Last week in Tennessee's capital city of Nashville, Governor Phil Bredesen committed to move forward with a State Interagency Council on Homelessness in the Volunteer State. He thus becomes the nation's 50th Governor of a state or territory to join the federal partnership to improve intergovernmental and intragovernmental coordination and collaboration.

Meeting with U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, Governor Bredesen indicated that he will move forward with an Executive Order for his state and plan a public announcement of the Council's creation. Pictured here are Director Mangano (at left) and Governor Bredensen (at right).

While in Nashville, Director Mangano met with members of the Nashville Mayor's Task Force to End Chronic Homelessness, hosted by Urban Housing Solutions, a local non-profit provider of recovery housing and programs for persons with chemical dependence. "Mayor Purcell's Task Force is a key example of the partnership in local communities that is targeting expansive involvement and results in ending chronic homelessness," stated Mangano. The Nashville Task Force, chaired by Metro Social Services Director Dorothy Shell Berry, includes partners from United Way, the Chamber of Commerce, the business and banking community, Nashville city agencies including fire and law enforcement, housing and community development, and health care, faith-based organizations, philanthropy, service providers, and homeless persons. The Work Group includes committees on housing, health care, economic stability, and systems coordination.

"It starts with saying that we're not going to keep doing it like we've done it before," stated Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, as he joined Knox County Mayor Bill Ragsdale last week at "Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk," an annual Knoxville Coalition for the Homeless breakfast that was the site of the 10-Year Plan commitment of the two mayors. Mayor Ragsdale agreed with Mayor Haslam, stating, "We are excited about working on this initiative." He added, "By working together to create a long-range plan, the community can effectively pool its resources to focus on this problem."

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, who was invited to keynote the announcement at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, stated, "In moving forward on this 10- year plan, Mayors Haslam and Ragsdale are saying to every citizen, housed or homeless, that the quality of life in your city and county is going to improve."

Co-chairing the committee that will lead the 10-Year Plan process is Dr. Roger Nooe, of the University of Tennessee College of Social Work, who presented the results of a biannual study of homelessness in the region. Dr. Nooe reported that homelessness had increased, especially among the Spanish-speaking migrant population. Also present for the announcement were Ginny Weatherstone of the Knoxville Coalition, and Region IV Council Coordinator Mike German. Pictured here are (left to right): Director Mangano (at podium) and (left to right) Knoxville Department of Community and Neighborhood Services Official and Planning Committee Co-Chair Kevin DuBose, Dr. Roger Nooe, City of Knoxville Community Development Department Specialist Mike Dunthorn, HUD Knoxville Field Office Director Mark Brezina, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, and Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale.

While in Knoxville, Director Mangano also met with homeless consumers at the Volunteer Ministry Center. Later he visited Positively Living, a permanent housing facility for HIV positive men with mental illness and drug addiction, which hosted the 10-Year Planning Work Group that will move the Knoxville initiative forward.

Clarksville, Tennessee, the Volunteer State's oldest incorporated city and county seat of Montgomery County, was the site of the latest mayoral 10-Year Plan announcement last week, when Mayor Dan Trotter committed to develop a plan for his community. Speaking at a City Hall announcement that also focused on the recent award of $2 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to Centerstone Community Health Centers to develop an assertive community treatment (ACT) team for homeless people, Mayor Trotter was joined by Centerstone CEO David Guth, United Way Executive Director Lorraine Pratt, Community Action Agency Programs Director Paula Sears, Department of Housing and Urban Development Operations Specialist Terry Livingston, and Greenwood Baptist Church Pastor James Hill.

United States Interagency Council Executive Director Philip Mangano, invited to join the 10-Year Plan and award announcements, also visited the Old Firehouse Day Shelter and Community Resource Center, which will house the new Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, a nationally recognized strategy of clinically-based, multi-disciplinary engagement for homeless individuals on the street. Region IV Council Coordinator Mike German was also present for the announcement.

The local Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, editorializing on the award and 10-Year Plan announcement, stated, "Beyond the social benefit to the homeless and the financial relief it offers to cities when more of their citizens are employed, an end to the homeless population would improve the quality of life of everyone who lives there." The editorial continued: "When people of vision work together toward a common goal, they can move mountains. We have proof of that right here in Clarksville, and the homeless are the beneficiaries of the cooperative effort."

Clarksville's award was part of the $67.6 million announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary and former Council Chair Tommy Thompson at the full Council meeting on September 29, when over $160 million in federal investments were announced by the federal partners. HHS' 34 grant awards for the Treatment for the Homeless Projects program total $67.6 million over five years. Grantees will receive up to $400,000 annually over a five-year period in this competitive grant program awarded to community providers to enable communities to expand and strengthen their treatment services for homeless individuals with substance abuse disorders, mental illness, or with co- occurring substance abuse disorders and mental illness. Pictured here are (left to right): Council Coordinator Mike German, Centerstone Senior Vice President David Grimes, Centerstone Vice President Tom Doub, Mayor Trotter, and Director Mangano.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its series on emerging partnerships to end chronic homelessness. With wide-ranging participation by civic, government, and business leaders from ten cities which have partnered with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in the creation of 10-Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness, philanthropy, and housing innovators, the Rockefeller Foundation and New York City's Common Ground Community this week convened "Ending Chronic Homelessness: A Solutions Summit" in New York City. The invitation-only event encouraged mayors, state officials, 10-Year Plan implementers, and civic and advocacy leaders to focus on national and local innovations that support ending chronic homelessness.

Providing "Firestarter" remarks to the participants were United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, "Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell, United Kingdom Homelessness Directorate Founder Louise Casey, Saatchi & Saatchi's Marie McNeely, Common Ground Founder Rosanne Haggerty, and Fast Company Magazine Founding Editor Alan Webber. Remarks focused on insights into creating an environment for change, reframing key questions, and improving results. Cost-effective innovations related to high utilizers of expensive mainstream health system resources were provided by for-profit, public, and community-based agencies. Louise Casey described policy and practice change that accompanied UK's success in reducing "rough sleeping".

Writer Malcolm Gladwell, whose best selling book documented the use of small resource investments to propel larger change, reflected on approaches to discussing homelessness as a solvable civic issue. Using examples from the business world, Gladwell framed the successful response to issues as one of identifying "small steps" that are doable and manageable. He emphasized the effectiveness of breaking out elements that make larger challenges seem approachable and stressed the importance of strategic communications that are simple and consistent in the messages they send to external parties.

The Administration's five-year expansion initiative for health centers moved forward again with the October 1 release of a $99 million funding announcement for year four of the initiative, which is expected to support more than 160 awards for new "access points" to bring additional primary health care services to needy communities, including health care services for homeless people. The announcement, released through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), requires each application seeking to support a new site to identify a population in need of primary health care services, and propose a specific plan to increase access to care and reduce disparities identified in the population or community to be served.

Funding is to be provided under the Consolidated Health Center Program, whose purpose is to extend comprehensive primary and preventive health services (including mental health, substance abuse and oral health services) and supplemental services to populations currently without access to such services, and to improve their health status. The Consolidated Health Center program includes: 1) Community Health Centers; 2) Migrant Health Centers; 3) Health Care for the Homeless program; 4) Public Housing Primary Care; and 5) School Based Health Centers. The populations served by these programs are: 1) medically underserved populations in urban and rural areas; 2) migratory and seasonal agricultural workers and their families; 3) homeless people, including children and families; 4) residents of publicly subsidized housing; and 5) medically underserved school-students (K-12), their families, and medically underserved populations surrounding the school.

Applications are due December 1, 2004. The average award is estimated at $600,000, and projects are estimated to start May 1, 2005 and run for five years.

With both House and Senate bills on record to forward the Administration's proposed FY 05 $70 million investment in the Samaritan Initiative to end chronic homelessness, the House added two new cosponsors in the last week to its bipartisan coalition of 30 Representatives supporting the bill. Adding their names to the bill were Representative Jeb Bradley of New Hampshire and John Kline of Minnesota (pictured here). Representative Bradley serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and Representative Kline serves on the Education and Workforce Committee. The House bill was originally introduced in March by Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona.

U.S. Senators Wayne Allard (CO) and Elizabeth Dole (NC) introduced S. 2829 last month in the Senate. The Senate legislation has been referred to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where Senator Allard chairs the Housing and Transportation Subcommittee.

Over 130 representatives of state governments from across the 55 states and territories gathered for two days in Washington, DC, last week to showcase their progress and address their challenges in developing their state Action Plans. The National Learning Meeting provided a venue for peer-to-peer technical assistance and for states to acquire new ideas and support as they move forward to implement their Action Plans.

Welcoming the state partners with opening remarks was U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield (pictured here with HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Pat Carlile at left), who was joined by VA Office of Homeless Programs Director Pete Dougherty. "The Homeless Policy Academies and meetings such as the one this week are the embodiment of what the Interagency Council is all about . . . bringing federal agencies together with the decision makers to implement homeless initiatives at the local level," he stated. "We still have much to do to end chronic homelessness in America, especially among veterans. There is a code that our soldiers in combat live by. And that is that we don't leave our wounded behind. Sometimes at great risk, and sometimes at great cost, we run back into dangerous places under adverse conditions to retrieve our comrades. Nationwide, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the states and territories are running into the battle to bring back those who are 'Missing in America.' There are those heroes who are on the streets, under the bridges and in the woods. We want to bring them back to rejoin the society they fought to preserve and protect."

In addition, present throughout the two days were senior policy officials from the federal funding agencies, including Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy Don Winstead, Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs Patricia Carlile, and Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary for Veterans Employment and Training Services Charles Ciccolella. HHS, VA, HUD, and DOL provided the states with a closing panel on future direction, emphasizing federal partnership and new investments. Also present for the Learning Meeting were representatives of the Department of Education, Social Security Administration, and the Department of Agriculture.

U.S Interagency Council Executive Director Philip Mangano provided closing remarks, emphasizing partnerships among the federal agencies present. He also pointed to the expanding reentry initiatives of the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation's new initiatives to coordinate transportation for human services. He urged the state partners to have a consumer focused approach and adopt both effective practices from other jurisdictions and innovative technologies that are results oriented, such as ACT teams and discharge planning protocols.

In all, 52 States and Territories have participated in at least one Policy Academy to date. The Department of Health and Human Services, joined by the Department of Education, announced at the last full Council meeting held on September 29, plans for two additional academies focusing on homeless families with children during FY 05. Of those states that have participated to date, 49 have submitted draft Action Plans itemizing strategies to help homeless people in their state or territory access mainstream services.

DID YOU KNOW . . . that the first Policy Academy, focused on families with children, was held in November 2001, with sponsorship of the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development. In early 2002 the first of six academies focused on persons experiencing chronic homelessness moved forward, with the Department of Veterans Affairs joining in the partnership, followed by the Department of Labor.

. . . that the objectives for the Policy Academy include:

• Assisting state and local policymakers to develop an Action Plan intended to improve access to mainstream health and human services and employment opportunities that are coordinated with housing for persons who are experiencing homelessness;
• Creating and/or reinforcing relationships among the Governor's office, State Legislators, key program administrators, and stakeholders from the public and private sectors; and
• Providing an environment conducive to the process of strategic decision-making.

. . . that the work of the Policy Academies has been foundational in the efforts that the Interagency Council has made across the country in establishing with Governors State Interagency Councils on Homelessness.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its focus on elements of the Title V federal surplus property and opportunities to secure resources for homeless programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Following are properties listed in the most recent Federal Register notice of suitable and available land and buildings.

LAND has been declared suitable and available in California, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. BUILDINGS have been declared suitable and available surplus property in California, Nevada, and New York.

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.