| Specifically, the HEARTH Act would do the following:
Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2007 - Amends the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to consolidate housing assistance programs for homeless persons.
Requires the establishment of a community homeless assistance planning board for a geographic area to lead a collaborative planning process to design, execute, and evaluate programs, policies, and practices to prevent and end homelessness.
Authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to designate an entity to be a community board if it has engaged in local homeless housing and services planning and has applied for federal funding for homeless assistance prior to enactment of this Act.
Instructs the Secretary to make available technical assistance to governmental entities and community boards to implement this Act.
Provides for the protection of personally identifying information by victim service providers.
Sets forth: (1) an emergency shelter grants program; (2) activities eligible for grants; and (3) a program for continuum of care.
The bill would also expand the definition of homelessness so that it would allow more people to become eligible for assistance. It would also require stronger partnerships between school districts and the community to consider the educational needs of homeless children.
Specifically, HEARTH would do the following to ensure that all groups that were involved with homelessness were involved:
HEARTH would also: codify the Continuum of Care (CoC) process, ensuring that local agencies serving all homeless populations participate in the CoC; align the HUD definition of homelessness more closely with the definition used by other federal agencies by including people who are living in doubled-up situations or in hotels/motels due to lack of adequate alternatives; protect victims of domestic violence by prohibiting the disclosure of any information collected by a housing or social service provider that could identify them and by permitting victims of domestic violence who may be in danger to immediately move to a safer living situation; require a 25% match to be met either in cash or with in-kind contributions for all housing and supportive services; require HUD to release its annual Notice Of Funding Availability (NOFA) no later than three months after enactment of each year's appropriations bill; ensure that HUD will make grant awards no later than five months after NOFA applications are due; and instruct HUD to create an official appeals process for grantees who do not receive funding.
Many people become homeless as a result of being born into broken homes and then being placed into the foster care system. They are then grandfathered out of the system when they grow up, with no resources whatsoever for them to succeed in life. Therefore, it creates a vicious generational cycle so that it will happen again and again.
Others are victims of sexual violence; they may be women who are fleeing from domestic abuse from an abusive partner. They might decide that the abuse they get at home is so great that they would rather risk the streets than suffer even more abuse at home. This, incidentally, is one reason why many people in the American Middle Class are just one medical emergency or abusive partner or something of that nature away from poverty or homelessness.
Others are single mentally ill people who cannot function in society and are too poor to get the mental health treatment that they need to function. Others are veterans who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan and who can't function in society because of the scourge of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and other such mental illnesses. Many are unable to get help from the Veterans' Administration, who has been under a cloud lately.
Others live in Section 8 Housing and lose their funding and get turned out into the streets. These people become homeless as a direct result of the massive budget cuts by the Bush administration to fuel their military machine and to pander to the anti-tax extremists in this country. The Bush administation has cut McKinney-Vento funding by 28% since 1995.
The existence of these people completely debunks the notion propagated by the right-wingers that the poor are somehow responsible for their own well-being. Many are victims of circumstances beyond their control and do not have the resources that they need to get back on their feet. Most would be willing and able to get back into society if they had the resouces that they needed to succeed.
The problem of hunger and homelessness is one that will only get bigger in this country as the Bush administration continues their senseless plan of perpetual warfare in the Middle East. There will be less and less resources to devote to the homeless; more and more will be devoted to perpetual warfare. And even more, about $50 billion, is about to be "loaned" to the nuclear industry so that they can build nuclear plants that have not been proven safe and effective. But turn around and ask that we help hunger and homelessness, and the right-wingers will complain that is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
And another problem is that we have no accurate measurements of how many homeless people there are in this country. So, while some may argue that the HUD is already doing a good job, we have no reliable indicators of whether they really are or not. Increasing collaboration between groups will help ensure that more accurate data can be collected.
Others say that HEARTH would make too many people eligible for federal homeless assistance. But, compared to what? What is more important; loaning $50 billion to the nuclear industry for plants that have not been proven to be safe or effective or that would not meet our energy needs? Or prosecuting perpetual warfare in Iraq? Or helping to eliminate the problem of hunger and homelessness? This is a matter of priorities, not of resources.
There is a similar bill that is in the Senate. However, it is flawed:
In contrast, the Senate bill, S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA), is flawed. It contains a complex, restrictive definition of homelessness which requires those who are doubled-up or in motels to make multiple moves in order to gain eligibility; it codifies permanent housing set-asides that deny communities the ability to meet the needs of all homeless populations that they identify; and it excludes community planning provisions that would ensure participation by homeless education liaisons and also help ensure that homeless children and youth are able to exercise their educational rights.
It is flawed enough that one of its sponsors, Jack Reed of RI, will introduce his own bill.
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