The National Alliance to End Homelessness provided this update in their newsletter on Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010:
On Monday, President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget request. The proposal will move next to Congress where the House and Senate must approve the final budget.
Among the budget items is a $190 million (10 percent) increase in McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, to $2.055 billion. Included in this figure is $200 million for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). Though this marks a $40 million increase from the FY 2010 level, it falls short of what would be allocated to ESG if the HEARTH Act was fully implemented.
President Obama’s proposal would also combine Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing vouchers with funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mainstream programs to serve approximately 10,000 homeless or at-risk households. Forty percent of these vouchers would be allocated for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers to serve chronically homeless individuals who are enrolled in certain Medicaid programs. The remaining 6,000 vouchers would target homeless families. Applicants for this assistance would have to demonstrate how they are coordinating the vouchers with state TANF assistance. To best target these families, the Department of Education would help identify at-risk families through its network of homeless liaisons.
Also noteworthy is a substantial increase in funding for programs serving homeless veterans, rising by $265 million (50 percent) from $534 million to $799 million. The budget also extends supplemental funding for the TANF emergency Contingency fund for an additional year, giving States up to $2.5 billion for short-term emergency assistance.
The Alliance has published a FY 2011 Budget Proposal Chart, which provides information about the funding level in President Obama’s Budget Proposal for numerous key homelessness and housing programs. For each program, it shows how much funding was appropriated in FY 2009 and FY 2010, as well as how much President Obama requested in his FY 2011 budget proposal. The chart also notes whether the President’s Proposal represents an increase or decrease and by how much. The Alliance has also published a FY 2011 Budget Rundown, which provides additional details on many of these programs.
