Dear Friends:

This letter will reach you shortly before our national elections. The campaigns are full of contradictions, distortions, and distractions that can take our eyes off the prize of health care justice. While we fully understand the importance of the election's outcome for people experiencing homelessness, we cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed by the demands of the electoral moment. 

Our work continues to focus on the changes in health care that are required by the Affordable Care Act and are vital regardless of the fate of the ACA after the election. These include increasing outreach to isolated people, facilitating their enrollment in Medicaid, adjusting HCH business practices to accommodate new patterns of health insurance, and developing health homes for people still without physical homes.

The challenges are daunting, but our spirit is strong. In early October, the Governing Membership of the National HCH Council met in Nashville to begin describing strategic directions for our work over the next four years. A highly inclusive process established priorities for (1) consumer leadership and involvement, (2) employment as an avenue for escaping homelessness, (3) leadership on integrated care, (4) advocacy around housing, HCH funding, Medical Respite Care, and single payer health insurance, and (5) increased organizational capacity and visibility. We remain steady and forward-looking.

Our long-range vision does not blind us to our interest in ensuring that people without homes are included in the democratic process. We have promoted voter registration on our website, in trainings, in webinars, and in a Resource Guide on Enfranchising Homeless Clients. The National Consumer Advisory Board has conducted voter registration drives at HCH sites and during HCH Day events. And even at this late date, we encourage HCH projects to engage in entirely legal Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts. In so doing, we seek to promote realization of the human right of political participation, one way to help achieve the rights of housing and health care for everyone.

If you've read this far, you must be interested in our work. Thank you! Please join us. Please donate to the Council. And please stay strong in the struggle for human rights.