The Senate Budget allocates $1.4 million to the Home & Healthy for Good line item (7004-0104), instead of the $2.2 million funding level proposed by the Governor’s Budget.

Your support throughout this budget process has been critical, and our work is not yet over. Now is the time to voice to the Senate our commitment to ensuring that Massachusetts invests in what works – permanent supportive housing that ends the homelessness of our most vulnerable neighbors and saves the Commonwealth money in the process.

Take Action: Contact Your State Senator!

State Senator James B. Eldridge, Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, has agreed to file an amendment in the Senate Budget to allocate $2.2 million to line item 7004-0104 for Home & Healthy for Good supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals.
 
Please take a moment to call your state senator and ask him or her to co-sponsor this important amendment. To find out who your senator is, click here or contact Caitlin Golden at cgolden@mhsa.net or 617-367-6447 ext. 28. When you speak with your senator, please ask him or her to call the office of Chairman James B. Eldridge at 617-722-1120 and sign on as a co-sponsor to this amendment. The proposed deadline for amendments is Friday at 5 pm, so it is important to take action now.

For more information about Home & Healthy for Good, click here.

Crittenton Women’s Union Advocacy Alert: You’re invited to attend a public hearing on the impact of for-profit schools on Boston residents

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley has called for a public hearing on the impact of for-profit schools on Boston residents.

The hearing will be held:

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
11:00 a.m.
Christopher A. Iannella Chamber
Boston City Hall

The Boston City Council has heard from individual constituents and organization, such as Crittenton Women’s Union, about the low graduation rates and high level of student loan defaults experienced at for-profit schools. The Council is seeking public comment on how to provide improved information and protection to students in the city.

CWU encourages you to share your ideas and experiences.  If you are interested in testifying in person or providing written testimony, please contact Chelsea Sedani at 617.259.2936 or csedani@liveworkthrive.org

Click here to access a testimony template.

Advocacy Alert from The Workforce Solutions Group

The House Ways and Means budget was released last week and funding for teen jobs and other workforce priorities were cut.

We need to rally everyone to ask their representatives to vote for these important amendments!  Budget caucuses will be held April 23-26 and we want to ask legislators to attend the ones on Workforce Development, Adult Ed and Youth Jobs to vote for these amendments!

Here are the amendments:

• Amendment 826 to re-capitalize the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund at $10 million
• Amendments 294, 325, 539 to level fund One Stop career centers
• Amendments 404, 339, and 866 to restore and increase YouthWorks Youth Jobs Program
• Amendments 447, 366 to fund School-to-Career Connecting Activities
• Amendments 23 and 775 to restore the Shannon Anti Violence grants
• Amendment 856 to restore the Education Rewards Grant Program
• Amendments 234 & 299 to level fund Adult Basic Education & ESOL.

Please call us with any questions and let us know any feedback you hear from legislators.   

Thanks as always for your champion advocacy!

Advocacy Alert from the National Alliance to End Homeless – Ask Congress to Support President’s Proposed 17% Increase to HUD’s McKinney-Vento Programs

The President has proposed that Congress provide $2.23 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2013 for HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants – a 17 percent increase over FY 2012. Now, it’s up to us to ensure Congress follows through on the recommendation.

Please join us in writing letters to the Massachusetts Legislative Delegation to ask them to support a funding level of $2.23 billion for HUD’s McKinney-Vento programs. Without an increase in funding, communities across the Commonwealth won’t be able to continue existing CoC and ESG activities.

Representatives have until March 20 (and Senators until March 23) to submit a list of their official funding priorities to the HUD Appropriations Subcommittee. So, we need YOUR help to convince them to include a request for $2.23 billion for HUD’s McKinney-Vento programs.

What You Can Do:

Write a letter! Ask your colleagues and clients to write letters, too! Click here for a letter template.

Why is this important? When Should You Act?

To have the greatest impact, we want everyone to send letters at the same time, from now through March 20. Congress just began making decisions about funding levels for federal programs, so NOW is the time to start influencing our Members of Congress so we can make sure they prioritize funding for HUD’s McKinney-Vento programs.

The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) made a HUGE difference in communities across the Commonwealth. But with HPRP set to expire and the effects of the recession still lingering, we need further federal investment to keep homelessness from rising, to continue funding existing ESG and CoC activities, and to implement the HEARTH Act, with its focus on proven solutions like homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing, and permanent supportive housing.

Want more information? Have questions? Contact Kate Seif at the National Alliance to End Homelessness at cseif@naeh.org.

Because of your particular interest in Continuum of Care programs, the National Alliance to End Homelessness is writing to make sure you know about a vote coming up on HR 32, a bill to expand access to the Continuum of Care programs to those who are currently living doubled up with friends and family by expanding the HUD definition of homelessness. The Alliance is strongly opposed to HR 32, as it aims to meet the needs of doubled up children in the worst possible way – by diverting CoC resources away from those who are literally homeless, sleeping in shelters or on the streets, and applying them to families able to rely on friends or family.

What’s Happening?

Tomorrow, February 7, the Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee will vote on HR 32, which would expand the HUD definition of homelessness to include people who qualify under several other federal definitions, including the one used by the Department of Education. Click here to access full text of the bill.

Why is the Alliance Opposed?

The legislation is well-intentioned but would have disastrous consequences. It would make an estimated additional 2.35 million children (and their parents) eligible to receive transitional housing and permanent supportive housing without providing any additional resources to serve them. We believe strongly in the importance of matching the most intensive interventions to the people with the most intensive needs. We believe that other affordable housing programs – including Section 8 and public housing – need to do a better job of serving people who are doubled up, but that the CoC programs are designed to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable people who have literally no other place to turn and who have fallen through every single other safety net (both public and private).

As you all know only too well, there are insufficient resources to serve even those currently defined as homeless. Expanding program eligibility would hurt the most vulnerable people who literally have no roof over their head. Resources cannot be expected to expand to meet this nearly seven-fold increase in the number of children counted as homeless. As a result, every CoC dollar spent on someone living with family or friends is a dollar NOT spent on someone sleeping on the streets, in shelter, or in places not meant for human habitation.

In addition, as you know, under the HEARTH Act, all people who meet other federal definitions of homelessness are eligible for homelessness prevention assistance. The new definition has only been in effect for a month, and it is far too soon to throw out a new, compromise definition without seeing how it plays out.

What Can I Do?

Please contact your representatives’ DC offices and explain the drawbacks of HR 32 – especially if your representative sits on the subcommittee that will be voting on the issue tomorrow. Please feel free to share this one-page policy brief with congressional staff.

We know this is a controversial issue, but we are deeply concerned that this bill will have the unintended consequence of taking CoC resources like transitional housing and permanent supportive housing away from the people they were designed for – people who are literally homeless and have very intensive service and housing needs – by giving them to people who are currently in housing.

One Family will be participating in the Affordable Housing Call-in Day on December 14^th to ask the Governor to increase investment in affordable housing.  Here is a brief message to share with your allies, residents and colleagues:

Please contact Governor Patrick on December 14^th by calling 617.725.4005 or emailing the Governor with one simple message: increase investment in affordable housing in FY2013.  Here is a sample script:

“This is [name] calling from [organization] in [town/city].  I am calling to ask the Governor to increase funding for affordable housing in the FY2013 budget. High housing costs and home losses are hurting our communities.  Working families, seniors, and persons with disabilities all need affordable housing to be healthy and productive, and for children to be able to learn.  Thank you for your support for affordable housing.”