WASHINGTON, DC. Washington, DC, Mayor Anthony Williams, who has committed $20 million in his annual city budget to Homeless No More, the 10- Year Plan in the Nation's Capital, this week signed into a law a measure creating a new Interagency Council on Homelessness for the District. Mayor Williams is pictured here.

Mayor Williams, the current President of the National League of Cities, made homelessness a centerpiece of his 2005 State of the District Address (SODA). Speaking at the historic Lincoln Theatre, Mayor Williams observed, "Let's face it. There are people all over our city who have not fully reaped the progress of the last six years. They are still going to crumbling schools, still left with more month than money, still surrounded by the twin tragedies of poverty and violence, still without a place to live or work."

The new Council is intended to facilitate cabinet-level leadership in planning, policymaking, program development, provider monitoring, and budgeting in the City. The City Administrator will chair the Council, whose other members will include: the City Council Chair, and the administrative head of each of Departments of Human Services, Mental Health, Child and Family Services, Housing and Community Development, Health, Corrections, Employment Services, and the DC Housing Authority, DC Public Schools, DC Emergency Management Agency, Office of Property Management, Metropolitan Police Department, service providers, homeless and formerly homeless individuals, and advocates.

The DC Interagency Council is charged to provide leadership in the development of strategies and policies that guide the implementation of the District's policies and programs for meeting the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. The Council is expected to coordinate an annual, community-wide needs-assessment and planning process to identify, prioritize, and target needs for services, and, at least every 5 years, prepare and publish a strategic plan for services takes into account existing data and community input, along with an annual plan detailing how the District intends to provide or arrange for services. The Council is also to direct the Office of Property Management to identify vacant public buildings or tax-foreclosed buildings to be used as shelter and supportive housing facilities.

Homeless No More, the DC Plan, proposes three long- term policies to end homelessness: 1) Increase homeless prevention efforts at both local and federal levels, 2) Provide supportive services fully coordinated to include homeless programs and special needs housing, and 3) Develop 6,000 units of affordable, supportive permanent housing to meet the needs of the District's homeless population and other very-low-income persons who are at risk, including 2,000 units for persons experiencing chronic homelessness.

The Plan includes a commitment to rapid re-housing and a Housing First strategy, 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.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Giving a public progress report just a month ago on Chicago's 10-Year Plan, one of the first completed plans in the nation, Mayor Richard Daley stated, " I knew we could do better - because Chicago is full of caring people, many of whom are in this room today. And in Chicago, when we care about a problem, we don't wring our hands and shake our heads. We get busy and do something about the problem."

This week, responding to local temperatures that were part of the national heat wave claiming the lives of homeless people across the country, the City's Department of Human Services, under the leadership of Commissioner Carmello Vargas partnered with the Chicago Salvation Army to conduct mass distributions of water and open cooling centers in the city.

United States Interagency Council in Homelessness Executive Director, meeting this week with Mayor Daley and City 10-Year Plan leader Ellen Sahli, also toured the Salvation Army's Homeless Street Outreach and Service Center in Uptown. Director Mangano joined DHS Commissioner Vargas and DHS' Cindy Collins, for a tour, as well as seeing the City's mobile health services van. They are pictured here as they visited sites to witness firsthand the City's response to the heat wave.

Director Mangano noted the City's results as one of the 11 federal HUD-HHS-VA Collaborative Initiative sites, stating, "The federal initiative funded here and in 10 other cities has moved over 600 people off the streets, beyond long term shelter stays, to housing. Ending 4,300 years of homelessness. That very change is happening here in Chicago: people who were on the streets or long term in shelters have moved into housing."

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS. Public and private sector partners gathered last week in Salem, Massachusetts, to move forward with new supportive housing opportunities for persons experiencing chronic homelessness in the city of just over 40,000 people. Salem Mayor Stan Usovicz and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano joined Salem Mission Board Chair Andrew Oliver for the awarding of $5000 from the faith-based St. George Fund to launch the new housing commitment at the new Seeds of Hope Center. Seeds of Hope is the former St. Mary's Youth Center; the Salem Mission is underway with a move from its 20 year base at the Crombie Street Mission to a former Catholic Church property in Salem that will support new programmatic goals including job training, counseling, and future SRO housing.

"It is exciting for the Salem Mission to share this common vision with the Interagency Council: that it is time to stop funding homelessness and to start investing in homeless individuals. We will use our new programs and facilities to help individuals return to a productive and independent life. We look forward to partnering with the community and with other organizations to achieve our common goals," stated Board Chair Oliver, an investment banker.

Commented Director Mangano, "Salem Mission's Seeds of Hope Program is an important new strategy with a trajectory toward housing, employment and the other antidote to homelessness that places Salem's efforts squarely in the national movement. "

Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) Executive Director Joe Finn presented the St. George Fund award to Salem Mission. The Saint George Fund is part of Social Action Ministries (SAM), an initiative of MHSA which has a 20 year history of inter-faith action to address hunger and homelessness in Massachusetts. The St. George Fund, created in 1989, provides resources to homeless people to help move out of homelessness into permanent housing and to support homeless programs. Through SAM's work, state advocacy organizations have been created, faith congregations inspired to speak out on housing and hunger issues, and direct assistance to homeless people has been extended.

Also participating in the award event was Council Region I Coordinator John O'Brien and representatives of Kelleher Construction and Winter Street Architects. Pictured here are (left to right) Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance Executive Director Joe Finn, Board Chair Oliver, Director Mangano, and Mayor Usovicz.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. Public hearing dates have been set for Salt Lake County, Utah's 10-Year Plan under development, bringing the Salt Lake County Council of Governments closer to finalizing its planning process. An estimated 1,800 people are estimated to be homelessness in Salt Lake County. "Every person should have access to safe, decent affordable housing," says Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini, Chair of the Housing and Human Services Committee of the Council of Governments who will chair the hearings. Palmer DePaulis, former Mayor of Salt Lake City and Chair of the Council's Long Range Planning Committee, will present background information concerning the homeless situation.

The Long Range Planning Committee has drafted a four step strategic plan addressing prevention through provision of information and resources to prevent people from becoming homeless; access to mainstream services by educating and assisting homeless persons on a variety of support programs; housing through a continued expansion of the existing stock of housing for persons experiencing chronic homelessness; and infrastructure by strengthening procedures to coordinate and measure success of those providing services. The 10 Year Plan To End Chronic Homelessness will be presented at two public hearings scheduled for August 18 and August 25.

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. "This landmark legislation will enable people with mental illness to focus on their recovery instead of worrying about where they are going to live," New Jersey Acting Governor Richard Codey said as he signed new housing legislation at a ceremony outside Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris County. "It brings decency to the lives of people with mental illness, and relief to the families that care for them."

Acting Governor Codey this week signed in to law a new measure creating a $200 million dollar Special Needs Housing Trust Fund for the state. The Fund will support 10,000 new affordable housing opportunities for people with mental illness and other special needs. The Governor's Mental Health Task Force Housing Committee had recommended establishment of the Fund. Acting Governor Codey also authorized $5 million in new service funding for the first 500 units of supportive housing to be developed. The new Fund will be administered by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and supported by bonds issued by the state's Economic Development Authority.

WASHINGTON, DC. Expanding faith-based and community organizations' access to private sector and philanthropic funds will be the focus of a 2006 summit called for by President Bush in a recent meeting with African-American faith, civic, and community leaders at the White House. Organized by Assistant to the President and White Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Director Jim Towey, the 2006 summit promises a focus on an issue key to implementing 10-Year Plan goals in many of the almost 200 cities and counties committed to planning processes: how to use plans to leverage private sector and philanthropic funds and increase partnership in investments.

According to Towey, "We simply want to see ways to forge more effective partnerships with the private sector to open up their resources to faith-based and community groups, and to educate these givers about what their benefits are, because they can leverage the experience and the volunteers and resources of these small community organizations. And so we think we can highlight the importance of what these resources can do to address the needs of our poor." Director Towey is pictured here.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-news continues to focus on innovative initiatives that are producing results in preventing and ending chronic homelessness. The e- news regularly offers a far-ranging set of replicable efforts focused on our common mission to eliminate homelessness with especial attention to this Administration's goal of eliminating chronic homelessness.

Whether collaborations between the business community and homeless providers, housing initiatives supported by managed care organizations, new housing technologies, research that impacts our country's streets, or borrowed service methodologies, regular profiles of innovative initiatives offer the reader ideas that support our common objective. Whenever we discover an initiative that supports the goal, we'll make that new "technology" available to you, wherever its origin. The focus will, of course, be on those initiatives that have documented outcomes that result in ending homelessness. Independent corroboration is an important element in any such determination, as are results.

If you're looking for ideas to meet a need in your 10- Year Plan or State Interagency Council efforts, just visit the Innovations section of the Council's web site, where you will find profiles of past e-news stories on innovations in prevention, permanent housing, partnership, funding, and more.

Have an Innovative Initiative you'd like to nominate? Just email a one-page (no more, please) description to ich@hud.gov that confirms the innovative nature of the effort, the outcomes in ending homelessness achieved, and the independent corroboration of the results. We'll be happy to consider any such nomination.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its focus on opportunities to secure resources for homeless programs under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

WASHINGTON, DC. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission is wrapping up its site visit and hearing schedule as it continues its work with an eye to its upcoming September deadlines for action. By September 8, the Commission must transmit to the President "a report containing its findings and conclusions based on a review and analysis of the Secretary's recommendations for closure and realignment." By September 23, the President shall transmit to the Commission and to the Congress, "a report containing the President's approval or disapproval of the Commission's recommendations."

UPCOMING HEARINGS. Commission Chairman Anthony J. Principi, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Commission members are conducting site visits and hearings over the next few weeks. Among these are hearings on Monday, August 8, at 1:00PM at Monterey Convention Center, concerning Alaska, Colorado, and California sites; and in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, August 10, at 8:30AM, at Senate Hart Hearing Room 216, concerning Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, and Maine sites. More information on hearings and site visits is available at www.brac.gov

Local homeless planning partners will be interested in the opportunities presented by the closure and reuse process. The Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act (1994 Base Closure Act) addresses the use of military base property as surplus federal property on military bases. The Act requires consideration of the needs of persons experiencing homelessness during the redevelopment process.

Once the closures are announced, several early steps occur in the reuse process. Federal agencies can use the federal screening process to be the first to express interest in property over a 60 day period. During this period, a Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA) must be formed in the community to address conversion of the property to other uses. As the LRA advances and conducts outreach, it will advertise to state and local governments and homeless services providers that the former base property is availability and that "notices of interest" will be received during a specified time period.

DOD maintains a web site of resources that can assist a variety of community partners in understanding and participating in the upcoming process, including accommodations to the needs of homeless people in the community. DOD's Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) is the primary source for assisting communities that are adversely impacted by such changes, including base closures or realignments, base expansions, and contract or program cancellations. To assist affected communities, OEA manages and directs the Defense Economic Adjustment Program, and coordinates the involvement of other Federal agencies. Under the 1994 Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act, DOD, in a joint process with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also plays a role in the community's base reuse planning process and future homeless assistance.