Our new fact sheet “Health Care of Homeless Individuals Fact Sheet – 2015” reports the current state of diagnosis and treatment of homeless patients for twelve chronic and other life-threatening or serious health conditions to assess whether homeless patients are receiving prompt and life-saving diagnosis or treatment and to determine what improvements are needed to ensure that they are able to receive such diagnosis and treatment.
Continue reading New “Health Care of Homeless Individuals Fact Sheet – 2015” Shows Many Homeless Persons are Without Diagnosis and/or Treatment
Category Archives: Homelessness
The Newly-Released HUD Homeless Report Shows Unsheltered Homelessness Increased by 2% or 3,000 Persons in 2016
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released Part 1 of its Annual Homelessness Assessment Report for 2016 this past week reporting the number of homeless people, homeless individuals, homeless families, homeless veterans, chronically homeless people, and homeless youth on a given night. In the report, the number of homeless people on a single night was 549,928, a decrease of 2.6% from the year before. Unfortunately, the report noted that the declines were composed entirely of people staying in sheltered locations and that homelessness increased among people without shelter by 2%. The number of homeless persons without shelter increased by 3,089 persons from 173,268 in 2015 to 176,357 in 2016.
Continue reading The Newly-Released HUD Homeless Report Shows Unsheltered Homelessness Increased by 2% or 3,000 Persons in 2016
PHAs Administering the Family Unification Program, with the HOTMA Revisions, Should Use the Statutory, Not the Regulatory, Definition of “At Risk of Homelessness”
On June 29, President Obama signed into law the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA), which included several reforms of federal rental assistance, including expanding the family unification program (FUP) for youth leaving and aging out of foster care. First, section 110 of HOTMA expanded the length of the term for FUP assistance of youth leaving or aging out of foster care from 18 months to 36 months. HOTMA, Pub. L. No. 114-201, § 110(1)(A), 130 Stat. 782, 803 (codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1437f(x)(2)). Second, section 110 increased the maximum age of eligibility for FUP assistance of youth leaving or aging out of foster care from 21 years old to 24 years old. Id. § 110(1)(B), 130 Stat. at 803. Third, section 110 increased eligibility for FUP assistance from youth who have left foster care to include youth who will leave foster care within 90 days, in accordance with a transition plan. Id. § 110(1)(C), 130 Stat. at 803. Fourth, section 110 stated eligibility for FUP assistance of youth leaving or aging out of foster care if they were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Id.
Homelessness Has a Disproportionate Effect and the Fair Housing Act May Be Able to Prevent and End Homelessness
Homelessness disproportionately affects African-Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders, Latinos, families with children, and persons with disabilities and homelessness also affects large numbers of females and survivors of domestic violence and persons who identify as transgender.
Continue reading Homelessness Has a Disproportionate Effect and the Fair Housing Act May Be Able to Prevent and End Homelessness
According to Census and HUD Data, States with the Highest Numbers of Adults with Disabilities in Poverty and Deep Poverty Have the Highest Numbers of Chronically Homeless Persons in 2015
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released its 1-Year American Community Survey data on income, employment, poverty, and other population characteristics in 2015 for jurisdictions with populations of 65,000 or more. According to this survey, 39.9 million people or 12.6% of the nation had a disability, an increase of 300,000 from 2014. Moreover, persons with disabilities were disproportionately poor and extremely poor: 8.4 million or 21% of people with disabilities were poor while 46.2 million or 14.7% of people overall were poor and 3.1 million or 7.8% of people with disabilities were extremely poor while 20.4 million or 6.5% of people overall were extremely poor. Also, 8.4 million or 18.2% of the 46.2 million people with income below the federal poverty level had a disability and 3.1 million or 15.3% of the 20.4 million with income below half of the poverty level had a disability in 2015.
Continue reading According to Census and HUD Data, States with the Highest Numbers of Adults with Disabilities in Poverty and Deep Poverty Have the Highest Numbers of Chronically Homeless Persons in 2015
According to Census Data, States with Highest Numbers of Persons in Poverty and Deep Poverty Have Highest Numbers of Homeless Persons
On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released its state-level, county-level, and place-level American Community Survey data on income, employment, poverty, and other population characteristics in 2015. According to this survey, 46.2 million people or 14.7% had income below the federal poverty level and 20.4 million or 6.5% had income below half of the poverty level in 2015, statistically significant decreases of 2 million or 0.8% and 800,000 or 0.3%, respectively, from 2014.
Continue reading According to Census Data, States with Highest Numbers of Persons in Poverty and Deep Poverty Have Highest Numbers of Homeless Persons
More Foster Care Youth Eligible for Family Unification Program But More Funding is Needed
The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA), signed into law by President Obama on July 29th, includes several reforms of federal rental assistance, such as expanding the family unification program for children leaving and aging out of foster care. Continue reading More Foster Care Youth Eligible for Family Unification Program But More Funding is Needed
House HHS Appropriations Bill Should Include $599 Million in Increased Funding for Children and Family Services
The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill that was passed by the appropriations subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and this is schedule to be marked up in the full U.S. House appropriations committee this week provides more funding for the child care and development block grant, seven of the children and family services programs, and payments for foster care and permanency that should provide more assistance to homeless people and other low-income people, but some of these programs are funded below the Administration’s requested amount and the bill does not provide any increase in funding for the social services block grant, fifteen of the children and families services programs, and the promoting safe and stable families program.
Continue reading House HHS Appropriations Bill Should Include $599 Million in Increased Funding for Children and Family Services
House HHS Appropriations Bill Should Include $636 Million in Increased Funding for Health Centers, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Medicaid
The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill that was passed by the appropriations subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and that is scheduled to be marked up in the full U.S. House appropriations committee this week provides more funding for Medicaid, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and primary health care and community health centers that should provide health care to homeless people and other low-income people, but the bill surprisingly decreases funding for mental health and for cross-cutting activities that supplement mental health, substance abuse treatment, and substance abuse prevention activities.
Continue reading House HHS Appropriations Bill Should Include $636 Million in Increased Funding for Health Centers, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Medicaid
House Labor Appropriations Bill Needs $261 Million to Prevent Cuts to Job Training Programs and Provide Training and Employment Services to Thousands of Americans
The Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill that was passed by the appropriations subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and that is scheduled to be marked up in the full U.S. House appropriations committee this week provides level funding for many training and employment programs that may assist homeless people in obtaining employment, but the bill can be strengthened to increase the number of unemployed people and homeless adults and youth who are able to receive training and employment services.
Continue reading House Labor Appropriations Bill Needs $261 Million to Prevent Cuts to Job Training Programs and Provide Training and Employment Services to Thousands of Americans