• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs invites community providers to Homeless Veterans Summit November 3-5 in Washington, DC to promote research findings, innovative thinking, and partnership to achieve the goal of ending veteran homelessness in five years

"We are going to take (the) 131,000 homeless Veterans off the streets over the next five years . . . To do this well, we will have to attack the entire downward spiral that ends in homelessness-we must offer education, jobs, treat depression, fight substance abuse, and offer safe housing. We have to do it all-no missed opportunities in going from 131,000 to zero and keeping it there . . ." -- VA Secretary Shinseki

As the VA moves forward to make ending Veteran homelessness a reality, continuing to both identify and test innovative strategies and strengthen the partnership with community service providers which has led to an estimated 33% decrease in Veteran street homelessness over the last three years will be key. The VA is inviting community providers to a Homeless Veterans Summit: Ending Homelessness among Veterans in Five Years November 3-5 in Washington, DC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Are you a community provider with information to share on research studies, emerging best practices, or clinical demonstrations that are producing results in preventing and ending homelessness? The VA wants to hear from you! Summit opportunities are available for oral and workshop presentations and posters.

One page abstracts are due by September 11 and applicants will be notified of acceptance by September 25. Abstracts based on research projects should include a research design and outcome data. Priority will be given to original research that has not been presented elsewhere and to clinical projects and emerging best practices that have at least one year of outcome data, involve multiple sites, and/or demonstrate a change in practice. Workshop abstracts should include concrete examples, "how- to" steps, lessons learned, handouts, and a list of the discussants and their locations and agencies. Poster projects are research, clinical or educational projects including those that are in progress or represent small pilots.

All high quality proposals will be considered. Topics of particular interest include: Homeless Prevention, Incarceration Diversion/Community Reentry, Outreach to special populations, HUD-VASH, Grant and Per Diem, Homelessness and Residential Treatment, Transitional Housing, Vocational Rehabilitation, Homelessness and Substance Abuse, Homelessness and Women, OEF/OIF Veterans and Homelessness, Homelessness and Serious Mental Illness, Homelessness and Medical Issues, Promoting Continuity Among the Homeless Continuum of Care, Rural Homelessness, Community Collaboration, and Homelessness and Families.

Abstract Application Form and Instruction Page

Registration Form

Continuing to address the impact of the economic downturn on the ability of individuals and families to obtain needed health care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week announced another $25.7 million in new grants to improve the availability of health services through the nation's Health Center Program. "These grants could not be coming at a better time," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in making the announcement. "With more than 14.5 million Americans out of work, and 47 million without health insurance, the health centers are seeing more patients now than ever before." By law, patients are accepted regardless of their ability to pay.

The Health Center Program, overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at HHS, funds a national network of more than 1,100 community, migrant, homeless, and public housing health center grantees. These organizations provide health care at more than 7,500 clinical sites, ranging from large medical facilities to mobile vans. In 2008, the health centers served more than 17 million medically underserved people. Since the economic downturn began, the health center patient population has grown by another one million people - a third of them children.

The announcement this week included 180 grants to give existing health centers additional funding to add or increase mental health/substance abuse, enabling (i.e., outreach, transportation, case management services), oral health or pharmacy services. Additionally, 48 planning grants were awarded to organizations in hard hit areas that do not have health centers to help them develop new service delivery sites.

In addition to the $2.2 billion in funding appropriated for the health centers program in FY 09, the Recovery Act enacted earlier this year provided another $2 billion to be invested in expanded services and capital improvements. Earlier this month U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Denver's Stout Street Clinic to see first hand the importance of Recovery Act funding in improving health center services and operations. The downtown Stout Street Clinic, a health center serving the homeless since 1985, is part of a family of programs of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless integrating housing, healthcare and support services including street outreach, rental assistance, benefits acquisition, employment counseling and childcare for persons experiencing homelessness.

"We see a holistic approach where you can't talk about ending homelessness or addressing it, unless you address the health needs and mental health needs of the clients," said Speaker Pelosi, shown here at the Stout Clinic, who was joined by Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who is vice chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman Jared Polis.

With the passing of Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy this week, we reprint below a section on the important role of health care centers from the document, The Accomplishments of Senator Edward M. Kennedy 1962-2009, posted on the late Senator's web site:

"Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy has fought to ensure that all Americans have access to high quality, affordable health care. This was the cause of his life.

It began in 1966 when Senator Kennedy visited the Columbia Point Health Center in Boston - a successful clinic bringing health care to low- income residents of the community. Kennedy came away impressed with the clinic's ability to provide treatment to low-income populations. He was aware of a similar clinic in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. He saw in Columbia Point and Mound Bayou a model for the nation and introduced an amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act that set aside $51 million to get another 30 centers started around the country. Today, as a direct result of Sen. Kennedy's vision as a 34-year-old, first-term senator, 20 million low- income Americans receive access to quality primary care at 1,200 community health centers across all 50 states and U.S. territories.

Senator Kennedy's success replicating the Columbia Point and Mound Bayou Health Center model across the country was the very beginning of his long journey to make health a care right for all Americans, not a privilege of the few."

Throughout the year, the Council's Regional Coordinators are in the field providing a broad range of technical assistance and support to facilitate federal agency collaboration in the regions and assist local, state and regional efforts to prevent and end homelessness.

In Mississippi . . .

JACKSON. With the impact of the economic downturn still being felt as the new school year begins, federal, state, and local educational officials are focusing increasing attention on identifying the most effective ways to assist homeless children. Earlier this month, USICH Region IV Coordinator and National Team Leader Michael German participated in the Mississippi Department of Education State Homeless Education Conference. The Homeless Education - Parental Involvement: McKinney-Vento Supporting Student Success conference held August 17-19 in Jackson brought together state officials with representatives of Mississippi's 152 school districts including superintendents, federal program coordinators, business managers and district homeless education liaisons.

Conference sessions included the McKinney-Vento Act, Homeless Liaison Training, How Homelessness Affects Families, Title I and Homelessness, Special Education and Homelessness, School Health Services, Homeless/Drop Out Prevention, Identifying the Homeless Parent, Early Childhood Collaboration, Migrant Students and Homelessness, Child Abuse and Neglect, and Parent Options and Involvement. A workshop on Homeless Services and Coordination was led by HUD Jackson Field Office Homeless Coordinator Don Connelly and Council Team Leader German. HUD Jackson CPD Field Office Director Linda Tynes also attended. Workshop participants are shown here flanking Team Leader German (center) and Mr. Connelly (to his left).

"Planning to End Homelessness" was the subject of the opening plenary session on Tuesday at which Council Team Leader German discussed the recently enacted HEARTH Act (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing) which reauthorized both HUD's homeless assistance programs and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The HEARTH Act makes explicit the role of the Council "to coordinate the response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness." He noted that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, led by Secretary and Council Chair Shaun Donovan, and the U.S. Department of Education, whose Secretary Arne Duncan is also a member of the Council, coordinated efforts around the homeless education funding and the $1.5 billion Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing funding included in the Recovery Act.

Such coordination will continue beyond the Recovery Act as regulations are being developed by HUD for implementation of HEARTH Act changes to HUD's homeless assistance programs and also will be enhanced through the work of the Council both in Washington and in the field. Per the recent FY 2010 report of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Council will have responsibility for conducting joint training between service providers participating in HUD's homeless assistance programs and the homeless education liaisons authorized through Title VII of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act " to provide participants in both housing and education programs with a better understanding of the full range of services available to these children, as well as better ways to identify children who are homeless or at-risk in order to ensure that they have the support and services necessary to help prevent or end their homelessness."

In Oregon . . .

CORVALLIS. This week Council Region 10 Coordinator Paul Carlson met with the team of community leaders, agency heads, providers, and advocates drafting the Benton County, Oregon 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. As the team vetted proposed plan strategies, Coordinator Carlson was present as a resource to field questions and share best practice information from other community 10 Year Plans that are meeting with success in preventing homelessness, bringing long term homeless off the streets, and rapidly rehousing those who become homeless.

How will funds for permanent supportive housing be secured? What new federal funds are available? What agency will work with the housing authority to provide on site case management services? Can we share detox resources with a neighboring community? Can we use Oxford Houses as a model for permanent supportive housing in our smaller communities? These are the types of questions fielded by the Council's Regional Coordinators every day as they work with communities developing their 10 Year Plans. Identifying service gaps and building new partnerships that best leverage available local resources are key elements of 10 Year planning efforts. In Benton County where the planning team identified a need for more outreach workers, the city of Corvallis offered to provide local funds that will be matched by local philanthropic funds to support an outreach mental health professional to work with chronically homeless, mentally ill persons in the community.

Corvallis/Benton County leaders are planning to roll out the completed 10 Year Plan on October 23 in conjunction with the community's first Project Homeless Connect. Regional Coordinator Carlson is shown here at top of picture flanked by 10 Year Plan organizers Joanne Zimmer (right) and Amy Rose (left) and planning team members.

In Louisiana . . .

BATON ROUGE. Louisiana Advocacy Coalition for the Homeless (LACH) leaders, including representatives of UNITY of Greater New Orleans and Volunteers of America, and Council Team Leader Michael German recently met with Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary Kristy Nichols and Governor Jindal's Health and Social Services Policy Director Anthony Keck to discuss the process for furthering a comprehensive statewide strategy on homelessness. Pictured here are, l-r, LACH Co-chair Dee Wild; Amanda Guma, Louisiana Recovery Authority; Governor's Policy Advisor Anthony Keck; Department of Social Services Secretary Kristy Nichols; Michael German; Dr. Chandra Crawford, UNITY Director of Public Policy; and LACH Co-chair Vickie Judice.

In Florida . . .

ORLANDO. Tallahassee Mayor John Marks kicked off his term as President of the Florida League of Cities during the organization's 83rd Annual Conference in Orlando on August 15. A strong supporter of the 10 year jurisdictional planning process to end homelessness, Mayor Marks invited Council Region IV Coordinator and National Team Leader Michael German to participate in the Grants and Technical Assistance Resource Center that is part of the annual meeting. Nearly 100 city officials took advantage of the opportunity to drop by and talk with Team Leader German. Mayor Marks (left) and Coordinator German are shown.

In conjunction with this week's commemoration of Women's Equality Day on August 26, the White House unveiled a new website for the White House Council on Women and Girls to make information on the work of the council easily accessible to the public.

The White House Council on Women and Girls, chaired by Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement Valerie Jarrett and with Tina Tchen as Executive Director, was established by Executive Order of President Obama in March to "ensure that every part of the federal government takes into account the needs of women and girls in the policies we draft, the programs we create, the legislation we support." A number of focus areas for the first year were identified including:

• Improving women's economic security by ensuring that each of the agencies is working to directly improve the economic status of women
• Working with each agency to ensure that the administration evaluates and develops policies that establish a balance between work and family
• Working hand-in-hand with the Vice President, the Justice Department's Office of Violence Against Women and other government officials to find new ways to prevent violence against women, at home and abroad
• Finally, the critical work of the Council will be to help build healthy families and improve women's health care

In addition to appointing Cabinet Secretaries and heads of federal agencies and White House offices to serve as members of the Council, the President asked each of them to appoint a senior level person to work with them closely on council matters. The complete list with biographical information can be found on the new website. Among those, Irene Trowell-Harris, R.N. Ed.D., is the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans. Women Veterans are one of the fastest growing segments of the Veteran population, with 1.8 million women Veterans comprising 7.5 percent of the total veteran population and nearly 5.5 percent of all Veterans who use VA health care services. There are 200,000 women currently serving in the Armed Forces. The VA has embarked on a number of initiatives to meet the unique needs of women Veterans including,

• Staffing every VA medical center with a women Veterans program manager
• Enhanced mental health care specifically for women
• Supporting a multifaceted research program on women's health
• Creating a mini-residency on women's health for primary care physicians
• Focusing on the special needs of homeless and at risk women Veterans
• The 20,000 housing choice vouchers that have been allocated over the past two years to public housing authorities under the collaborative HUD-VASH program are a particularly welcomed resource for providing permanent housing with support services to homeless Veterans including homeless women Veterans and their families.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan this week announced the selection of Technical Assistance grantees for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. "I am proud to announce today one more resource for neighborhoods and communities that have been hit hard by the national foreclosure crisis," said Secretary Donovan. "Thanks to the Recovery Act, we are able to dispatch experts into these communities to help them better manage their neighborhood stabilization programs so that small problems don't become big ones."

Technical assistance will be available to:

• Help NSP grantees to implement sound underwriting, management, and fiscal controls
• Measure outcomes in the use of public funds through accurate and timely reporting
• Build the capacity of public-private partnerships
• Develop strategies to serve low-income households
• Incorporate energy efficiency into State and local NSP programs
• Provide support, technical assistance, and training on the operation and management of 'land banks'
• Train grantees and their subgrantees on HUD program rules and financial management requirements
• Assist grantees and their subgrantees to develop materials on energy conservation or other Departmental or programmatic priorities

View list of national and local Technical Assistance Providers and their awards. To learn more about the NSP program, click here.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) last week unveiled a new web site featuring information on the financing of mental health and substance abuse (M/SU) prevention and treatment services and delivery systems. The web site, www.samhsa.gov/financing, was developed by SAMHSA's Financing Center of Excellence (COE) and is utilizing blog-style posts to present original COE content as well as news, reports, briefs, scholarly article citations, legislation, and data sets regarding the financing of M/SU treatment and prevention.

The SAMHSA Financing Center of Excellence was established in November of 2008 to draw upon the services of leading experts in the field of behavioral health financing to provide information and analysis that can help policy-makers, payers, and providers offer high quality, cost-effective services to individuals with mental and substance use disorders.

The new web site also provides a direct link to SAMHSA's weekly Financing News Pulse that covers national, state, and local behavioral health financing news, including upcoming hearings on Capitol Hill and which in its August 3 edition, included a link to the Kaiser Family Foundation's interactive side by side comparison of health care reform proposals.

email: usich@usich.gov

web: http://www.usich.gov