National Alliance to End Homelessness

1.8 Weathering the Storm: Employment Strategies That Work

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:45:00 +0100

1.8 Weathering the Storm: Employment Strategies That Work
To transition back into housing and off of time-limited rent subsidies, families and youth require immediate assistance to achieve sustainable work and economic security. This workshop will examine strategies that have helped low-income parents and youth find and maintain employment. Presenters will discuss strategies cultivated from successful subsidized and transitional employment program models and strategies for parents experiencing homelessness.

2.2 Implementing the HEARTH Act: Preparing for the New Emergency Solutions Grant

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0100

2.2 Implementing the HEARTH Act: Preparing for the New Emergency Solutions Grant
Under the HEARTH Act, homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing are eligible activities for the new Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). Presenters will review the changes to the ESG program and discuss ways to transition programs from HPRP to ESG funding. Presenters will also discuss strategies for implementing ESG and will explore successful program models. Other resources for funding these programs will be explored in workshop 5.6.

3.4 Effectively Collecting, Coordinating, and Using Youth Data

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0100

3.4 Effectively Collecting, Coordinating, and Using Youth Data
Data is essential to create effective evidence-based strategies to prevent and end homelessness. This workshop will examine methodologies of point-in-time counts and other surveys, discuss coordinating HMIS with mainstream data systems and explore ways to use these data to inform policy decisions and interventions.

3.6 Ending Homelessness for Veterans and Their Families

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0100

3.6 Ending Homelessness for Veterans and Their Families
In order to reach the federal goal of ending veterans homelessness by 2015, new grants such as Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) have recently been released. This workshop will look at how these and other programs will be implemented to prevent homelessness and help homeless veterans and their families reconnect to housing in their communities.

5.6 Beyond HPRP: Sustaining Rapid Re-Housing and Prevention Programs

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0100

5.6 Beyond HPRP: Sustaining Rapid Re-Housing and Prevention Programs
As the resources from the stimulus-funded Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) diminish, communities are faced with finding new ways to keep their HPRP-funded programs running. In this workshop, presenters will share creative strategies to preserve and maintain rapid re-housing and prevention efforts.

5.4 The Role of Permanent Supportive Housing in Ending Family Homelessness

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:30:00 +0100

5.4 The Role of Permanent Supportive Housing in Ending Family Homelessness
To remain stable, some families with disabling physical and behavioral health challenges need the services linked to housing provided by permanent supportive housing (PSH). With limited PSH capacity and increased family homelessness, communities have to be strategic in deciding PSH placements and designing appropriate service plans. This workshop will look at successful PSH programs for families and suggest targeting strategies under the overall goal of ending family homelessness.

3.7 Partnering to Improve Employment Outcomes

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:30:00 +0100

3.7 Partnering to Improve Employment Outcomes
Several federal programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), are specifically charged with helping low-income people connect to employment. This workshop will examine innovative partnerships between homelessness service providers and state and local programs to improve the housing and employment outcomes of families and youth. Experts will explain how to navigate requirements for WIA, TANF, and other programs. Presenters from the field will explore engagement strategies and how to develop partnerships with local agencies and educational institutions.

1.2 Implementing the HEARTH Act: Preparing for Changes to the Continuum of Care

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:15:00 +0100

1.2 Implementing the HEARTH Act: Preparing for Changes to the Continuum of Care
The HEARTH Act makes many changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care programs, including to the incentives and expected performance outcomes. In this workshop national and local experts will share strategies for positioning your program and your community for these changes.

Alliance Online News: Follow Our Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness Online

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:15:00 +0100

Follow Online Our Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness

5.2 Services Optional: Using a Voluntary Services Approach

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:45:00 +0100

5.2 Services Optional: Using a Voluntary Services Approach
Programs increasing rely on voluntary services and harm reduction strategies to successfully work with vulnerable families and youth. This workshop will examine how providers have made the transition to a voluntary-services approach and how it has impacted their program outcomes.

1.3 Rapid Re-Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0100

1.3 Rapid Re-Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence
Rapid re-housing is being adapted by domestic violence providers to respond to the housing needs of the women and families they serve. This workshop will examine how rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention strategies are being used to serve survivors of domestic violence. Presenters will share their service models and lead a discussion on how to assist survivors in finding and maintaining safe, permanent housing.

Restore a Homeless-Prevention Program (New York Times, February 7, 2012)

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:30:00 +0100

More than 40,000 homeless people now spend the night in New York City shelters. Three-quarters of those are families, including about 17,000 children. Those numbers are about to rise. The city announced last week that it will immediately end what was once a $140 million rent-subsidy program that has helped keep more than 10,000 households in apartments and out of shelters. The move hurts an extremely vulnerable population in bad economic times and will almost certainly add to shelter costs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg started the Advantage program in 2007 to help people get on their feet with temporary two-year rent subsidies of around $900 a month if they worked or received job training. The program has worked well, with 88 percent of recipients successfully making the transition to living on their own. The program has also been cheaper than shelter stays, which cost, on average, $100 a night for a family. Last year, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cut the state’s $65 million contribution to the program. Without the state dollars, the city also lost $27 million in federal matching funds, and city officials decided that they could not afford to pick up the entire tab. The Legal Aid Society sued, and a state court ordered the Bloomberg administration to pay benefits while the case continued. Last week, that order was lifted and the city announced that subsidy checks for February would not be paid, leaving about 8,000 households short on rent. An appeals court is set to hear the case on Thursday. It should at least require the city to continue the subsidies until the case ends. In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg vowed to cut the city’s homelessness by two-thirds within five years. He did not achieve that goal, and the economy has made the situation worse. But Advantage is one program that has helped reduce homelessness. It should be revived and extended.

Homeless Families, Cloaked in Normality (New York Times, February 3, 2012)

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:15:00 +0100

ON the sixth day she was homeless, Tonya Lewis overslept. She woke in the dark, in Room 6E at the 93rd Avenue Family Residence, a privately run shelter in Jamaica, Queens. It was 4:45 a.m. She was already running late. Rousting her children — Unique, 15, and Jacaery, 2 — from their beds, Ms. Lewis got them dressed and started shoving DVDs and diapers into two bulging tote bags. When the boys were ready — sleepy, sullen, hoodied, backpacked, in hats and winter jackets — she pushed them out the door (“Come on, we gotta go!”) to begin their daily routine. It went like this: They took the Q54 bus five stops to the J train. They took the J train 14 stops to Broadway Junction station. Unique hopped off and transferred to the C train, then the S train, then walked a distance to his classes at the High School for Global Citizenship in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Ms. Lewis, with Jacaery (pronounced Juh-CARE-ee) still in tow, transferred from the J to the L train. She took the L to the B6 bus in Brooklyn, which she rode to East New York, where she worked for an hour, and then reversed course — the B6 to the L to the J — to get Jacaery to his day care center in Bedford-Stuyvesant by 9. All told, the odyssey required four hours, six trips on the subway and three trips on the bus, and suggests the changing nature of homelessness in New York. Unlike in the 1980s, when the crisis was defined by AIDS patients or men who slept on church steps, these days it has become more likely that a seemingly ordinary family, rushing about on public transportation with Elmo bags and video games, could be without a home. Of New York’s more than 40,000 homeless people in shelters — enough to fill the stands at Citi Field — about three-quarters now belong to families like the Lewises and are cloaked in a deceptive, superficial normalcy. They do not sleep outside or on cots on armory floors. By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones. Many get up each morning and leave the shelter to go to work or to school. Their hardships — poverty, unemployment, a marathon commute — exist out of sight. Underlying this transition is a cascade of events, both economic and political. For the past three years, city officials say, 30 percent of New Yorkers seeking shelter have done so because of evictions, many connected to the financial crisis. (Domestic violence and overcrowding were other chief reasons.) At the same time, a disagreement over money between city and state officials last spring led to the cessation of a rent-subsidy program designed to shift the homeless from shelters into apartments. For the first time in 30 years, there is no city policy in place to help move the homeless into permanent homes. MS. LEWIS, a health care aide, was evicted last month from her home in Far Rockaway, Queens. She was working full time for Able Health Care Services of New York, making about $500 a week tending to an autistic man. In August, because of cuts in Medicaid, her hours were reduced by half. Six weeks ago, she separated from her husband, Gregory Pitters, a maintenance man, who, before he lost his own job, earned $600 a week. On top of this, the $1,000 rent subsidy Ms. Lewis was receiving from the city, through the now-defunct program Advantage, ran out. Her apartment, a small two-bedroom, rented for $1,200 a month. She now makes $210 a week. She owes her landlord $4,280. The problem was mathematical, she said: “I can’t afford the rent.” She was in Brooklyn, on Halsey Street and Broadway, where Jacaery was in tears, when she said this. He often throws a tantrum when his mother leaves him at day care. At the center, a cheerful place with cubby holes and construction-paper cutouts, an attendant flung Jacaery over her shoulder. He wept and wailed and kicked his legs as his mother walked away. At 38, Ms. Lewis has three sons with three men. She rarely sees the father of her oldest child, Tarrick, who is 19 and lives in Brooklyn with her mother, Delores Lewis, and one of her younger brothers. Unique’s father died years ago and, as a rule, is not discussed. Ms. Lewis said she hoped to work things out with Mr. Pitters, Jacaery’s father, who is living with his mother in the Bronx. “We’re in this situation partly because of him,” she said. “He apologized. But like I said, ‘Apologies are not acceptable right now.’ ” She was back on Broadway, headed for her agency’s office, when her cellphone rang. It was a former boyfriend, Gary Wade, who was recently released from the Dutchess County jail. Mr. Wade wanted to meet Ms. Lewis at the Halsey Street J stop; at the station, he demanded her assistance in tracking down a lawyer who had represented him before he went to jail. The lawyer had his watch, he said, and his “very expensive Cartier glasses.” Ms. Lewis bought Mr. Wade a MetroCard, hoping he might go away. Instead, he tagged along as she ran errands: dropping off her timecard in Downtown Brooklyn and riding the A train to the end of Queens, where she visited a welfare office to pick up documents she needed for a new apartment. On the train, she briefly fell ill, sweating, breathless. Mr. Wade ignored her. He refused to leave until someone bought him lunch. It was 12:30 p.m. Ms. Lewis could not get rid of him. THERE was a time when the shelter system in New York was unquestionably Dickensian. Families slept overnight on benches at the Emergency Assistance Unit, a notorious intake office in the Bronx. Many were placed in rat-infested welfare hotels. A vicious legal battle between the city and advocates left even picayune details of shelter operation — the availability of milk-bottle warmers, for example — up to the courts. These days, families seeking shelter appear at the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing Office, a gleaming modern building, also in the Bronx, with artwork on the walls and an airport-like “departure lounge.” Advocates say that policies put in place by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have made it harder to gain entrance to the system, but for those who do get in, the intake process generally lasts 6 to 10 hours, and most families find a place the day they apply. One-third end up in city-run shelters, including some hotels, another third are placed in privately run facilities, like the one the Lewises entered in Queens, which has 54 units, each about 700 square feet, each with its own kitchen and bathroom. A family stays in a shelter an average of nine months, but there is no restriction on the length of stay. Rules encourage people to move on: families are not allowed to bring in their own furniture or decorate the walls. The city tries to place families near parents’ jobs and children’s schools, but it does not always succeed. On the ground floor of the shelter that housed the Lewises is an office where caseworkers help residents manage welfare benefits and improve their résumés in hopes of finding better work. The problem is: How do families get out of a shelter once they get there? In 2004, Mr. Bloomberg announced an ambitious plan to reduce homelessness by two-thirds over five years by building housing units, by putting more restrictions on those trying to enter the system and, most controversially, by no longer giving homeless families priority in receiving public housing or what is known as Section 8 assistance, which gives people federal vouchers under which they pay no more than 30 percent of their income for privately rented apartments. At the time, officials said that other New Yorkers at risk of being homeless — the disabled, for example, or former foster children — should have first claim on available public housing. (Each year, 5,000 to 6,000 public-housing units turn over and are sought by more than 100,000 people on a seven-year waiting list.) They also said that because Section 8 vouchers were in short supply, families were entering shelters as a shortcut to obtaining them. Once the practice ended, the argument went, the number of homeless people entering the system would decrease. That didn’t happen. At 40,000 people, New York’s shelter population is higher than it has ever been. (In 2001, when it hit 25,000, the city’s commissioner of homeless services was quoted in The New York Times as calling it “a temporary crisis.”) On any given night, 6,000 homeless men and 2,000 homeless women bed down in facilities for single people, and an additional 15,000 parents and 17,000 children sleep in family shelters. Then there are the individuals living on the streets whom the city counted last week in its annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. (The numbers will be available in March.) In place of Section 8 priority, Mr. Bloomberg established the Housing Stability Plus program, which provided five years of rent subsidies that declined in value 20 percent each year. In 2007, he introduced Advantage, which Ms. Lewis was using. The $140 million-a-year program offered two-year subsidies of about $1,000 a month, but only if recipients received job training or worked. The state and federal governments supplied two-thirds of the financing for Advantage, while the city administered it. “I don’t believe for a second that every family in shelter needs a permanent housing subsidy,” said Robert V. Hess, who served as the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services from 2006 to 2010. “What many people need is an opportunity to get back on their feet and develop their own income. Over time, they can build savings and move into their own homes.” In June, however, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, citing budget problems, cut the state’s financing for Advantage, and because the city would not pick up its portion, the program was discontinued. Among those arguing for the end of Advantage was the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group that has long supported homeless people. While it might seem counterintuitive, the coalition lobbied against Advantage in hopes of pushing the city into again offering the homeless priority for public housing and Section 8 vouchers, of which about 4,000 become available each year. The situation has led to litigation. The Legal Aid Society sued the city in 2011 to prevent it from ending benefits for the last 8,000 families still enrolled in Advantage. On Friday, a judge lifted an injunction that had forced the city to keep paying benefits. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for this week. Recriminations have come from both sides. The coalition has attacked Mr. Bloomberg for his “punitive mind-set.” The city has, in turn, accused the coalition of being blinded by a kind of advocate’s myopia — for missing the forest of New York’s budget woes and its numerous needy groups for the trees of homelessness. The way forward will inevitably pass through a narrow gap of politics. Seth Diamond, the city’s current homeless services commissioner, said the answer lay in raising wages and perhaps in loosening building codes in order to house more people in apartment buildings. He described his philosophy as one of “professional compassion” married to “a reciprocal obligation to participate in your own success.” “When you come into shelter,” he said, “there should be a period of time to get stabilized, but pretty quickly after that, you should be working aggressively on getting back to the community.” Ms. Lewis said something similar on her third day in the shelter: “It’s a nice little place, you know. Some people could get comfortable here. Not me. I’m not staying long. That’s not my plan.” IT was 4 p.m. Mr. Wade was finally gone. Ms. Lewis took the A train to the J train and fetched Jacaery from day care. She went to her mother’s house to find Unique. He wasn’t there, but Mr. Pitters was. Unique had gone to his godmother’s house after school and had told Ms. Lewis he would meet her at her mother’s. Ms. Lewis waited. One hour. Two. Nothing. She left. “He’ll find his way back eventually,” she said. Earlier, she had talked about the boys and the effect on them of a condition she does not describe with its common-noun name. (She employs vague phrases: “the situation” or “what’s going on right now.”) Jacaery, she said, was not aware of what was happening: “He just gets along. He’s mellow.” As for Unique, he brushed it off with manufactured toughness. He is a 15-year-old man: brooding looks, tired smiles, terse responses. How was school? “Fine.” How is taking care of your little brother? “Fine.” How are you handling “the situation”? A frown, a shrug. “What am I supposed to do?” 7:15 p.m.: the J train to the Q54 bus. Ms. Lewis and Jacaery walked down 170th Street in Queens in the dark. Mr. Pitters accompanied them from Delores Lewis’s house. He did not say much. (Later, he would say: “We’re trying to work it out.”) At 8 p.m., the family, as it were, split up on the shelter’s steps. Mr. Pitters was not allowed inside. The lighted lobby, the sign-in book, an elevator to the sixth floor. In Room 6E, the impression of transition: bare walls, three beds, empty space. A loaf of bread, a box of crackers, a jar of peanut butter in the kitchen. A suitcase in the closet. The tote bags were unloaded. Out came Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes, bought for the morning. Out came Jacaery’s security blanket — his mother’s old silk dress. He watched a DVD, “Daddy Day Care.” Ms. Lewis read a letter from the city telling her she might be moved to a Brooklyn shelter. It was closer to everything, her job, the day care center, Unique’s school. She didn’t want to go. She liked it here. It was clean, familiar. “It’s not as bad as it seems,” she said. “It’s O.K.”

Number of Homeless Female Veterans Rises Sharply, Report Finds (New York Times, February 6, 2012)

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:15:00 +0100

The number of homeless female veterans more than doubled from 2006 to 2010, and they will remain at risk of abuse and lack of shelter without better services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a recently released government report. The Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, estimated that the ranks of homeless female veterans had risen more than 140 percent since 2006, to 3,328 in fiscal 2010. The report cautions, however, that the Veterans Affairs data is limited and cannot be generalized. The veterans department does not track homeless female veterans and their needs, making it difficult for the agency to allocate grants to providers, the report said. The data becomes even more important in light of the growing numbers of women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The accountability office urged Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which works with the V.A. to provide veteran housing, to collaborate on this data collection. About two thirds of homeless female veterans are 40 to 59 years old and many have minor children. Over one-third are disabled. Female veterans have a constellation of problems in finding housing, the report said. Many women did not know about veteran housing, while others experienced long wait times. When a homeless veteran applies for housing, they are supposed to get a referral to a shelter or other temporary housing while they wait. Nearly a quarter of Veterans Affairs Medical Center homeless coordinators did not have short-term housing plans for female veterans, the report found. Women veterans also waited an average of four months for affordable housing through the H.U.D.-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, run collaboratively by the two agencies, the report found. Many homeless women veterans have children and face limited housing choices for their family. More than 60 percent of the V.A.’s Grant and Per Diem programs, which finance community agencies that help homeless veterans, do not accept children. Many of those programs that do accept children restrict their ages and their number. Safety is also a concern for homeless female veterans. There have been some reports of sexual harassment or assault on women living in Grant and Per Diem program housing over the last five years. While the V.A. does not have safety and security standards for such housing, it is now evaluating them in response to a report by the department’s Inspector General. The economic downturn has also not been kind to veterans. Unemployment is higher for veterans than the general population, 13.1 percent in December compared with 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among veterans 20 to 24 years old, the unemployment rate has averaged 30 percent. The issue of female homeless veterans has become more pronounced as more women choose to serve in the military. The number of women in the military since 1990 has doubled to 1.8 million, or 8 percent of the total armed forces. The Department of Veterans Affairs has set a goal of getting all homeless veterans off the streets by 2015, and has had some initial success. The number of homeless veterans fell by about 12 percent over the last year. There were nearly 67,500 homeless veterans on a single night in January 2011, down from 76,000 in 2010, according to the department. Every January, the veterans department joins nonprofits and government agencies to count the number of homeless. The results of this year’s tally will be released later this year. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Housing and Urban Development said they generally agreed with the findings of the accountability office report.

State leaders unite to end a tough problem: homelessness (Times Dispatch, February 5, 2012)

National Alliance to End Homelessness — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:15:00 +0100

Polls continue to show that many Americans regard Washington, D.C., as a hopelessly dysfunctional caldron of political acrimony and gridlock. But in Virginia, political leaders of both parties are proving that Republicans and Democrats of good will and political courage can come together to address some of the commonwealth's toughest problems. A marvelous example of such bipartisan cooperation came early in the new legislative session. On Dec. 19, Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, proposed a budget for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 that includes $1.5 million in new funds to combat and end homelessness in Virginia. The funds, to be allocated in 2013, include $1 million to support the policy approach known as "permanent supportive housing," (PSH) and $500,000 in support of "rapid re-housing" (RRH). Just weeks later, on Jan. 3, state Sen. Janet Howell, a Democrat from Reston, and Del. Scott Lingamfelter, a Republican from Woodbridge, offered an amendment to the budget that would allocate an additional $1.5 million for 2014. Joining Howell in supporting the Senate amendment as co-patrons are Sens. John Edwards (D), Frank Wagner (R) and John Watkins (R). Joining Lingamfelter in supporting the House amendment as co-patrons are Dels. Rich Anderson (R), Betsy Carr (D), Barbara Comstock (R), Chris Head (R), Charniele Herring (D), Manoli Loupassi (R), Jenn McClellan (D), Bob Tata (R) and Ron Villanueva (R). All are to be commended for their vision and their leadership. According to Virginia's Department of Housing and Community Development, as many as 50,000 Virginians experience homelessness each year — more than 9,000 on any given night. Worst of all, a third of Virginia's homeless are kids. Homeless children are twice as likely to struggle with learning disabilities, three times as likely to experience emotional and behavioral problems, and four times as likely to experience developmental difficulties. Following the recent economic downturn and foreclosure crisis, service providers across the commonwealth report a significant increase in the number of people seeking housing and food assistance, and as many as 20,000 Virginia families with children have doubled up with relatives and are at high risk of sudden homelessness. Permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing programs are helping to turn the tide against homelessness. PSH provides immediate access to affordable rental housing, followed by a range of services such as mental health and substance abuse counseling, health care, and job training. This "housing first" approach marks a dramatic shift in combating homelessness. In stark contrast to the conventional emergency shelter approach — which provides only temporary assistance and does nothing to solve the underlying causes of homelessness — PSH creates a context of safety, stability and affordability within which real progress on other key fronts can be achieved. Rapid re-housing focuses specifically on families experiencing homelessness. As the term suggests, RRH programs aim to re-house homeless families quickly in order to provide the shelter and stability that well-being and progress require. PSH works. According to the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (VCEH), more than 2,000 people, including some 470 people in families with children, currently reside in PSH units. Eighty-five to 100 percent of the tenants in several of Virginia's PSH programs have not returned to homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness recently identified the emergence of PSH programs as the single most important factor in reducing chronic homelessness in America in recent years. Multiple studies have demonstrated that PSH also delivers dramatic savings. The homeless population often cycles between life on the street, hospital emergency rooms, mental health facilities and jail — all of which costs communities money. A 2010 analysis of Virginia Supportive Housing's "A Place to Start" initiative showed that the program had dramatically reduced this hopeless and costly cycle, saving the local community $320,000. Much more work remains to be done. According to VCEH, another 7,000 PSH units are needed to end homelessness in Virginia. That's a daunting number, but it can be achieved. And, Virginia has already made impressive progress. Permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing represent a policy breakthrough in fighting homelessness. At long last, homelessness need not be regarded as an ever-present scourge within our communities — and the homeless need not be regarded as helpless. PSH and RRH programs work, and they save money. Most importantly, they save lives. The members of the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness thank McDonnell, Howell and Lingamfelter, and the bipartisan co-patrons of their amendment for their vision, their courage and their leadership.