project Homeless Connect is a "one stop" event run by community volunteers that brings together in one convenient location a wide variety of services, as well as access to shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness. First initiated by Mayor Newsom in the fall of 2004, the City has hosted nine PHCs since the event began. Last week's PHC, held on February 16, 2006, hosted 1,792 consumers, the highest number since the bi-monthly event began. 113 individuals experiencing homelessness moved from the streets that day into a combination of stabilization units and shelter beds.

"Stolen" by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness as a replicable innovation, Project Homeless Connect has spread to more than 30 communities across the country with most participating in December 2005's National Project Homeless Connect organized by the Council. In addition to PHC efforts in San Francisco, the event has brought together 10,377 people experiencing homelessness with 6,210 volunteers; 736 have left the streets as a result. Upcoming Project Homeless Connect events will take place in Minneapolis (March 6) and Miami (April 20); San Francisco's next PHC is scheduled for April 13. More information about Project Homeless Connect can be found on the USICH website at www.usich.gov.

MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA. A Minneapolis-based private foundation has committed $5 million to expand and enhance the availability of supportive housing services and increase the supply of housing in the Twin Cities area. The $5 million gift from the Frey Foundation is the largest private gift to date in the State toward the goal of raising $50 million in philanthropic/non-profit funds for Minnesota's Business Plan to End Long-Term Homelessness.

"The Frey investment is a significant step to help the Business Plan's public/private partnership continue to meet or exceed annual targets for supportive housing, and to do the smart thing as well as the right thing for people experiencing long-term homelessness in Minnesota," said Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. "We can achieve the Business Plan's goal of ending long-term homelessness in Minnesota with partnerships such as the commitment announced by the Frey Foundation." Governor Pawlenty is pictured here at right addressing a meeting of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, with Philadelphia Deputy Managing and Director of Adult Services Robert Hess at left.

In announcing the gift, the Foundation cited the bi- partisan Business Plan, a plan that was developed by a broad coalition of public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders.The Frey contribution, the largest in the history of the foundation, is another step in a much broader $540 million state-coordinated effort to end homelessness by building, buying or refurbishing 4,000 housing units by 2012. Along with philanthropic contributions, other funding is coming from federal, state and local sources.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said the foundation's commitment is a key step in addressing homelessness in Minnesota. "You are seeing a magic moment," he said.

"Governor Pawlenty and his housing strategist, Tim Marx, are to be commended once again for a business oriented plan to remedy homelessness that has attracted the investment of the Frey Foundation," said Council Director, Philip Mangano "An investment that anticipates a return of reduced homelessness and restored lives."

"The Frey Foundation sees the Business Plan as a cost-effective means to support families and have a significant return on investment on public and private dollars," said Foundation President Jim Frey. "The goal to end long-term homelessness in our state is absolutely critical to the well-being and vitality of our neighborhoods and communities. Supportive housing can help a particularly vulnerable number of Minnesotans move from homelessness to increased independence, long-term stability, employment, and self-sufficiency." Frey said he hopes other foundations, corporations and private foundations will join the effort.

Founded in 1985, the Frey Foundation of Minnesota is an independent, private, grant-making foundation whose mission is to help all community members become self-sufficient, reach their full potential, and become active, engaged members of their communities.

BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA. Broward County, Florida has joined the ranks of cities and counties across the nation launching 10-Year Plans. "A Way Home, Broward County's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness" was endorsed via Resolution passed by the Board of County Commissioners on December 6, 2005. Broward County is home to Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and 29 other South Florida communities.

"Broward County is proud to be part of the nationwide campaign to abolish homelessness," said Broward County Mayor Ben Graber. "We are one of the few communities in the nation with a recurring dedicated funding source for homeless services. We look forward to continuing collaboration to achieve the goal of ending homelessness."

The County expects to spend $63.9 million to develop and operate 1,200 new units of permanent supportive housing, two-thirds of which will be targeted to people experiencing chronic homelessness. The units will be both project-based, and scattered-site, and funding is included for support services.

Development of the plan began in September 2004 when, at the Florida Summit on Homelessness, Broward County announced its intention to join other communities around the country engaged in developing 10-Year Plans. Over 140 individuals representing 70 agencies attended workshops, focus groups, weekly steering committee meetings and nine topical committees to develop the Plan.

Implementation is expected to involve a wide variety of stakeholders, including federal, state, county and municipal governments and agencies, law enforcement and corrections, hospitals, the School Board, faith-based entities, private landlords, developers, and the business community. An Implementation Committee will be responsible for creating annual action plans, issuing updates and identifying resources needed to reach plan goals.

WASHINGTON, DC. In an effort to promote recovery for individuals and systems, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the National Consensus Statement on Mental Health Recovery.

Over 110 expert panelists participated in the process, including mental health consumers, family members, providers, advocates, researchers, academicians, managed care representatives, accreditation organization representatives, state and local public officials, and others. In addition to a national conference held in December 2004, a series of technical papers and reports were commissioned that examined topics such as recovery across the lifespan, definitions of recovery, recovery in cultural contexts, the intersection of mental health and addictions recovery, and the application of recovery at individual, family, community, provider, organizational, and systems levels.

"Recovery must be the common, recognized outcome of the services we support," said SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie. "Individuals, families, communities, providers, organizations and systems can use these principles to build resilience and facilitate recovery." The statement, which was released by SAMHSA on February 16, 2006, is expected to help operationalize recovery from a public policy and financing standpoint.

Along the same lines as the Statement, which places the individual at the center of the recovery process, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness encourages communities to place consumers at the center of their 10-year planning. "SAMHSA and Administrator Curie and all participants are to be applauded for this paradigm of recovery with the consumer at the center. These components are all informative in the partnership with our homeless neighbors," said Council Director Philip Mangano.

Excerpts from the Statement's 10 Fundamental Components of Recovery include:

• Self-Direction: Consumers lead, control, exercise choice over, and determine their own path of recovery.
• Individualized and Person-Centered: There are multiple pathways to recovery based on an individual's unique strengths and resiliencies.
• Empowerment: Consumers have the authority to choose from a range of options and to participate in all decisions that will affect their lives.
• Holistic: Recovery encompasses an individual's whole life, including mind, body, spirit, and community.
• Non-linear: Recovery is not a step- by-step process but one based on continual growth, occasional setbacks and learning from experience.
• Strengths-Based: Recovery focuses on valuing and building on the multiple capacities, resiliencies, talents, coping abilities, and inherent worth of individuals
• Peer Support: Mutual support - including the sharing of experiential knowledge and skills and social learning - plays in invaluable role in recovery.
• Respect: Community, systems, and societal acceptance and appreciation of consumers are crucial in achieving recovery.
• Responsibility: Consumers have a personal responsibility for their own self-care and journeys of recovery.
• Hope: Recovery provides the essential and motivating message of a better future - that people can and do overcome the barriers and obstacles that confront them.

Many of the components described above are reflected in the innovative approach developed by Hogar CREA, a grassroots housing and support organization for people recovering from addictions founded in Puerto Rico (see related e-news story).

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. What started as one young man's response to a troubled life has now grown to an international organization that has over the last 35 years helped 50,000 or more drug abusers in eight countries with their journey through recovery. Hogar CREA began in Puerto Rico in the late 1960s as 28-year-old Juan José García Ríos, who himself had experienced drug addiction and spent time in jail, sought to help others emerging from similar circumstance. With the opening of the first home in 1968, a place where addicts could rebuild their lives in a holistic, supportive environment, Hogar CREA began.

Hogar CREA International President Julia M. Garcia hosted United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano on a tour of facilities during Mr. Mangano's recent visit to Puerto Rico. He was joined by San Juan Office of Federal Affairs Director Maria del Carmen Munoz, and Council Regional Coordinators Michael German and Ed Cabrera.

Hogar CREA offers drug and alcohol addiction treatment services in a home setting to individuals and adolescents of both sexes in 104 facilities in Puerto Rico, the United States, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. Its philosophy is based on the practical principles of individual and collective responsibility, self-help, and mutual support. The faith-based organization provides the re-education of drug and alcohol abusers and their total re- integration into the community.

The residents at Hogar CREA live in a home environment surrounded by physical, emotional, spiritual, and moral components needed for recovery. The approach is 'resident-driven', which means residents provide support to each other, and do most of the work needed to sustain the organization through micro-enterprises and other endeavors. The homes are run by primarily by former residents, a peer modality based on the principle that an ex-resident, having gone through the same process, will have the best understanding of the program and can best relate to individuals in treatment.

'Hogar' means home and the abbreviation 'CREA' is a Spanish acronym which, translated, means "a community for the re-training of addicts". Of the 51,000 drug abusers who have entered the program, 28,000 have completed treatment successfully. The organization's founder, Juan José García Ríos, is pictured here.

WITH THIS ISSUE of the e-news, we continue our coverage of excerpts from statements made by public sector partners ending chronic homelessness. The following Words of the Week come from San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Jorge A. Santini during the February 15, 2006 unveiling of The 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in San Juan.

. . . The 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness is a document that identifies the City's strategy to prevent and to combat the problems of this population. San Juan's strategy has two goals: reduce the number of individuals that become chronically homeless and increase the number of chronically homeless people that are rehabilitated and that obtain permanent housing.

. . . The 10-Year Plan is part of a national movement launched by President Bush through the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to eradicate 20 years of homelessness. Through the adoption and support of President Bush's initiative, San Juan will diminish the number of chronic homeless people that live in our streets.

. . . As Mayor of San Juan, I want to establish partnerships with community and faith-based organizations. The goal is to integrate the collaboration of these entities and a specialized system that supports the strategies and service programs.