Sacramento Homeless Shelter Beds Fill to Capacity (Associated Press)

Homeless Getting Help with Housing (by Kim Hynes, Kansas CWCH New)

Shelter’s Lack of Results is its Undoing (by Steve Visser, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Street Sweeps Won’t Solve Street Sleep (by Timothy Pratt, Las Vegas Sun)

Advocacy Groups: Regionalization Key to Managing Homeless Issues (Barnstable Patriot)

Pawtucket Program Aims to Aid Homeless (by Paul Davis)

Editorial: Cuts in Homeless Funds Shortsighted (The Sacramento Bee)

Cities Move Toward Housing-First Approach to Tackle Homelessness (by Denny Boyles, Boston Herald)

Ranks of Homeless Swell as Middle Class Teeters (by Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle)

Crisis: Homelessness Population Grows, Tent Cities Thrive (by Robert Fleming, Black Star News, New America Media)

US Tent Cities Highlight New Realities as Recession Wears On (by Oliver Burkeman, Guardian)

U.S. House Passes Legislation to Improve Benefits and Services to Veterans (Empire State News)

Homelessness on Rise, Housing Alliance Helps Rebuild Lives (by Lee Hammel, Worcester Telegram).

Green Bay to Try New Way to Help Homeless (by Paul Srubas, Green Bay Press Gazette)

An independent agency, which is part of the Domestic Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President, ICH is responsible for coordinating and streamlining all Federal government homelessness-related activities and creating End Homelessness in America initiatives and government and private sector partnerships to jointly develop strategies, programs, and solutions with that same goal.

 

ICH was created in 1987 by the Homeless Act, which was re-named the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act after the death of Stewart B. McKinney, the chief Republican sponsor of the Act, and then re-titled McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act when Representative Bruce Vento died, after having been the strongest supporter of the Act once it became law. The Homeless Act established ICH to coordinate the Federal response to homelessness, and to create partnerships throughout government, as well as via government teaming with the private sector, with the aim of ending homelessness. The only major legislative response to homelessness, the Act charged the Council with reviewing all Federal activities and programs to assist the homeless; reducing duplication of efforts by Federal agency homeless assistance programs; monitoring, evaluating, and recommending improvements in these programs; providing technical assistance to states, local government, and other private and non-profit organizations; collecting and disseminating information relating to homelessness; putting together bi-monthly bulletins describing resources available to states, and other providers, as well as application deadlines for the various Federal programs; and preparing an annual report. In 1996, the Interagency Council on Homelessness fell dormant. It was revitalized in 2002 in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the signing of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

 

ICH develops, helps implement, and works to expand a comprehensive national approach to abolishing homelessness. Those currently involved in the ICH process include: 20 Federal Agencies, 49 States, three territories, the District of Columbia, 53 governors, mayors, county executives, more than 325 local communities, and various faith-based entities, charities, and private sector individuals and organizations across the country.

 

Among the U.S. Federal government participants: The Departments of Agriculture; Commerce; Defense; Education; Energy; Health and Human Services; Homeland Security; Housing and Urban Development; Interior; Justice; Labor; Transportation; and Veterans Affairs; and the Corporation for National Community Service; General Services Administration; Office of Management and Budget; Postal Service; Social Security Administration; USA Freedom Corps; and the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

 

Individuals from the involved agencies meet regularly to share information, coordinate program and funding efforts, and assure that agency resources are available and accessible to the homeless. ICH, through the work of its Washington D.C. staff and regional coordinators dispatched throughout the United States, provides oversight and any assistance necessary to those involved in the creation and/or development of strategies and programs that house and otherwise aid homeless individuals and their families, which includes assistance in locating food programs and education and work opportunities.

 

ICH encourages all states and territories to establish by legislative authority or Governor’s Executive Order a State Interagency Council on Homelessness, and urges cities and counties around the nation to create business-like, results-oriented 10-year End Homelessness Plans that incorporate cost-benefit analysis, prevention, housing, and services innovations.

 

ICH creates and disseminates replicable initiatives and toolkits to help remedy homelessness, to officials, organizations, businesses, volunteers, consumers, universities, professional sports teams, members of the military, and others all across the country, to help them establish their 10-year plans to end homelessness, and create government and private sector partnerships to aid them in achieving the target.

 

Among the groups working to end homelessness are: