| The Connection
a publication of the Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness, Inc. |
| ...keeping you up-to-date on local, state and national homeless issues | |
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From The Desk of The Executive Director
This week the staff and volunteers of the Georgia Coalition To End Homelessness joined forces with several other individuals representing non-profit homeless service organizations from our State. This Georgia advocacy team met personally with Representative John Lewis and the staff of Representatives Sanford Bishop, David Scott, Jack Kingston, John Barrow and Senator Johnny Isakson. This Face-to-Face time with Members of the House of Representatives and Senate and their staff is one of the most important ways to take part in homeless advocacy, as it allows us to make significant progress on important issues. Their warm hospitality and invitation allowed us to share our concerns and develop close working relationships with our elected officials and their staff. We were assured that we could count on them and our team was able to leave their offices confident that we had their support in our mission to overcome homelessness.
In preparation for this event, the Georgia Coalition To End Homelessness and the Union Mission-Savannah hosted an advocacy meeting, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill during the National Alliance To End Homelessness Annual Conference where we were able to assemble a legislative agenda containing a set of current high- priority issues that we felt we could significantly impact. We provided up-to-date information on the status of the issues and discussed what action was needed to secure important funding and finalize as many bills as possible. We are so pleased to have had this opportunity to bring Georgia's concerns regarding the homeless and at risk people our statewide network serves to the attention of Georgia's U.S. delegation. We feel that we've made a significant impact on how our representation in Washington will vote on pending and future legislation. We hope you will consider joining us as we hope to continue visiting "The Hill" as an annual event. We will share our information with you in upcoming news releases and bulletins as we follow up with our elected officials. .
Katheryn Preston
Executive Director
GCEH Staff and Volunteers Meeting With Rep. John Lewis
From Left to right, Tom Plamann, Natalie Plamann, Rep. John Lewis, Katheryn Preston, Jasper Preston 7/30/2008 |
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DCA Releases First Statewide Study of Homelessness
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless (State Housing Trust Fund), Kennesaw State University (KSU) The Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness (GCEH) and a number of other partners collaborated to look at homelessness statewide. The report, Homeless In Georgia 2008, offers an overview of the state's homeless problem and what is being done to address it. The report was officially released at an event on July 16, 2008 at Genesis Shelter in Atlanta, GA. The briefing preceded the regular meeting of the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission. DCA and KSU officials led a discussion of the study's highlights. A full copy of the study is available on DCA's website at
http://www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/SpecialNeeds/publications/homelessReport08lowRes.pdf
The core of Homeless In Georgia 2008 was a count of homeless individuals on a single night in January 2008. In late January 2008, counts were done in 18 counties. The study also used 2007 homeless count data from Bibb, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Lowndes counties. The county data was analyzed using an innovative sampling methodology and predictive model developed by KSU mathematics professors Dr. Jennifer Priestley and Dr. Victor Kane.
Key study highlights included:
· Number of Homeless Georgians: There were more than 20,000 people in Georgia who were estimated to be homeless at a single "point in time" during the last week in January. Using survey data, it is estimated that over 75,000 Georgians are homeless at some time during the year.
· Primary Causes of Homelessness In Georgia: As cited in the study, related research identified extreme poverty and personal vulnerability as the leading causes of homelessness. The state's poorest citizens, those who earn 50% or less of the poverty level, have the greatest risk of becoming homeless. Personal situations that left individuals and families vulnerable to the loss of housing included mental illness, substance abuse, developmental or physical disabilities (including chronic medical problems), family violence, eviction and criminal backgrounds.
· Age of Homeless Georgians: Homeless Georgians ranged in age from 0-65 years+.
Homeless In Georgia 2008 also highlighted several joint efforts statewide. The State of Georgia has worked with federal, state, local and private partners for more than 20 years on homelessness. With the creation of the State Housing Trust Fund in 1988, the State dedicated funding for helping individuals and families end homelessness. Today, the Trust Fund provides funding to more than 200 homeless service providers statewide. Funding, provided from federal and state dollars, may be used for homeless prevention, emergency shelters, transitional housing, supportive services and permanent supportive housing. State Housing Trust Fund members are appointed by the Governor. Walter Huntley, Jr. serves as the group's chairman. In 2004, the State formed the Interagency Homeless Coordination Council. Nearly 20 state agencies participate on the Council. The Council's efforts are focused on coordinating the efforts of state agencies. It meets quarterly and is jointly chaired by DCA and the Georgia Department of Human Resources. Additional study partners included the faculty of Kennesaw State University's Mathematic Department and the A. L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research; State Housing Trust Fund For The Homeless; the State's other Continuums of Care (Chatham, Clarke, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Muscogee and Richmond counties); numerous state agencies; homeless advocates and other statewide experts. The report indicates the most effective strategy for addressing homelessness is moving individuals and families into permanent housing as quickly as possible. Providing services to persons in "stable" housing situations have proven to be more beneficial to the person and more cost effective than "emergency-like" responses.
DCA will conduct another count in 2009. Specific dates and counties are being determined.
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HUD Awards 2.9 Million $ to Provide Permanent Housing for  Homeless Veterans
The US Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Director Burt Wilkerson announced this week that $2.9 million in funding has been awarded to the DeKalb Housing Authority and Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center to provide permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans.
The funding is being awarded under HUD's Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) in which additional rental assistance vouchers are being provided under the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. These vouchers, which are being administered by the DeKalb Housing Authority, are specifically targeted to homeless veterans. The Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center will provide outreach, supportive services and case management to eligible homeless veterans.
The DeKalb Housing Authority will determine income eligibility in accordance with HUD regulations for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Under the program, veterans can use vouchers to rent privately-owned housing and pay up to 30 percent of income towards rent. The federal subsidy will make up the difference between the actual rent and what the veteran will pay.
"This $2.9 million award we celebrate for 350 new HUD-VASH vouchers for Atlanta and DeKalb County is invested in the central antidote to homelessness - housing - to ensure that all who have served their country have a place to live," indicated Philip Mangano, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director. "These new housing resources - along with VA services and the record $9.8 million in HUD homeless resources awarded this year - will lead to new regional results in ending homelessness for veterans and continue the success documented in the 16% decrease in chronic homelessness that was reported for Atlanta and DeKalb and Fulton Counties in this week's federal announcement of a second consecutive annual national average 15% decline in chronic homelessness that demonstrates that we are on track to meet the Administration's goal of ending chronic homelessness."
The funding is part of $75 million awarded nationwide to assist 10,000 veterans across the country.
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Employment for Low-Income People with Challenges
The Urban Institute recently released Supporting Work for Low-Income People with Significant Challenges, a report that is part of the New Safety Net series. Welfare programs require people to work, but some low-income adults struggle with major personal challenges that make it hard to find or hold down a job. The authors, Pamela Loprest and Karin Martinson, recommend employment preparation that focuses on services to help people overcome their challenges, subsidies for employers that offer short- term employment to needy people, programs emphasizing treatment and management, and monetary incentives to encourage participation. To accomplish these goals, current programs must be modified to extend the time that people are eligible for benefits and services, and the federal government must provide matching grants to states that can thus develop their own programs.
Supporting Work for Low-Income People with Significant Challenges
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SAMHSA Launches New Homelessness Resource Center Web Site
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has launched a new Homelessness Resource Center web site. This new resource is designed to be a social networking site to help homeless service providers connect with each other by sharing knowledge and experiences. Web site users will be able to download resources and practical tools, rate and comment on content, post helpful information, and learn about upcoming events. Homelessness Resource Center
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FOOD STAMP INFLATION ADJUSTMENT LAGS, RESULTING IN INADEQUATE BENEFITS
The economic slowdown has coincided with a sharp increase in food prices, which has exacerbated hardship for many low-income families also facing high gas prices (and by the fall and winter, very high home heating bills). Unfortunately, during periods of rapid food inflation, the Food Stamp Program's current rules do not ensure that needy families and individuals receive sufficient support to obtain a nutritionally adequate diet.
Food stamp benefits are adjusted annually for food price inflation, but the adjustment is based on lagged data that are four months old at the beginning of the fiscal year and 15 months out of date by the end of the fiscal year.
Food stamp benefits for each fiscal year are based on the cost of the "Thrifty Food Plan," the Department of Agriculture's lowest-cost nutritionally adequate diet plan, in June of the prior fiscal year. [1]
As a result, in every month of fiscal year 2008, as food prices have climbed, food stamp benefits have been inadequate to enable households to purchase the Thrifty Food Plan. By June 2008, the latest month for which USDA estimates are available, the cost of food had increased 8.5 percent since the previous June, and food stamp benefits were $46 a month below the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four. (The maximum food stamp benefit for a family of four with no other income available for food purchases was $542 a month, while the monthly cost of the Thrifty Food Plan stood at $588.30).[2]
Food stamp benefits will be adjusted on October 2008 to reflect food inflation for the June 2007 to June 2008 period. This increase will be 8.5 percent, a significant adjustment to reflect increased food costs over the June-to-June period. But when fiscal year 2009 starts this October, food stamp benefits will again already be four months out of date and will grow more out of date as the year progresses.
Even if food inflation is only half as high next year is it was this year, by Christmas food stamp benefits will fall about $10 behind the monthly cost of USDA's Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four, and by the spring, a family of four's benefits will fall more than $20 short. If food inflation next year equals this year's levels, the shortfalls will be twice as large.
The food stamp improvements included in the recently enacted farm bill will help to provide some relief: about half of all food stamp recipients will receive about $1 to $5 a month in additional benefits in 2009 as a result of it. (The farm bill's food stamp improvements become more significant over time.) But the farm bill's improvements will not address the increased cost of food over the fiscal year if food inflation proves to be high again next year and will not help many of the poorest families who struggle the most to afford sufficient food.
Congress could address this problem for the coming fiscal year by anticipating the food price inflation that will occur and acting to offset some of it so assistance to needy families and elderly individuals does not again fall short of what is needed to purchase a minimally adequate diet. For example, for fiscal year 2009, food stamp benefits could be set at a level higher than the amount
The approach would be consistent with the way that food stamps were regularly adjusted for food price inflation for many years prior to 1996. Until 1996, federal law set food stamp benefit levels for a given fiscal year at 103 percent of the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan in the previous June. Congress set the benefits at this level to compensate for the lag in data on food prices and thereby to try to ensure that food stamp households would have the resources to secure adequate food over the course of the year.
(this report published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
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GCEH Applauds Passage of Foreclosure Assistance Package
This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, a bill which can help the thousands of families facing foreclosure in Georgia. The President has indicated he would not stand in the way of this mortgage assistance
The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act will enable over 400,000 homeowners nationwide to refinance their mortgages at lower-rates in an effort to help them stay in their homes, preserve their credit standing, and make good on their debts. It expands housing assistance to veterans, and establishes a new independent regulator which will monitor the activities of government sponsored housing agencies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, among other provisions.
Above all, this legislation is not a bailout of the mortgage industry. It requires lenders to bear responsibility and take substantial losses by lowering the principal amounts of their mortgages, and it does not release homeowners from their mortgage obligations.
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Macon's Central City AIDS Network Receives $483,000
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs gave out $6.7 million of state and federal funds to housing service organizations across Georgia. The Central City AIDS network in Macon received the largest amount of money $483,000. Executive Director Johnny Fambro says that's because the network is the only organization of its kind in central Georgia. The agency provides information and referral, support groups and advocacy for people in 23 counties with HIV and AIDS.
Trained volunteers staff the Center and the phones, providing information about AIDS and about resources available. Professionals and trained volunteers facilitate their numerous self help support groups for women, children, family, friends, caregivers, and others. Groups provide an opportunity for support, discussion, information, problem solving, and help for those dealing with bereavement after a loss. Central City AIDS Network speakers are available to the community helping provide current, up to date information on AIDS prevention, treatment, and support. A resource center at the organization's Rainbow Center offers pamphlets, books and tapes on a variety of AIDS related topics. Most free or loaned. In addition to all these service they have a working advocacy group in place to help with problems related to living with AIDS. Issues addressed are employment, insurance, housing, and transportation.
Fambro says the grant will also help them stop the spread of the disease.
"We also try to prevent people from getting HIV," he says. "We have an RV that we go around and do HIV testing, counseling and referral. We try to find people that are HIV positive and keep them from spreading the virus and to also get them into care." For more information on the Central City AIDS network, you can call their office at 478-750-8080.
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