IT'S HARD TO KNOW just how celebratory we should be about the 20th birthday of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Emergency Assistance Act.
After all, two decades after this act, which provides federal funding to help the homeless, we are far from declaring a victory over the problem. In fact, the city is reporting disturbing increases in the homeless population, the first increases in a decade.
So the presence of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and a group of homeless children blowing out candles on a birthday cake earlier this week in Philadelphia sent a mixed message at best.
To be sure, reauthorizing McKinney-Vento is critical to getting more money to cities like ours to provide more housing. Last year, for example, Philadelphia got about half of what it asked for from the Department of Housing and Development for homeless services. It's unclear whether there's a connection between this shortfall and the current situation on the streets, but more money could certainly help.
McKinney-Vento funds five programs to help the homeless ($1.5 billion this year) and is administered by HUD.
H.R. 840, also known as the HEARTH Act, reauthorizes McKinney-Vento. But it also adds a little icing to the cake: It would make more poor families, such as those living in motels or hotels, eligible for HUD help. It would earmark more money for support services, and give local authorities more control over how the money is spent. It also protects victims of domestic violence by prohibiting housing or social-service agencies from releasing information that could identify them, and lets those in immediate danger to be quickly moved to a safer location.
Families with children are the fastest-growing homeless population, according to Catholic Charities USA.
The proposed act seeks upward of $2.5 billion be available for 2008.
The HEARTH Act, introduced in the House in February by Julia Carson, D-Ind., is still in the House subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. But a confident Fattah, one of the bill's 70 co-sponsors, said that "with the new [Democratic] majority in Congress, [it] will pass."
Well, we'll see. That "new majority" has failed to impress us this session.
And with a president poised to veto any expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program, this isn't exactly an administration that shows its compassion by spending.
Poverty is the major cause of homelessness. In Philadelphia, the HEARTH Act would allow Philadelphia officials to provide more housing and opportunities to poor families, many of them headed by women. Also the extra money could go to enhanced programs for the addicted and mentally ill, usually the "the visible homeless."
Last year, the city requested $24 million from HUD for homelessness and got only $13 million. HUD made the cut, the city says, because too much of the money was going to services, not housing.
Local homeless officials say the local flexibility HEARTH offers is key.
With the city's Office of Supportive Housing as the money's dispenser, the city and other organizations can bring greater focus on priorities - such as programs to help families move from poverty - that are agreed upon, and distribute the money to nonprofit groups that work with the homeless.
When the HEARTH act comes out of committee and up for a vote, we urge all of our representatives to vote "yes."
Or things will get worse. *