In addition, advocates are currently working to secure a one-time appropriation of $300 million for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which is a FEMA program, in order to prevent homelessness from foreclosures. Advocates are working to get this provision included in foreclosure legislation.

True Housing Affordability: Neighborhood-Level Data

The Center for Neighborhood Technology recently unveiled a new interactive web mapping tool which provides neighborhood-level data on the affordability of housing in the 52 largest cities which includes the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.. In an attempt to measure the "true affordability" of housing, this tool accounts for both housing and transportation costs as a percent of income, called the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index. Often housing alone is more affordable outside of city centers, in the suburbs or exurbs, but when factoring in transportation costs it becomes less affordable. This site is designed to help individuals, planners, housing advocates, and policy-makers identify the true affordability of housing at the neighborhood level, and thus make better housing-related decisions.

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

Georgia's Food Banks on the Road to Feed the Hungry

 

A statewide program used by several of Georgia's food banks involves large tractor-trailers of food that go where the need is: often a rural crossroads or a parking lot.  These huge trucks extend the regional food banks' reach into rural areas where, quite often, poverty is high and resources are scarce.  Using a network of 2,400 partner organizations, the food banks, whether in Albany, Augusta or Valdosta get word out that a Manna Truck will be in the area, often sending flyers to constituents. The partner organizations take "orders" and the food bank pulls items together. A family can receive up to a two weeks supply of groceries usually enough to feed a family of three or four.

Volunteers are the mainstay and backbone of the program and spend three to four hours distributing the food. These Manna tractor-trailers in a single delivery to an area can deliver thousands of pounds of fresh produce, baked goods, and assorted grocery products for free distribution. In a few hours and an expense of several hundred dollars, an agency can provide up to $10,000 worth of grocery products to people in need.Manna trucks provide fresh produce, dairy or other perishable foods, and grocery products to poverty stricken areas of Georgia.

 This program expands food pantry service areas by taking food to rural areas that otherwise have no access to a food pantry; and makes quick turnarounds of food from food bank and distribution centers which would normally be turned away due to space limitations.  

 Albany Food Bank President Brett Kirkland says the increasing economic difficulty and the escalating fuel prices put an even higher burden on those in need. Rural Georgia has a poverty rate of almost 21 percent with people near the poverty level reaching almost 40%.  Kirkland says this is a way to get on the front lines of fighting hunger.

This year's event,  America's Road Home: Future Directions for Policy and Investment in Abolishing Homelessness - Partnering for Results in Ten Year Plans, focused on sustaining the "visible, measurable, and quantifiable" progress that has been made through Ten Year Plans and the America's Road Home effort  in reducing and preventing chronic homelessness, and broadening awareness of the policies and innovative research informed, evidence-based, and field-tested initiatives responsible for achieving these results.

Summit participants were welcomed by USICH Executive Director Philip Mangano who noted that the National Partnership constellated by the Council includes more Governors, Mayors, and County Executives than ever before, and more research, resources, and results than ever. "For the first time in a quarter decade, innovative policies and initiatives have led to decreased homelessness - on our streets, in our shelters. We have moved from being demoralized that what we faced is intractable to being re-moralized that change is happening."  Director Mangano reported that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter recently became the 250th signatory to the America's Road Home Statement of Principles and Actions.    "Why would 250 Mayors and County Leaders sign on? Why would more than 400 jurisdictional CEO's create 10-Year Plans to End Homelessness? What accounts for this unprecedented political will extended on this issue? Certainly our collective and conspiratorial work together, supporting each other, boosting morale, sharing innovation. No question. But, perhaps, the most sustaining impact has been made by economics, which is now driving both policy and solutions..."