Notes on the National Homelessness Awareness Month Federal Policy Briefing
November is National Homelessness Awareness Month and to kick it off, the National Center for Family Homelessness hosted a policy briefing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) here in D.C.
The briefing featured the following panelists:
- Christina Murphy, Director of Campaign to End Child Homelessness, The National Center on Family Homelessness
- Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
- Asa Fanelli, President, Horizons for Homeless Children
- Sarah Bolton, Legislative Assistant, Office of Senator Patty Murray
- Amy Grassette, Consumer Advisory Board Member, The National Center for Family Homelessness
In addition to the program’s panelists, Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development for HUD, Mercedes Marquez, gave the opening remarks.
The amount of information given at the briefing was a bit overwhelming but also alarming, inspiring and motivating.
In particular, I was moved by Amy Grassette’s story. She spoke about her family’s hardship after losing their small business after 9/11. Her family experienced homelessness for almost 2 and a half years after losing their business. Amy gave us a great perspective in terms of the services she received while homeless and where she saw room for improvement.
Here’s a hodgepodge of my notes/thoughts/questions from the briefing:
- More than 34% of the homeless population are children (and this statistic is likely a low estimate because of under-reporting).
- For the 2009-2010 school year, there were 1 MILLION homeless youth (and again this number is probably low because some states do not report this data).
- The Opening Doors Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness has a goal to end youth and family homelessness by 2020 by focusing on the following services: access to affordable housing, jobs, mainstream services, and collaboration between agencies.
- The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty takes a human rights perspective to housing, meaning that housing is a basic right.
- There was a 20% increase in family homelessness between 2007 and 2010.
- Oftentimes, it costs less to offer families housing vouchers (so that families can live closer to schools) than provide transportation to school.
- The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act can allow tenants to remain in their homes longer and more needs to be done to publicize this law.
- While housing is the foundation for a stable community and life, housing alone is not sufficient to end homelessness. Wraparound services are needed to be effective in preventing and ending family homelessness.
- Homeless children are at a higher risk for: physical and mental health issues, hunger and poor educational outcomes.
- One-third of homeless children have been forced to skip a meal.
- 85% of brain’s core structure is developed from birth to age 5, and because of this, it’s important to intervene early and provide mental health services, transitional services and early education childcare.
- There’s room for improvement in these areas: affordable, adequate & accessible housing; transportation services; childcare services; accessible, affordable, adequate healthcare; livable wages; education; and case management services.
On another note, if you’re in DC and a new law grad — you should check these kinds of events out. I learned about it from Twitter — of all places! @HUDnews tweeted about the program yesterday. It was a great networking opportunity — Keep your eyes and ears open!