ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. " My friends, the State of our City is great. But, let me be clear. A great City without a great heart is one that has yet to achieve its destiny. St. Paul can never move ahead if we leave any behind." So stated St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly last week as he made ending chronic homelessness the focus of his State of the City address, delivered at the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul to over 300 community partners. Mayor Kelly stressed new initiatives to intervene in young adult homelessness in the city, and he urged St. Paul citizens to join with him "in dedication to the worthy goal of eliminating chronic homelessness in St. Paul." With his commitment, Mayor Kelly becomes the 30th Mayor of a state capital to commit to a 10-Year Plan.

Tasking the City/County Advisory Board on Homelessness to develop a new 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness by September and assigning his chief of staff to oversee the effort, Mayor Kelley reflected: "Our goal should not be simply to warehouse the poor. Our goal should be to allow them the opportunity to house themselves." Mayor Kelly (pictured here at left) was joined for the event by (left to right) Archbishop Harry Flynn, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

"Tonight Mayor Kelly indicates once again that the status quo is not good enough for the citizens of St. Paul, not while any of your neighbors are without a place to live," stated Director Mangano. "His commitment insures that the quality of life for every citizen is improved - housed and homeless alike - and his community approach welcomes all concerned citizens and stakeholders to the table from every sector in the service of our poorest neighbors."

HOUSTON, TEXAS. Family homelessness was the focus of the first federal Policy Academy of 2005 convened April 20-22 in Houston for eight states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. The Policy Academy session was the eight convened since 2002, and the third to focus on homeless families.

The Policy Academy was planned with the participation of the United States Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Justice, and Labor, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Interagency Council Director Mangano, the Policy Academy's closing speaker, told the state partners, "Our work in this Policy Academy and back in the states is to insure that we creatively access every resource available - federal, state, county, local. Invest those resources in results. Innovate where necessary. Borrow ideas from others when needed."

The convening was designed to assist state and local policymakers to develop an Action Plan intended to improve access for families with children who are homeless to mainstream health, human services, and employment and training programs, that are coordinated with housing and other existing community programs; to create and/or reinforce relationships among the Governor's office, State Legislators, key program administrators, and stake holders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors; to provide an environment conducive to the process of strategic decision-making that is result- oriented, outcome related, and benefits families with children who are homeless; and to assist State and local policymakers in identifying issues or areas of concern that may result in a formal request for technical assistance.

State partners heard from leading family homelessness research Mary Beth Shinn, Professor of Psychology at New York University and lead researcher on the current HHS family homeless research initiative. State innovators presenting were Arizona Department of Economic Security, State Homeless Coordinator Charlene Flaherty, and Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance Commissioner John Wagner. Other sessions focused on youth aging out of foster care, the health/behavioral health needs of homeless families, housing, employment skills, Medicaid and the Social Services Block Grant, use of TANF Funds, federal nutrition programs, childcare and educational needs of school-aged and preschool-aged children, reentry, and the dynamics and costs of homelessness.

WASHINGTON, DC. Staff of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), gathered April 21 week in their Washington area headquarters to hear the latest developments in the Administration's initiative to end chronic homelessness and to learn more about the experiences of homeless people.

Under the leadership of SAMHSA Chief of Staff Gail Hutchings (pictured here), the "Homelessness Matrix Group," one of several focused initiatives in the agency, heard from United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano about how their intra-agency efforts contribute to the federal goal. Director Mangano reported to the group that the federal interagency Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness, in which SAMHSA is a partner to the 11 national sites housing persons experiencing chronic homelessness, has now successfully housed 554 individuals who had collectively experienced 3499 years of homelessness. Participants screened a short video of the Contra Costa, California, Collaborative Initiative site.

Also addressing SAMHSA staff were Dr. Darren Skinner of the Guadenzia treatment program in Philadelphia and Ruth McTiernan of Community Connections in Washington, who each spoke of their personal experiences of homelessness, and Dr. Fred Osher of the University of Maryland Center for Behavioral Health, Justice, and Public Policy.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA. Mayor Shirley Franklin, recently named by TIME Magazine as one of the five best Mayors in the country, is preparing for a ribbon- cutting that will move forward the city's commitment and the region's plan to end chronic homelessness. In June the new 24/7 Gateway Center is expected to open its doors, offering 30 beds for women and children who need emergency shelter and 270 beds for men who need a place to stay for up to several months. The new Center will provide food, bathrooms, showers and telephones and will house groups offering addiction treatment, and job counselling. The 4-story, 110,000-square-foot building will contain office and meeting space for 45 service organizations, including churches, synagogues, nonprofit agencies and the courts.

The Regional Commission on Homelessness, headed by retired King & Spalding lawyer Horace Sibley, has raised more than $16 million from private sources to implement priorities of the plan. The Center was created with funds raised by the Regional Commission, which was started by the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta at Mayor Franklin's urging. Gateway, part of the commission's 29-point plan for eliminating homelessness by 2013, will operate with government grants and private donations.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, who toured the Gateway construction site in January, predicted the center would relieve the strain on everything from Atlanta's emergency rooms to its police force and jails. "People who you thought were going to just die on the streets someday will instead have their lives rehabilitated and redeemed in this center," he stated during the tour.

Mayor Franklin tasked the Regional Commission to focus on several priority areas of implementation, including: reducing evictions and foreclosures; providing transportation to reunite homeless people with family or other "support systems; establishing a single-room-occupancy facility with support services and room for 50 people who suffer from mental illness, addiction or both; and expanding Atlanta Community Court as an alternative to traditional court so that more homeless people, or those at risk of homelessness, who commit petty crimes can be sentenced to treatment and community service instead of jail.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA. In some parts of San Diego County, there's a new requirement when buying a house: a mandatory charitable contribution by the buyer to assist in meeting the housing needs of homeless people. Lennar Copr., one of the nation's largest builders, now requires homebuyers to make a payment that will be given to local housing organizations chosen by a foundation set up by the builder. Lennar Corp. requires the fee (amounting to 1/20th of 1 percent of the sales price of its new houses) under a program started three years ago in Orange County.

Lennar Corp. brought the program to San Diego County initially two years ago and now requires the payment. For a $500,000 house, the amount collected from a buyer would be $250, which is added to the purchase price. Making the required contribution even more unusual is that legal documents recorded with the county require future buyers to fund the trust over the lifetime of the Lennar homes.

According to Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, this is a unique program. Lennar executives said the foundation's primary focus is on the "transitional homeless," such as workers who have lost their jobs or battered women living in shelters. Administrative costs for the foundation are absorbed by Lennar, which will track future sales through a title company. Lennar also makes contributions to its charitable housing foundation. Exempted from the program are Lennar houses designed to meet lower-income housing requirements. The program is under way at about 120 Lennar developments in Southern California and this year the foundation should collect $1.5 million, an increase over $700,000 collected last year. Lennar division president Mike Levesque said the first local organizations to receive money from the foundation will be announced this summer. He expects the company to award more than $200,000.

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON. As much as $15 million to forward goals of 10-Year Plans over the next decade is expected to be generated by a new state fund created by the Washington legislature recently, in a measure that also created authority for a State Interagency Council on Homelessness. House Bill 2163 creates a new state and local funding source through a $10 surcharge for documents recorded by county auditors (such as real estate mortgages and housing transactions). Counties and cities that develop local or regional ten- year plans may retain a combined total of 60 percent of the surcharge to implement their plans. The remaining 40 percent will be used to create a state administered Homeless Housing Grant Program coordinated by the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. These funds will be available to local governments on a competitive basis. Both housing and prevention services will be eligible uses under the measure.

The State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED) will partner with local governments in statewide planning, focused assistance through grants to counties with high needs but modest resources, or who offer outstanding local projects in need of state matching money, an annual census to be used for both planning purposes and as an accountability tool, and creating an on-line information and referral service to help local governments identify available housing for homeless persons.

THIS WEEK'S E-NEWS focuses on excerpts from Through Our Eyes: A Shared Community Vision for Saint Paul, the State of the City speech delivered by Mayor Randy Kelly last week. Mayor Kelly is pictured here.

. . . People wait all around us. For the very basics of life that we are blessed with. Even when they have a full-time job, they are still not able to afford those basics. Every day they wait. Well, I am not a patient person. We will wait no longer. We cannot stand inside, comfortable and safe, while so many of our own wait outside. Some say that homelessness is an insurmountable problem that someone else should fix . . . I say that means the problem is urgent and must be aggressively addressed now. We have already done some great things. But we have only just begun. Much works lies ahead. Let me set out our strategies in three areas: The short term and the immediate. The things we need to start doing now. The longer term policy changes. The things that we need to help solve the underlying problems of homelessness. Ways that all of us can participate in these solutions.

. . . Our second short-term initiative deals with the ongoing problem of adults who are chronically homeless. These are people who keep returning to shelters month after month and who cannot seem to break the cycle. Most often, these folks have severe disabilities including chemical dependency and mental illness. The chronically homeless are expensive . . . We must work to solve this problem. As the Governor mentioned earlier, the Minnesota Legislature two weeks ago set aside $12 million to help solve chronic homelessness. We in Saint Paul are far along in planning for a new Catholic Charities project that will have 120 beds for the chronically homeless. This will be a huge step forward. It will increase our available bed supply for that population by about 20%.

. . . Some say that fixing homelessness is too expensive; it's better to do nothing. Yet, in doing nothing, we do not lower costs. We will continue to pay higher medical costs for emergency rooms; higher costs for social services; higher costs for police and emergency responses; and higher costs for jails. Most of all, homelessness creates a loss of useful lives. The only tragedy greater than the lost human potential would be not taking action to solve the problem. The people, the families, the children served at the Dorothy Day Center and at shelters citywide are not statistics, but living, feeling, caring people who want the dignity of a home and the pride of being able to care for themselves and their families. They have hopes and dreams and desires of providing a better life, showing a better way, teaching a better lesson.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its feature on how federal surplus property can assist in developing local solutions to homelessness with this update on the progress of a proposed project at the former U.S. Naval Radio Station and Naval Reserve Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The site is proposed to be converted to a women and children's transitional living program by the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was awarded the McKinney Title V site. The City has just been awarded a deed to the site and now expects to open within a year as Casa Cuna, (House Cradle), a residence for 100 women and children. The new program will be run by the Office of the First Lady of San Juan, Mrs. Irma Garriga.

The e-news previously profiled the project in its early stages. "Homelessness is one of the main policy concerns of Mayor Jorge Santini and his wife," stated Maria del Carmen Muñoz, Director of the Office for Federal Affairs for the City of San Juan. Mayor Santini has been an active leader of the island's mayors in encouraging the develoment of 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness.

Casa Cuna, (House Cradle) will consist of transitional housing for up to 24 months and supportive services that will "assure that the women reach self- sufficiency, find decent permanent housing, overcome their homelessness experience, are able to handle their personal lives more efficiently, and raise happy and healthy children." Services, including day care, education and job training, health care, transportation, and psychological counseling, will be coordinated with other existing city programs. "The City of San Juan is proud that we were able to get this Title V land, because many people wanted it. We were very fortunate and we are excited about this program for women and their children" said Munoz.

Each Friday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publishes a list of properties in the Federal Register and briefly describes properties determined to be suitable and available. To access the weekly listing: 1. Contact your local HUD office or call 1-800-927-7588 to receive information on properties in your area. 2. Visit the Federal Register online at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html, Choose "browse" and then "back issues," and then select the most recent Friday issue.