[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2049-S2050]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Ms. Collins):
  S. 743. A bill to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on 
Homelessness; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, along with Senator Collins, I am introducing 
legislation that would eliminate the sunset date for U.S. Interagency 
Council on Homelessness--the Council--so that this independent agency 
can build upon its success in helping to prevent and end homelessness 
nationally.
  The Council was established under the Reagan administration as part 
of the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Since 
that time, it has worked across the Federal Government and private 
sector to coordinate homeless assistance nationally. In 2009, the 
Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing, or 
HEARTH Act, which I authored and introduced along with Senator Collins 
and others, expanded the Council's role to work with public, nonprofit, 
and private stakeholders to develop a national strategic plan to end 
homelessness. On June 22, 2010, the Council unveiled this plan, called 
Opening Doors, which has guided its work to develop and expand on 
effective strategies across the country to prevent and end 
homelessness.
  Since Opening Doors was unveiled, the U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, HUD, reports that overall homelessness has decreased 
by 14 percent, chronic homelessness by 27 percent, and family 
homelessness by 23 percent. In addition, we have seen veterans' 
homelessness drop by 47 percent. This progress is not only a result of 
the more than $500 million Federal investment in housing and supportive 
services through programs like HUD-VASH but is also because of the 
direction the Council provides to the Departments of Veterans Affairs 
and HUD, as well as public housing agencies administering assistance at 
the local level. Specifically, the Council helped various partners 
align their resources, efforts, goals, and measures of success for 
serving homeless veterans. Under this approach, the Commonwealth of 
Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, the city of New Orleans, and DeKalb 
County in Georgia, to name a few, have all declared an end to veterans' 
homelessness.
  Yet more work remains. And here, too, the Council is an important 
part of developing solutions. For instance, nearly 36,000 unaccompanied 
youth under the age of 25 experienced homelessness in 2016. While some 
communities have started to develop responses to youth homelessness, it 
is a complex problem that requires a tailored approach taking into 
account the local variables of foster care, primary to postsecondary 
education, housing, and healthcare systems. Finding new ways to deliver 
and fund assistance to this diverse population is essential, and that 
is why Senator Collins and I held a hearing in our subcommittee on this 
matter and worked together to include over $40 million in targeted 
resources to address youth homelessness in both the fiscal year 2016 
and 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, THUD, 
appropriations bills. As part of this new funding, the Council will be 
executing a broader collaborative effort with foster care networks, the 
juvenile justice community, and education partners to create and find

[[Page S2050]]

success in coordinated, cost-effective solutions that meet community 
needs. The Council's expertise in implementing complex Federal programs 
at the local level will continue to be critical to the success of this 
initiative.
  For all of this good work the Council has done and continues to do, 
it is vital that we keep its doors open. The Council, as the only 
agency at the federal level charged specifically with addressing 
homelessness, has helped communities not only reduce homelessness, but 
it has also helped to save money. We know that people experiencing 
homelessness are more likely to access expensive health care services 
and spend more time in incarceration--which are extremely costly to 
taxpayers, states, and local governments. According to the National 
Alliance to End Homelessness, ``Based on 22 different studies from 
across the country, providing permanent supportive housing to 
chronically homeless people creates net savings of $4,800 per person 
per year, through reduced spending on jails, hospitals, shelters, and 
other emergency services.''
  The Council has helped to build upon these estimated savings by 
identifying and tailoring cost-effective solutions that reduce the 
level of health care services, as well as recidivism, for individuals 
experiencing chronic homelessness. In fiscal year 2016 alone, the 
Council's modest $3.5 million budget catalyzed more than $5 billion in 
combined Federal resources that aim to address homelessness. It 
develops national strategies that inform the work and improve the cost-
effectiveness of programs administered by 19 Federal agencies, and as a 
result, communities and Sates are able to leverage housing, health, 
education, and labor funding more strategically and effectively.
  In our current budgetary environment we need a wise and creative arm 
to help our communities identify and maximize resources and 
opportunities where possible, to ensure we are actually addressing 
homelessness, and not contributing to it. The Council is proof that the 
government can work and save money in the process, and our bipartisan 
legislation ensures that the Council's doors remain open until there 
truly is an end to homelessness nationwide.
  I thank the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Rhode Island 
Coalition for the Homeless, HousingWorksRI, the Council of Large Public 
Housing Authorities, A Way Home America, Community Solutions, the 
National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Coalition for 
Homeless Veterans, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 
Funders Together to End Homelessness, the True Colors Fund, the 
National Housing Trust, the National Health Care for the Homeless 
Council, LISC, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, National 
Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the Public Housing 
Authorities Directors Association, National Network for Youth, 
LeadingAge, Heartland Alliance, National Housing Conference, the 
National AIDS Housing Coalition, Covenant House International, the 
Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the Forum for Youth Investment, the 
Housing Assistance Council, Volunteers of America, the Coalition on 
Human Needs, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Technical 
Assistance Collaborative, and the National Coalition for the Homeless 
for their support. I urge our colleagues to join Senator Collins and me 
in supporting this legislation.
                                 ______