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Bringing America Home Act is introduced to the House
Indiana Representative Julia Carson introduced the Bringing America Home Act to the House of Representatives. A collaborative document between housing and homelessness advocates across the country, the Act included provisions that policy experts and advocates agreed would prevent and end homelessness in the United States. Though never passed, this provided a structure for future housing and homelessness-related bills. -
HUD makes Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) changes
The NCH advocates the use of CDBGs to enforce housing codes and provide relocation assistance to individuals residing in unlivable housing units. HUD amended their guidelines to allow CDBG funds to provide interim assistance in "emergency" conditions that "threaten the public health and safety" of individuals in a given area. This included the improvement of private properties, repairing of roads, and removal of trash (but did not allow CDGB funds to provide emergency relocation services). -
Department of Health & Human Services publishes their Strategic Action Plan on Homelessness
BAHA requested that the Dept. of Health & Human Services strengthen homeless persons’ access to mainstream addiction and mental health services. This included expanding the Community Mental Health Services and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant programs. While Health & Human Services did publish a strategic action plan on homelessness, they did not designate funding within either block grant to target homeless mental health and addiction crises. -
Congress Dedicates Veteran's Section 8 Vouchers
The 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act allocated $75 million funding for the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) voucher program. Since the program began in 2008, over 85,000 vouchers have been awarded to veterans. -
National Housing Trust Fund is Established: Housing and Economic Recovery Act
One of the largest goals of the BAHA legislation was creating a housing trust fund. The 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act successfully established the National Housing Trust Fund, which would be used to increase and preserve the supply of decent, safe and sanitary affordable housing for extremely low and very low income households. It is funded through contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. -
Neighborhood Stabilization Fund is Expanded: NSP1 & the Housing and Economic Recovery Act
BAHA requested increased authorization and funding levels for HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Fund, a program to preserve affordable housing and allow localities to prevent home foreclosures through purchase/leaseback programs. The 2008 HERA legislation increased authorization and allocated $3.92 billion in “NSP1” (Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1) funds (one round of 3 authorizations over 3 years). -
Improved Access to SNAP: Food & Nutrition Act of 2008
The Food & Nutrition Act of 2008 allowed special provisions for homeless individuals to reduce the unique barriers created by being homeless. The act clarifies that there is no age restriction, and extended applications to homeless teens with no guardian. SNAP also clarified that they do not require applicants to provide photo ID or proof of address to apply. -
Temporarily Expanding SNAP: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act temporarily expanded SNAP benefits during the recession, and decreased requirements. Under this temporary program, between Feb-Sept of 2009, USDA expanded SNAP eligibility levels and allowed single jobless adults without children to receive benefits. The NCH would suggest that allocation of SNAP benefits be expanded permanently to benefit single adults without children experiencing homelessness. -
Neighborhood Stabilization Fund is Expanded: NSP2 & the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) was reauthorized for a total of $1.93 billion through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This act allowed the Secretary of HUD to establish a minimum grant size and added funding to prevent foreclosures. The Act also established NSP-TA, a $50 million allocation made available to national and local Technical Assistance (TA) providers to support NSP grantees. -
Creating a Rural Housing Assistance Program: Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act
The Rural Homeless Housing Assistance Program, part of the McKinney-Vento act, had never been funded or implemented. The HEARTH Act replaced the Assistance Program with the Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program. The new legislation provided re-housing assistance to homeless families in rural areas; financially supported unstable households at risk of losing their home; and extended affordable housing options in rural areas. -
Reauthorizing the McKinney Vento-Act: Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act
The HEARTH Act reauthorized and strengthened the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. HEARTH appropriated $2,200,000,000 to HUD, who placed more emphasis on rapid re-housing. The Act also included a change in HUD's definition of homelessness and chronic homelessness, increased funding to preventative services, and strengthened funding to emergency shelters. The HEARTH Act included the goal to rehouse newly homeless individuals within 30 days to prevent chronic homelessness. -
Support during Foreclosure: Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA)
Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) went into effect in 2009, which required that mortgage owners provide tenants with a "notice of foreclosure" and 90 days grace prior to eviction. Unfortunately, this provision expired December 31, 2014. Now, homeowners are primarily protected by state laws. -
Increase authorization for federal Neighborhood Stabilization Fund: Dodd-Frank Act
Neighborhood Stabilization Program 3 (NSP3) was authorized by Section 1497 of the "Dodd-Frank Act" and allocated $1 billion on a formula basis to 270 state and local governments. -
Increasing Access to Workforce Investment Act: Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA)
The Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act reformed the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. WIOA confronted barriers to employment, including homelessness; structured a more realistic set of performance indicators for individuals with high barriers to employment; increased local coordination and flexibility to meet regional job skill demand; increased focus on serving low-income Americans who have high-barriers to employment; and increased funding for out-of-school youth. -
Decriminalizing Homelessness: DOJ and the Civil Rights Division
The DOJ ruled that criminalizing homelessness violates 8th amendment. Vanita Gupta, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, stated that "Criminally prosecuting those individuals for something as innocent as sleeping, when they have no safe, legal place to go, violates their constitutional rights." Continuums of Care applying for HUD funds must prove they are taking steps to decriminalize homelessness, incentivized by increased access to funding. -
Releasing the National Housing Trust Fund
Eight years after it was authorized by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, money from the National Housing Trust Fund was released through HUD. For first time ever, HUD allocated $174 million through the nation's Housing Trust Fund to complement federal, state, and local budgets. The Trust Fund is used to increase and preserve the supply of decent, safe and sanitary affordable housing for extremely low and very low income households.
