The Hearth Connection team is excited to share some good news with you from the State Legislature!
More Funding for Supportive Housing for Families Experiencing Long-Term Homelessness!
On Monday, Governor Dayton signed the Health and Human Services Finance Omnibus bill, HF 2294, that provides $200,000 in TANF reserve resources to expand supportive housing through the Long-Term Homeless Supportive Services Fund (LTHSSF). This will be a tremendous boost to our teams that focus on serving families experiencing long-term homelessness. It will also help to fill in the gaps from the loss of state funding we experienced in last year's legislative session. We wish to thank the following Legislators for their authorship and support of our efforts to secure these resources:
Rep. Diane Anderson (lead amendment author),
Rep. Erin Murphy,
Rep. Jim Abeler,
Rep. Tom Huntley,
Rep. Tina Liebling,
Sen. Sean Nienow (lead amendment author),
Sen. Julie Rosen,
Sen. Jeff Hayden,
Sen. Tony Lourey,
Sen. David Hann.
We also want to thank all of our partners who paid attention, read our newsletters, called or wrote their Legislators, showed up for Homeless Day on the Hill, and remained vigilant. Our voice is only as strong as the collective impact we make together! We could not have done this without your involvement.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) will now decide how the funds will be distributed among the five regional collaboratives that receive LTHSSF funding. Once this decision is made, Hearth Connection will be able to determine how these funds are granted to community-based organizations offering supportive housing.
Finally, I wish to thank the professional assistance we received from Amber Backhaus from Leonard, Street, and Deinard. Amber serves Hearth Connection as our legislative lobbyist and was instrumental in crafting our amendment and finding a strong list of bipartisan authors. We continue to appreciate Amber's guidance and encouragement to achieve public policy solutions for ending homelessness.
__________________
Passage of the Visible Child Work Group Act Accomplished!
The Hearth Connection team is also happy to report that the Visible Child Work Group Act was passed by the State Legislature and signed by Governor Dayton last Monday. This Act creates a working task force to assess and respond to the unmet developmental needs of young children (infants and toddlers) who are homeless.
The Minnesota Visible Child Work Group is established to identify and recommend issues that should be addressed in a statewide, comprehensive plan to improve the well-being of children who are homeless or have experienced homelessness. The Work Group will include Legislators, State Agency representatives, business leaders, homeless service providers, and consumers. The Work Group is tasked to report back to the Legislature by December 15, 2012 on the following matters:
- Recommend goals and objectives for a comprehensive, statewide plan to improve the well-being of children who are homeless or who have experienced homelessness;
- Recommend a definition of "child well-being;"
- Identify evidence-based interventions and best practices improving the well-being of young children;
- Plan implementation timelines and ways to measure progress, including measures of child well-being from birth through adolescence;
- Identify ways to address issues of collaboration and coordination across systems, including education, health, human services, and housing;
- Recommend the type of data and information necessary to develop, effectively implement, and monitor a strategic plan;
- Examine and make recommendations regarding funding to implement an effective plan; and
- Provide recommendations for ongoing reports on the well-being of children, monitoring progress in implementing the statewide comprehensive plan, and any other issues determined to be relevant to achieving the goals of the Act.
The Visible Child Act was supported by a broad coalition of organizations including: the Children's Defense Fund, Hearth Connection, the Family Housing Fund, the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Services Advocacy Project, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Greater Twin Cities United Way, Heading Home Minnesota, and Simpson Housing Services. In particular, we wish to recognize Alexandra Fitzsimmons from the Children's Defense Fund who was the lead advocate and helped to secure authors and offer testimony for the bill. We wish to recognize her leadership, focus, humor, and hard work!
We expect the Legislature to wrap up soon. We will keep you posted on the proposal for Housing Infrastructure Bonding for supportive housing and public housing projects. Keep an eye out for our Legislative wrap-up newsletter!
