{"id":18412,"date":"2022-05-12T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18412"},"modified":"2022-10-09T04:45:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T08:45:04","slug":"biden-budget-increases-homeless-assistance-funding-by-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/biden-budget-increases-homeless-assistance-funding-by-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Budget Increases Homeless Assistance Funding by 10%"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">President Joe Biden&#8217;s fiscal year 2023 budget will increase funding for homeless assistance programs by more than 10 percent, according to an analysis by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Overall, Biden&#8217;s budget carries a $5.8 trillion price tag. If passed, it would immediately impact several programs that help local governments respond to homelessness, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Department of Housing and Urban Development&#8217;s (HUD) Homeless Assistance Grant program (11.3% increase)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Department of Health and Human Services&#8217; Head Start program (13.2% increase)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) (23.7% increase)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Department of Veterans Affairs&#8217; Supportive Services for Veteran Families program (84% increase), and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Department of Justice&#8217;s Transitional Housing Assistance Grants to Victims of Sexual Assault (132% increase)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration&#8217;s commitment to a whole-of-government effort to advance equity and racial justice, the President&#8217;s Budget for fiscal year 2023 makes historic investments to support underserved communities and combat racial disparities across the Nation, including in health, education, and economic opportunity,&#8221; The White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/omb\/briefing-room\/2022\/03\/30\/president-bidens-fy-2023-budget-advances-equity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Here are a few of the ways that Biden&#8217;s proposed budget could impact how the U.S. responds to homelessness at the federal level.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>More Housing Vouchers<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">One of the largest line items on Biden&#8217;s proposed FY 2023 budget is a $32.1 billion appropriation to increase HUD&#8217;s Housing Choice Vouchers by more than 200,000. Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/integrating-neighborhoods-on-the-basis-of-wealth-section-8-housing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Section 8 housing vouchers<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, help low-income families afford rental properties by subsidizing their total rent cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Housing Choice Voucher program is the nation&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/housing\/research-shows-housing-vouchers-reduce-hardship-and-provide-platform-for-long-term\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">largest rental assistance program<\/a> and currently helps more than two million people stay housed every year. However, funding limitations have caused only 25 percent of those eligible for housing vouchers to receive rental assistance, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">HUD has also struggled to connect eligible families to housing vouchers. A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hudoig.gov\/reports-publications\/report\/hud-remains-challenged-serve-maximum-number-eligible-families-due\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">audit<\/a> by the department&#8217;s Office of the Inspector General found that more than 191,000 vouchers went unused last year, causing just as many families to still experience housing instability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;If enacted, it would be the most significant expansion of housing vouchers in the program&#8217;s history, and it would put the nation on the path towards universal housing assistance for all eligible households,&#8221; according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/nlihc.org\/resource\/analysis-president-bidens-fy-2023-budget-request\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis<\/a> of the proposal by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Increased Funding for Coordinated Responses<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">On the other end of the spectrum, one of the smallest\u2014but most important\u2014line items in Biden&#8217;s budget is an appropriation of $4.7 million to USICH, an agency responsible for coordinating responses to homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">USICH is comprised of members from 19 federal agencies, including the Departments of Education, Labor, Interior, Agriculture, and the Social Security Administration. The agency works with federal partners as well as state and local governments, private sector employers, and nonprofit organizations to develop strategies to reduce homelessness across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;The pandemic has challenged our nation&#8217;s ability to ensure every person has a safe, affordable home, and it has further exposed deep racial inequities in housing, health, and economic opportunity,&#8221; USICH executive director Jeff Olivet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usich.gov\/news\/my-vision-for-preventing-and-ending-homelessness-a-message-from-usich-executive-director-jeff-olivet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;At the same time, the unprecedented resources that the Biden administration and Congress have made available to communities presents an extraordinary opportunity to address homelessness in new and creative ways,&#8221; Olivet continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Improved Funding for Veteran Health Services<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Biden&#8217;s proposed budget also makes significant investments to improve health outcomes for military veterans and their families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Veterans continue to make up one of the largest coalitions of people experiencing homelessness despite federal efforts to reduce the population&#8217;s size. HUD&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huduser.gov\/portal\/sites\/default\/files\/pdf\/2020-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2020 Homeless Assessment Report<\/a> found more than 37,000 veterans experience homelessness on any given night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">To address this issue, Biden&#8217;s budget plans to invest $229 million to improve health care services for homeless veterans and another $939 million to increase the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) supportive housing program, also known as the HUD-VASH voucher program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">HUD-VASH vouchers are a specific type of housing voucher for homeless veterans. It includes access to case management and clinical services. According to HUD&#8217;s website, veterans can access these services through participating VA medical centers, community-based outreach clinics, VA contractors, or other designated entities.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>How You Can Help<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The pandemic proved that we need to rethink housing in the U.S. It also showed that aid programs work when providing agencies and service organizations with sufficient funds and clear guidance on spending aid dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/talk-to-your-legislators\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Contact your officials<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and representatives. Tell them you support keeping many of the pandemic-related aid programs in place for future use. They have proven effective at keeping people housed, which is the first step to ending homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden&#8217;s fiscal year 2023 budget will increase funding for homeless assistance programs by more than 10 percent, according to an analysis by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Overall, Biden&#8217;s budget carries a $5.8 trillion price tag. If &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/biden-budget-increases-homeless-assistance-funding-by-10\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":18413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[389,275],"tags":[769,17000,253,832,515,16263,508,606,7172],"coauthors":[15883],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18414,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18412\/revisions\/18414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18412"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}