WASHINGTON, DC. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt last week announced plans to award 105 new health center grants totaling more than $63 million. These grants will help an estimated 632,000 Americans, including many without health insurance, obtain comprehensive primary health care services. The grants continue President Bush's five-year initiative to help communities across the country create or expand access to comprehensive primary health care services. "The President's initiative has greatly expanded the capacity of health centers over the past three years. As a result, almost 3 million additional Americans now have access to health care services," Secretary Leavitt said. "These grants build upon those efforts and will extend the health care safety net to more Americans." Secretary Leavitt is pictured here.

Awards to 17 of the grantees announced last week will be made in May. The additional 88 grants will be awarded on or about Dec. 1, 2005, as Fiscal Year 2006 funds become available. A total of thirteen awards will be made to Health Care for the Homeless programs.

Launched in 2002, the initiative will add 1,200 new and expanded health center sites and increase the number of people served annually from about 10 million to 16 million by 2006. Since 2002, including these new grants, HHS has funded more than 700 new or expanded health centers and increased the number of patients served annually to 13.2 million (estimate for Calendar Year 2004).

Health centers deliver preventive and primary care services to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Almost 40 percent of the patients treated at health centers have no insurance coverage, and others have inadequate coverage. Charges for health care services are set according to income. HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) manages the Consolidated Health Center Program, which funds a national network of more than 3,600 clinics comprised of community health centers, migrant health centers, health care for the homeless centers and public housing primary care centers.

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. With San Mateo County Supervisors Mark Church and Jerry Hill at the helm, the new Leadership Council for San Mateo's 10-Year Plan recently convened to advance their vision of HOPE: Housing Our People Effectively. HOPE will be the County's 10-Year Action Plan to bring together business, non-profits, and public sector partners to meet the County Board of Supervisors' goal to ensure housing for county residents using cost-effective initiatives that solve homelessness. The Council's guiding principles include a commitment to outcome oriented planning driven by research and data used to achieve the "highest standards of practices through continuous quality improvement."

The Leadership Council includes Mayors of San Mateo, and Daly City, as well as representatives of local public agencies for corrections, education, community college education, mental health, probation, human services, health care and hospitals, housing, transportation, Workforce Investment, Chamber of Commerce, faith-based organizations, and local business such as Wells Fargo Bank, Siebel Systems, and Oracle Corporation. Council members were named on the basis of their ability to make decisions in their organization or stakeholder group.

Four Task Forces will make up the Stakeholders Committee: Community Connections focused on the wider impact of homelessness; Prevention Networks focused on diversion and exit planning; Housing Solutions; and Quality Outcomes focused on research and evidence based practices, outcome data and standards of service.

BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI. Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway last week welcomed United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director to discuss progress in his city in addressing chronic homelessness. Mayor Holloway was joined by Biloxi Director of Adminstration David Staehling and Biloxi Homeless Task Force Director Reverend Shari Prestmon, and Council Region IV Coordinator Michael German. Mayor Holloway described recent work the city has done to have a closer partnerhsip with local hospitals to develop cost data on services provided to homeless people.

DENVER, COLORADO. As 10-Year Plans around the country advance in their development, jurisidctional leaders are ensuring that they have heard from all key partners before they ready their local plans for release. Recognizing the need to be consumer centric in developing Denver's 10-Year Plan, planners have now brought their ideas directly to the people most affected: those experiencing homelessness in Denver. The Denver Commission to End Homelessness is now visiting local shelters to hear the views of those who have relied on homeless programs. The Commission expects to deliver its plan to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the Denver City Council in May. Denver is also set to open a "homeless court" set to debut in May for resolving charges against homeless offenders, while a new committee will undertake a study of the city's diversionary programs and recommend changes. Mayor Hickenlooper is pictured here.

Similarly, Washington, DC's Homeless No More, released in February 2005, took time to conduct a series of public hearings in the nation's Capital, after the draft plan was released in June 2004. DC Mayor Anthony Williams' plan, newly backed by the Mayor's commitment of $20 million, calls for development of 6,000 units of affordable, supportive permanent housing to meet the needs of the District's homeless and other very-low-income persons who are at risk, including 2000 units for persons experiencing chronic homelessness. The DC Plan includes a commitment to rapid re-housing and a Housing First strategy, establishment of a DC Interagency Council on Homelessness, and a commitment to an interagency budget strategy for the future. Under the plan, mainstream public agencies and services would be transformed to better serve homeless persons. Traditional emergency shelters would be replaced by easy-access, rapid-exit "Housing Assistance Centers" and "Housing First" options and "Housing Plus" options would be offered to rapidly move homeless city residents to permanent housing.

Monitoring and improvement of plans is an especially important element in ensuring that all partners and populations see their concerns and goals addressed. "The Council recognizes that the needs of homeless veterans must be given special attention and consideration in the development and implementation of jurisdictional plans," stated United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano. "Plans must be seen as 'living' documents that are monitored and improved as they are implemented. The needs of homeless veterans are especially important to these plans."

Recognizing the need to strengthen and improve plans as they move ahead in both design and implementation stages, the Interagency Council on Homelessness, working in cooperation with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Homeless Veterans Advisory Committee, has recently developed resource materials on representing the needs and interests of homeless veterans in State Interagency Councils on Homelessness and 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness. Included in the new publication are background information on homelessness among veterans, links to federal web sites and national, state, and local veterans serving organizations, as well as directories of Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Regional Office Homeless Outreach Veterans Coordinators, and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) VISN Homeless Coordinators.

Best practice in the convening of planning partnerships and the development of jurisdictional plans will ensure early inclusion of partners who address the needs of homeless veterans, the development of jurisdictional data on their needs, and the design of partnerships and investments that prevent and end their homelessness. This new USICH tool is available on line and will be used by the Council's Regional Coordinators in their work with states, cities, and counties undertaking planning. Council Regional Coordinator John O'Brien worked with the VA and Advisory Committee to develop the new tool.

WASHINGTON, DC. As reported here last week, there are currently four United States Department of Labor (DOL) funding competitions totalling over $27 million in workforce investments for the reentry and veterans populations and faith-based and community organizations. DOL's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI) and the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), have announced the availability up to $5 million for grants to eligible Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) that have demonstrated successfully the ability to form working partnerships with grassroots faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs). Grassroots FBCOs may include faith-based and community organizations, minority-led or immigrant-led non-profit or community development organizations 5and/or other small non-profit organizations.

This grant will build upon successful ETA grants from program years (PY) 2001 to 2004 that focused on the use of intermediaries and WIBs to build partnerships between FBCOs and local One-Stop systems. The WIB will develop and implement an 18-month project to encourage the formation of l ong-term contractual and non-contractual partnerships with FBCOs that meet an unmet community need related to hard-to-serve populations (e.g., ex-offenders, limited-English, welfare-to work, etc.).

The closing date for applications is May 4, 2005. The Department expects to award approximately 10 to 20 grants based on the rating of applications and other factors, which may include urban/rural and geographical balance. The grant amount for each WIB is expected to range between $300,000 and $500,000. The period of performance will be 18 months from the date of execution by the Department. Announcement of this award is expected to occur by July 1, 2005.

Other current competitions are the Urban Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program (HVRP), Workforce Investment Act - Grants For Workforce Investment Boards, and Prisoner Reentry Initiative.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-news continues its focus on innovative initiatives and partnerships that are achieving results in ending chronic homelessness. This week, the e-news focuses on the role of private philanthropy in supporting the goal of ending chronic homelessness. Cities across the country have found philanthropic partners back at the planning table as they design and implement 10-year strategies to end chronic homelessness.

For example, the Atlanta Blueprint has drawn over $13 million in new private and philanthropic investment to its strategies, with one of the priorities being the Gateway, a 24/7 center projected to reduce overflow shelter demand and assist homeless persons with disabilities to obtain appropriate service referrals.

The Melville Charitable Trust, created in 1990, has provided significant financial support to numerous housing and service providers in Connecticut. It has supported and helped facilitate collaborations among the state's providers, advocates and public officials to promote systems change to end chronic homelessness and create 10,000 units of permanent supportive housing within ten years. In addition, it renovated a state-of-the-art, 16,000 square foot Lyceum to house partnering organizations, including the Partnership for Strong Communities and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and to provide a central forum for cutting-edge leaders and thinkers to work on "programs and initiatives to end homelessness, promot[ing] affordable housing and best practices in community development."

Last year, the Melville Charitable Trust helped launch the Partnership to End Long-Term Homelessness, a major collaboration of nine national foundations, nonprofit organizations and financial institutions to leverage more than $30 million from national and locally-based foundations, financial institutions and businesses to significantly increase in public and private sector financing for the capital, operating, and service costs of supportive housing. The Melville Charitable Trust has also helped to raise national awareness of the issues and solutions of homelessness, housing, and the needs of low-wage workers through its support of National Public Radio's "Housing First" series.

One Family, Inc., founded in 1998 by Paul and Phyllis Fireman of Reebok International, Ltd., seeks to end homelessness among families in Massachusetts. Investing in partnerships at multiple levels, the organization has advocated for long-term solutions to homelessness in the state, providing critical support for the state's recent shift from using motels to shelter families to rapid re-housing through housing subsidies and support services. Along with rapid re- housing, or Housing First, One Family is dedicated to increasing early prevention for families at risk of homelessness and strategies to create affordable housing and promote economic independence. Both the Melville Charitable Trust and Paul Fireman were recently recognized by the National Alliance to End Homelessness for their contributions and leadership.

. . . that the percentage of mental health and substance abuse services paid for by public sources is increasing, with a smaller percentage provided by private sources, including private health insurance. According to a recent report by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), public sources paid for 63 percent of mental health spending in 2001, up from 57 percent in 1991. Public sources paid for 76 percent of substance abuse treatment in 2001, up from 62 percent in 1991. Public spending includes spending by all levels of government, federal, state and local, and includes Medicaid and Medicare.

. . . that spending on mental health services totaled $85.4 billion in 2001, and substance abuse treatment costs amounted to $18.3 billion. Mental health spending on psychiatric hospitals has decreased, while expenditures for other types of care, particularly prescription drugs, have increased. One in every five dollars spent on mental health treatment is now spent for retail psychotropic prescription drugs (21 percent), up from 7 percent in 1991.

. . . that Medicaid is now the largest single payer of mental health services, exceeding private insurance, Medicare, or other state and local spending. Medicaid paid 27 percent of mental health expenditures in 2001; Medicare paid 7 percent; other federal spending accounted for 5 percent; other state and local spending 23 percent; private insurance 22 percent; and other private 16 percent.

Intergovernmental partnership and cost benefit analysis were key themes in the recent Western States Regional Colloquy on Ending Chronic Homelessness, convened by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for state leaders. Nine Western states were represented in the day-long session which focused on state strategies for investment, innovation and partnerships in the work of state interagency councils on homelessness and the implementation of plans to end chronic homelessness. State leaders and homeless policy officials from Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington, joined expert faculty from across the country for the 1-day immersion into public/private partnerships, leveraging of state, local, and private resources, and data. The Western States Colloquy is the third in a series being convened by the Council; prior Colloquies have occured to date for the Northeastern and Southeastern states.

State Colloquy participants were welcomed to the Holsum Lofts redevelopment site by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a signatory to the Mayors Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness, and Clark County Executive Tom Reilly, who noted the leadership of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in giving local government the vision necessary to achieve cooperation as he acknowledged that the two jurisdictions have recently achieved a new level of commitment and cooperation on the issue of homelessness.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano welcomed Colloquy attendees, stating, "Today's colloquy is meant to give you some new tools to work with - economic, programmatic, technological - to assist you in building more effectively and efficiently. To create the strategy to end chronic homelessness in the next decade. How appropriate that we meet in a building under construction - an apt metaphor for our efforts - works in progress. One part of our work together is to close the gap between knowledge and practice, in housing and service provision and in economic strategies and to introduce innovations that have the promise of results."

The State Colloquy, which mirrors city/county colloquies conducted by the Council nationally last year, provided state policymakers with the opportunity to hear firsthand from states with plans underway. Attendees heard from Reno Police Department Officer Patrick O'Bryan on the key issue of cost benefit analysis. Officer O'Bryan cited his own city's costs of $2000 for a detox, $6,500 whenever a medical exam is also required, and $65,000 each for each homeless person arrested, using ER, jail and detox combined. Officer O'Bryan cited a case where $1 million was spent on one homeless person whose issues were unusually complicated, "with no result for that man, when just a little bit of caring and housing could produce a turnaround in a man's life."

State attendees heard from peers in state government initiatives around the country, including: Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Commissioner Tim Marx on Minnesota's Business Plan approach; Utah Department of Community and Economic Development Director Gordon Walker on the role of an executive level state interagency council on homelessness; Kentucky Housing Corporation COO Richard McQuady on Recovery Kentucky on the state's new approach to treatment and housing for chronically homeless persons recovering from substance abuse; and South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics' Pete Bailey on the role of state government in capturing outcome data. Pathways to Housing Executive Director Sam Tsemberis oriented attendees to the Housing First model, and Virginia Piper Charitable Trust ' Wayne Parker of Arizona described a funder's initiative on program evaluation.

Arizona's Moran-Flaherty described the state's efforts to employ new ways of measuring the success of programs, experimenting with a "self-sufficiency matrix." To determine whether a program is successful, evaluation focuses on an individual's progress rather than the usual measurements, such as number of clients served.

Utah's Walker said the state's strategy has been to engage decision makers from the top levels of state and local government and the business sector, health care industry and service providers, creating a priority for homelessness in state and local government.

WASHINGTON, DC. Webcasts over the next two weeks will provide resources information for potential applicants for this year's Department of Housing and Urban Development competition now underway. Of interest are Webcasts on How to Apply for Federal Grants (April 20, 11 am - 4 pm EST) and Logic Model Training/Evaluation (April 26, 1:30 pm - 4 pm EST). To access a list and archive of the Webcasts and information on viewing, visit http://www.hud.gov/webcasts/index.cfm

Application changes make it essential to stay up to date on 2005 developments. The individual Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs) and the Questions and Answers document should be thoroughly reviewed for details. These documents are posted on-line for downloading. The Questions and Answers document is located at http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa05/grpcoc.cfm

In the 2005 SuperNOFA announced on March 21, there are a total of 53 HUD programs totaling $2.26 billion. McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants of approximately $1 billion are available, with applications due June 10, 2005. $10 million is available under the Housing for People who are homeless and Addicted to Alcohol competition for 10 2-year grants of approximately $1 million each. Applications are due May 19, 2005.