NAHRO's CD Edge

Welcome to NAHRO's CD Edge, our free e-newsletter focused on federal community development programs.

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In This Issue:

FY 2008 Appropriations Update
New HUD Homelessness Data Raise Questions
HUD Releases New CDBG Toolkits on Crosscutting Issues
HUD Publishes New HOMEfires
HOME Technical Assistance Needs Assessment

While members of the House debated the conference report, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) on H.R. 3074 that conveyed the President's intention to veto the conferenced bill if and when it reaches his desk. The President's veto threat is based on the fact that H.R. 3074 exceeds by $3.1 billion the President's FY 2008 budget request for all programs contained in the bill. Overriding a Presidential veto requires a two-thirds vote; of those members of the House who cast votes last night, 62 percent voted in favor of the conference report.

Of the twelve FY 2008 appropriations bills, only the Department of Defense spending measure has become law. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3042) passed both houses of Congress but was vetoed by the President. House Democrats' November 15 attempt to override the veto fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed.

The Senate is widely expected to take up the THUD conference report after it returns from the Thanksgiving recess, but there are no guarantees. Democratic leaders recently floated a new appropriations strategy that would split the difference between what Congressional appropriators and the President are seeking in discretionary spending totals for FY 2008. There is speculation that the Senate may forego consideration of the THUD conference report now that some Democrats have already revealed a willingness to reduce overall spending levels.

Although the ultimate fate of the conference report remains uncertain, action will be required soon. The Congress recently approved a new continuing resolution (CR) to keep certain federal programs, including those administered by HUD, operating at FY 2007 levels, but only through December 14. The new CR was attached to the Defense appropriations bill, which was signed by the President on November 13. The 2008 fiscal year began October 1.

Highlights of the Conference Report

The conferenced version of H.R. 3074 includes mostly positive news regarding HUD's community development programs. The bill as approved by House and Senate conferees rejects the administration's proposal to reduce CDBG formula funding by 25 percent, opting instead to provide a modest increase. H.R. 3074 features increases for the Homeless Assistance Grants and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program, but provides only a trivial increase in funding for the HOME Program. The bill also provides funding for a number of economic development programs targeted for elimination by the administration.

The conference report signals the Congress's continued resistance to the President's proposal to slash funding for CDBG formula grants. The conferenced bill funds the Community Development (CD) Fund - the account that includes the CDBG program - at $4.0 billion. CDBG formula grants are funded at $3.79 billion (including insular areas), a 2 percent increase over the FY 2006 and 2007 appropriated levels of $3.711 billion. The president's FY 2007 budget requested just $3.032 billion for the CD Fund for FY 2008, including $2.775 billion for CDBG formula grants after accounting for a proposed $200 million set-aside for so-called "challenge grants." NAHRO has consistently called for $4.5 billion in CDBG formula grant funding.

Set-asides under the CD Fund in the conferenced bill include $62 million for the Native American Housing and Economic Development Block Grant, $183.5 million for Economic Development Initiative (EDI) earmarks, and $26.5 million for neighborhood initiative earmarks. EDI and neighborhood initiative earmarks were funded at a total of $360 million for FY 2006. No such earmarks were included in H.J. Res. 20, which provided FY 2007 funding for HUD programs. The conferenced FY 2008 spending bill specifies that unobligated FY 2006, 2007, and 2008 EDI grants may be used only for "acquisition, planning, design, purchase of equipment, revitalization, redevelopment or construction."

In their report accompanying the bill, conferees encourage HUD to develop CDBG program guidance to ensure "compliance with federal statutory restrictions on job relocation." This language is a direct response to a recent Government Accountability Office report on so-called "job-pirating" that examined 17 federal economic development programs (including CDBG) "that offer financial assistance and services that state and local governments can use as incentives to attract and retain jobs."

Funding for Economic Development Programs Preserved

Conferees have provided $4.5 million for the Section 108 loan guarantee program, an amount that would subsidize up to $205 million in guaranteed community development loans. The bill also provides $10 million for the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) and $17 million for the Rural Housing and Economic Development (RHED) Program. The administration's FY 2008 budget argued that these programs are duplicative of CDBG and proposed eliminating all three.

NAHRO members: For NAHRO's complete summary of the conference report, including coverage of HOME, homeless assistance grants, and eminent domain, see our November 14 and November 15 Direct News. Direct News is NAHRO's members-only email service providing breaking news and information on federal housing and community development programs.

During a November 7 press conference HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson referenced point-in-time counts recently released by HUD and conducted by Continuums of Care (CoCs) located in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Territories in 2005 and 2006, while announcing a 12 percent reduction in the reported number of chronically homeless persons. According to the point-in-time data, the number of chronically homeless persons reported by CoCs declined from 175,914 in 2005 to 155,623 in 2006.

Highlighting an apparent reduction in the overall number of chronic homeless persons does not tell the entire story on the state of homelessness in America. NAHRO's own analysis of the new HUD data revealed that the total number of homeless persons who were not chronically homeless actually increased from 587,096 in 2005 to 603,478 in 2006, assuming the 2005 and 2006 CoC point-in-time counts are accurate. Meanwhile, the number of unsheltered chronically homeless persons identified through the counts was largely unchanged, dropping from 103,993 in 2005 to 102,258 to 2006. This means that the apparent drop in the overall chronic homelessness count highlighted by HUD is almost entirely attributable to a reduction in the reported number of chronically homeless persons in emergency shelters or transitional housing, since residents of both emergency shelters and transitional housing are classified as "sheltered" for the purposes of the CoC counts.

Issues remain concerning the reported reduction in chronic homelessness. According to the Department's own November 7 press release, HUD's "analysis found that more than 20,000 persons moved from the streets into transitional and permanent supportive housing between 2005 and 2006." The press release argued that this "reduction in the number of chronically homeless persons can be directly attributed to the investment HUD and local [CoCs] are devoting to create more permanent supportive housing units." The release goes on to state that HUD awarded $286 million to local programs focused on chronic homelessness in the last year, and that this investment produced 4,000 new units of permanent supportive housing.

While this is a positive development, the number of units created falls short of the number of new units that would be needed to place each of the "more than 20,000 persons [who] moved from the streets" into supportive housing, meaning that a substantial number of these individuals must have instead moved from the streets into transitional housing. Again, this conclusion is seemingly at odds with the fact that while the CoC data show almost no reduction in the number of unsheltered chronically homeless individuals, they do show a decline in the number of chronically homeless individuals in either emergency shelters or transitional housing.

The CoC point-in-time counts also reveal increases in other homeless subpopulations, some of which could reasonably be expected to overlap with the chronically homeless. For example, the data show a modest increase in both the number of homeless individuals who are severely mentally ill and those with chronic substance abuse problems. The data also indicate an increase in the number of homeless victims of domestic violence, while the number of homeless veterans remained essentially unchanged.

As NAHRO recently reported through its members-only Direct News, the CoC counts identified 71,269 homeless veterans either in shelters or on the streets in 2005. For 2006, the number of homeless veterans reported was 71,900. Significantly, the number of unsheltered veterans rose from 26,814 to 29,785. Meanwhile, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) recently issued its own report in which it claims approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night in 2006.

Various media outlets have reported on concerns over the methodology used to build the CoC point-in-time counts. According to local officials and homeless advocacy organizations, HUD has made changes to the methods communities are to use when estimating the extent of homelessness within their borders. HUD's own press release admits that "quantifying homelessness is challenging to researchers both in and out of government," and that while HUD continues to collect point-in-time data, "new data collection techniques" are being implemented.

Additional Highlights of the New HUD Data

The new HUD data conclude there were nearly 760,000 homeless persons in the United States in January 2006, a count that aligns closely with other recent estimates of the American homeless population. Earlier this year HUD released what it called its "first-ever Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress," in which the department estimated that 754,000 people are homeless in the United States on any given night. That report, released on February 28, was HUD's first official homelessness count in 23 years and relied upon a geographically representative sampling of 80 communities that have implemented Homeless Management Information Systems.

On January 10, 2007, NAEH released a report which it described as "the first national assessment of the number of homeless people in over a decade." The NAEH report, entitled Homelessness Counts, was also a compilation of point-in-time counts collected by local Continuums of Care. This report estimated there were 744,313 people homeless in January 2005.

According to the October 15 HUD data release, CoCs reported a total point-in-time count of 748,831 homeless individuals in shelters or on the streets in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with over 306,000 of those being persons in family households with children. The new release identifies an additional 10,270 homeless individuals in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Territories.

Of the 759,101 total homeless individuals identified by CoCs, 331,130 were unsheltered. Of the total unsheltered homeless population identified through the point-in-time counts, 102,843, or 31 percent, were persons in family households with children. CoCs identified an additional 203,678 homeless persons in family households with children among the populations in emergency and transitional shelters. The CoCs also identified over 29,000 unaccompanied youths less than 18 years old who are homeless, with over 9,000 of those youths unsheltered.

Counts involving families and unaccompanied youths are notable because of the administration's current emphasis on ending chronic homelessness. HUD defines a chronically homeless person as "an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more, or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years." That definition specifically excludes the nearly 100,000 homeless family households (including nearly 32,000 unsheltered families) identified in the October 15 data release, many of which might otherwise meet the definition of chronically homeless if not for the presence of children.

Congress is currently considering at least two legislative approaches to reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs. The Senate Banking Committee recently approved S. 1518, the Community Partnerships to End Homelessness Act, which would expand the definition of chronic homelessness to include families in which the head of household has a disability and the household otherwise meets the criteria to be considered chronically homeless. Under S. 1518's expanded definition, the head of household could be an unaccompanied youth. S 1518 would require that 30 percent of McKinney-Vento funding be set aside for permanent supportive housing targeting "homeless individuals with disabilities and homeless families that include such an individual who is an adult or a minor head of household if no adult is present in the household."

NAHRO has expressed support for H.R. 840, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act. That bill does not define chronic homelessness but instead broadens the general HUD definition of homelessness in a way that would align it with the definition employed by a number of other federal agencies. H.R. 840 does not include the 30 percent set-aside for permanent supportive housing. NAHRO has consistently opposed the 30 percent set-aside for permanent supportive housing, arguing that communities are in the best position to decide how to target limited federal resources.

According to HUD's website, CPD's Office of Block Grant Assistance has provided a number of trainings based on the modules over the past year. After receiving positive feedback from session participants, HUD officials placed the modules online in order to make them available to all grantees.

As of this writing, only the first three modules (Financial Management and Procurement, Environmental Review, and Federal Labor Standards) were available for download. Section 508-compliant PDFs are also available. Modules 4 and 5 (Acquisition and Relocation, and Fair Housing and Non-discrimination, respectively) will be posted "as soon as possible."

HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development has published a new edition of its HOMEfires series on the Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program. The new issue focuses on the ability of participating jurisdictions (PJs) to use HOME funds for projects outside their boundaries.