WASHINGTON, DC. States and faith-based and community organizations will receive $170 million in awards through three major programs announced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services this week. This e-news story summarizes the HHS anouncements.

COMPASSION CAPITAL FUND. "President Bush recognizes the effectiveness of faith and community-based organizations in mobilizing communities to serve those in greatest need," stated United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt in announcing awards totaling $49 million through the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF). The awards are designed to help grass roots, faith-based and community organizations enhance their ability to provide a wide range of social services to those in need including persons who are homeless, at-risk youth, rural communities, the elderly and families transitioning from welfare to work. 43 awards were made to agencies who will assist persons who are homeless.

The announcement consists of three sets of grants. The first involves the CCF Demonstration Program and totals $17,695,299 for 20 organizations. These groups will serve as intermediaries to help build the capacity of smaller faith-based and community organizations. The second set totals $15,192,810 for 310 faith-based and community organizations under the CCF Targeted Capacity-building Program. The target program areas include at-risk youth, persons who are homeless, rural communities and strengthening marriage. In addition, awards totaling $15,740,265 were given to continue currently funded CCF programs.

The Compassion Capital Fund, a key component of President Bush's faith-based and community initiative, is designed to help community organizations partner with the federal government to strengthen social services. Since the program began in 2002, $148 million has been given to more than 3,000 organizations including sub-awards from intermediary grantees.

MENTAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION GRANTS. HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the award of $92.5 million to Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington over five years for Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grants (MHT SIGs). These cooperative agreements will provide funds to transform state mental health service delivery systems - from systems dictated by outmoded bureaucratic and financial incentives to systems driven by consumer and family needs that focus on building resilience and facilitating recovery.

"These new grants will significantly advance the transformation agenda outlined in the federal action agenda for mental health care," said SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie. "People with mental disorders have a vital role to play in our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our country. Their ability to participate fully can no longer be derailed by outdated science, outmoded financing systems, and unspoken discrimination. The grants we are awarding today can put people with mental disorders at the heart of the health care system."

The states that receive the awards, administered by SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services, will serve as platforms for learning about what strategies and activities do and do not work in transforming the states' mental health and related systems. In partnerships with these states, SAMHSA will communicate successful strategies and activities to other states, territories, and tribes and tribal organizations in order to improve and accelerate transformation across the nation. The grants require the grantees to enlist consumers and family members as active partners in all transformation planning and activities. They also require grantees to take a life span approach to services and to provide a continuum of services including promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery. Over $18.5 million will be awarded in the first year and a similar amount will be distributed among the awardees in the subsequent years.

REAL CHOICES SYSTEMS CHANGE GRANTS. Secretary Leavitt also announced this week awards of $28.5 million in grants to 17 states to help people of all ages with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes and participate fully in community life. "President Bush is committed to removing barriers to equality for the 54 million Americans living with disabilities. These Real Choices Systems Change grants will help those with disabilities exercise meaningful choices about how and where to live their lives," he said.

The grants are part of President Bush's "New Freedom Initiative," which promotes the goal of community living for individuals with disabilities and long-term illnesses. Under this initiative, which began in 2001, 10 federal agencies work with states and other entities to remove barriers to community living.

The grants will help states and other eligible entities improve their community support systems. Seventeen grants were awarded in two grant categories: Family to Family Health Care Information and Education Center Grants -- $1.6 million to 10 states to establish family run centers that provide information, education and training opportunities for families with children with special health care needs. Previously, HHS has awarded $2.8 million in grant funds to create 19 such centers across the country. Systems Transformation Grants -- $26.8 million to 10 states to target key elements critical to developing more comprehensive and integrated long- term support systems. These include better coordination of services that may be managed by different agencies; more services directed by the person receiving them; better funding for community- based living; and emphasis on quality control in community settings.

WASHINGTON, DC. United States Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao this week announced that homeless veterans in Louisiana areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Rita will receive help in finding employment through a new $99,000 grant. "Homeless vets face special challenges in rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of the two hurricanes," said Secretary Chao. "This grant will help homeless veterans in several Louisiana parishes affected by Katrina and Rita access the job training and placement services they need to find work and build a better life."

Administered by the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) grant has been awarded to Quad Area Community Action Agency Inc., of Hammond, Louisiana, for the period from Sept. 30, 2005 through June 30, 2006. It will enroll over 150 homeless veterans from the rural and poverty-stricken parishes between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, including Ascension, Livingston, St. Helena, West Feliciania, East Feliciania, Tangipahoa and Washington.

This is the latest in a series of grants administered under HVRP, which is the only federal program that focuses exclusively on employment of veterans who are homeless. The program has been recognized as an extraordinarily efficient program with a better than 60 percent job placement rate. The grants provide homeless veterans with occupational, classroom and on-the-job training, job search and job placement assistance, including crucial follow-up assistance. Grantees also network and coordinate their efforts with various other local, state and federal social-service providers.

Secretary Chao also announced this week that human service agencies in Maryland, District of Columbia, Illinois, Georgia, and North Dakota have been selected to take part in training and technical assistance programs for people with disabilities.

The five agencies were chosen under the Training and Technical Assistance to Providers (T-TAP) national technical assistance center, which is funded by Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). T-TAP helps community rehabilitation providers apply customized employment strategies for people with disabilities who are seeking competitive jobs within their communities. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, and the Institute for Community Inclusion, located at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, partner with ODEP on this project through a cooperative agreement.

The five sites selected to participate are: The Arc of Northern Chesapeake - Aberdeen, MD; The Arc of DC - Washington, DC; Anixter Center - Chicago, IL; Coastal Center for Developmental Services, Inc. - Savannah, GA; and Friendship Inc. - Fargo, ND.

Each site will receive an individually-developed technical assistance plan; guidance from a mentor agency with the Community Rehabilitation Provider Leadership Network; on-site consultation from project staff and consultants; and access to online courses, web casts and discussions with other providers who have successfully assisted individuals with disabilities in achieving competitive employment outcomes.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin convened the Regional Commission on Homelessness this week to hear the latest developments from federal and state partners in initiatives to end chronic homelessness. The Regional Commission on Homelessness, headed by retired King & Spalding lawyer Horace Sibley, met in Atlanta's Loudermilk Center to hear from United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano and State Interagency Council leader Terry Ball of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Pictured here are (left to right) Director Mangano, Chair Sibley, and Mayor Franklin. Council Region IV Coordinator Michael German is at rear.

The Regional Commission meeting included progress reports from key work groups, including Prevention initiatives focused on discharge planning, reunification assistance, and emergency financial assistance; Outreach, Intake, and Assessment which reported on the Gateway Center; the Family Shelter Initiative; Supportive Housing Council and Supportive Services, with reports from the Addiction/Mental Health Council by Mark O'Connell of the United Way, and the Employment Council.

The Regional Commission to date has raised more than $16 million from private sources to implement priorities of the Plan. Atlanta's new 24/7 Gateway Center, a centerpiece of Mayor Franklin's Plan, recently opened for business with a ribbon cutting led by the Mayor. Dignitaries and guests then entered through iron gates symbolic of the "gateway to the care that will help individuals move out of homelessness". Chair Horace Sibley and Commissioner Jack Hardin provided leadership to the keystone Gateway project. Federal government partners that contributed to the Gateway's rehabilitation included the United States Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and Labor.

The renovation of what was formerly the Atlanta Pretrial Detention Center into the 24/7 Gateway Center is one of the fundamental strategies of the Blueprint to End Homelessness. Because of its commitment to community collaboration, staff experience and depth of programs offered, the Atlanta Union Mission will manage the facility under a joint agreement with the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. Vince Smith, the Mission's Director of Community Relations and Senior Chaplain, will direct the Center and coordinate collaborations with a number of service providers in the community, including Travelers Aid of Metropolitan Atlanta, Saint Joseph's Mercy Care Services, Project Open Hand, North Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Samaritan House, among others. The 24/7 Gateway Center project is the most significant collaboration of homeless service providers in the city's history.

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.

DENVER, COLORADO. The Mile High City is moving with speed on the implementation of its 10-Year Plan unveiled in May. In the last week, the City Council has given final approval to the Plan and changed zoning regulations which were a focus of the Plan, and a new women's program was launched.

The Council's action makes the Plan official city policy. While several City Council members noted the city's difficult budget situation, Plan leader Roxane White, manager of the Denver Department of Human Services and Chair of the Homelessness Commission, noted that half of the needed funds have been secured to meet Plan goals. She pointed to recent awards from the United States Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs and said that Denver will also use some money from state welfare programs to fund housing for families. City officials will continue to look for resources without tapping general funds. Half the costs of the $7.7 million that will be spent in the first year are planned to come from federal and state grants, while Denver hopes to raise the other half from the private sector. Already, several local companies have made substantial donations, including $15,000 from Turner Construction and $25,000 from Anthem Blue Cross.

Mayor Hickenlooper stated at the unveiling his intent for the Plan: "We'll be able to say, 'Here's your investment; here's what we delivered.' This will end much of the frustration of just throwing money at the problem without having any results." Citing Denver's new planning focus on cost-effective programs with measurable results, the Mayor presented a Housing First plan which aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 75% in the next five years. Denver's Commission to End Homelessness, composed of 41 representatives with 25 drawn from local government and business, set a goal of over 2,000 housing units for its homeless population, of which over 940 will be supportive housing units for persons experiencing chronic homelessness.

The City Council also this week amended zoning rules to allow shelters to be created throughout the city and to let temporary emergency shelters be set up in churches and schools across Denver. The zoning change allows the temporary suspension of zoning rules in emergency situations, such as extreme cold weather, in order to set up temporary shelters in buildings owned by nonprofit agencies and governmental entities such as schools. Another change, aimed at preventing concentration of shelters near downtown, allows shelters to be created in most mixed-use zoning areas, which are zones allowing high-density residential properties, business and industrial properties.

Denver is one of the 11 federal HUD-HHS-VA Collaborative Initiative sites funded under the $55 million interagency initiative announced in 2003. In addition, Denver was recently awarded one of 11 HUD awards for the Housing for Persons who are Homeless and Addicted to Alcohol demonstrations grants for two years. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced at the September 13 full Council meeting an award of VA Per Diem funds to the Denver Department of Human Services.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA. With Long Beach Mayor and United States Conference of Mayors President Beverly O'Neill (pictured here) hosting, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness this week convened city representatives from West Coast tourist destination communities to examine innovations in ending chronic homelessness in cities with tourist attractions and homelessness in public spaces. City officials were joined by officials from government, law enforcement, and 10-year plan leaders in Reno, Las Vegas, and Tucson. Council Region IX Coordinator Eduardo Cabrera organized the event.

The city strategy convening was keynoted by Mayor O'Neill. The day's program included expert faculty presentations on federal initiatives to end chronic homelessness, engagement of a broad range of community stakeholders in addressing unique issues of homelessness in tourist cities, cost benefit analysis of public sector expense of unsheltered populations, and strategies to engage feeding programs serving street populations.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the partners also discussed lessons learned from responses and models being forwarded by helping communities. From coast to coast, one-stops are showing effective ways of engaging and serving those evacuees newly homeless and needing to connect with services and supports. Like the Project Homeless Connect innovation established in San Francisco to create a regularly scheduled one-stop point of engagement for persons experiencing chronic homelessness, the new centers are offering a results- oriented model whose lessons can be applied beyond hurricanes' affects. Janna Jahn of the Council discussed with attendees the upcoming December 8 National Project Homeless Connect Day organized by the Council to engage persons experiencing chronic homelessness in services and housing.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. State government leaders and homeless policy officials from five states in the Northwest - Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana - gathered last week in Seattle in a regional colloquy focused on state government strategies and results in ending chronic homelessness. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, joining in partnership with Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Office Director John Meyers (pictured here), welcomed attendees for the daylong Northwestern States Regional Colloquy on Ending Chronic Homelessness: Investment, Innovation, and Partnership for State Leaders at Seattle City Hall.

The fifth in a national series of regional events by the Council for state government leaders, this Colloquy brought to 41 the number of states that have participated to date. The Colloquies focus on the strategic role of State Interagency Councils on Homelessness in reducing and ending chronic homelessness. To date, Governors of 53 states and territories have moved to establish State Interagency Councils on Homelessness.

Faculty in Seattle included Utah Department of Community and Economic Development Director of the Division of Housing and Community Development Gordon Walker, South Carolina Budget and Control Board Chief of Health and Demographics Pete Bailey, Kentucky Housing Corporation's Richard McQuady, former Massachusetts state officials Louise Povall and Patrick Walsh, Arizona Department of Economic Security's Charlene Moran Flaherty, and Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs new Director John Lee.

The Colloquy faculty presentations and ensuing discussion are business-management based, as the language of homelessness is changed to include cost- benefit analysis, return on investment, data and research, innovation, partnership, performance, and outcomes. Presentations focused on new cost benefit analysis demonstrating the economic importance of ending chronic homelessness, revenue maximization strategies yielding additional resources to reduce and end chronic homelessness, a new management agenda that is bringing business to the table to craft solutions to end chronic homelessness, new housing technologies for chronically homeless people, and a new level of performance outcome through building new strategic partnerships.

Federal partners in attendance included HUD Region X Deputy Director Martha Dilts and HUD officials from throughout the region, as well as representatives of the United States Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs. Interagency Council Region X Coordinator Paul Carlson, as well as Eduardo Cabrera (Region IX), Michael German (Region IV), and John O'Brien (Region I) - who have planned and convened the successful series of colloquies - were key participants in the event.

WASHINGTON, DC. WITH THIS ISSUE, the e- newsletter continues its focus on news about the Title V federal surplus property and opportunities to secure resources for homeless programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

In the September 13 full Council meeting, a key federal housing policy development regarding the Title V program and in support of the Administration's goal of ending chronic homelessness was announced. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Dr. Michael O'Grady announced to Council members that the Department, responding both to the Administration's goal and the needs of communities, will in the future consider permanent supportive housing as an eligible use for federal surplus property under the McKinney-Vento Title V program.

The Department will publish a notice for review and comment this fall to operationalize the change. The policy change will reverse the approach in place since the creation of the property program in 1987, under which eligible uses for surplus property have been emergency shelter, transitional programs, and supportive services. According to HHS, this policy change will expand the options available to communities to better meet the needs of disabled individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness.

Following are properties listed in recent Federal Register notices of suitable and available land and buildings. The September 23 listing of suitable and available property contains a listing of Federal buildings and other real property determined to be suitable and available for use. Buildings are available in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Tennessee. The September 2 listing identifies buildings in Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Land is also available in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, 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.

PLEASE NOTE THE INTERAGENCY COUNCIL'S NEW CONTACT INFORMATION:

TELEPHONE: 202/708-4663 (202/708-HOME) (This number remains the same.)

MAILING ADDRESS: NEW! Federal Center Southwest, 409 Third Street SW, Suite 310, Washington, DC 20024

FAX: 202/708-1216 (This number remains the same.)

EMAIL: NEW! Key addresses:

Executive Director Philip Mangano: Philip.F.Mangano@usich.gov

Deputy Director Mary Ellen Hombs: Maryellen.Hombs@usich.gov

Special Advisor Janna Jahn: Janna.Jahn@usich.gov

Administrative Officer Darren Franklin: Darren.G.Franklin@usich.gov

US ICH Mission	US ICH Council Members