On July 13, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity held a hearing on the Samaritan Initiative Act (H.R. 4057). Sponsored by Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), the measure would authorize $70 million for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development to provide grants for permanent housing linked with support services for the chronically homeless, including health care, life skills, job training, and substance abuse treatment. President Bush requested $10 million for the Samaritan Initiative in FY2005.
Chairing the hearing, Rep. Renzi explained that the new pilot program is necessary to assist close to 200,000 chronically homeless individuals in the United States. In a press release, he stated, “Communities need to have the resources available to provide bundled services, integrating health care, psychiatric evaluation and substance abuse counseling while simultaneously providing secure and adequate housing to better assist the ‘chronically homeless.’”
Explaining that a majority of the chronically homeless in Los Angeles are African American, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) stated, “We have a crisis, and the problems are getting worse.” She argued that the plight of the chronically homeless cannot be separated from the issues of poverty and affordable housing, and expressed her dismay that the administration’s budget would cut $1.6 billion from the Section 8 voucher program. With regard to H.R. 4057, Rep. Waters expressed her concern that families with children would not be eligible for the pilot program.
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano said that research has shown that the chronically homeless typically suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental or physical disability, or a substance abuse problem. He also noted that the chronically homeless represent 10 percent of the overall homeless population, but consume 50 percent of all emergency shelter resources. “Contrary to public perception, people living long term on the streets or in shelters are some of the most costly citizens in the community,” he stated, adding, “They ricochet around the acute side of very expensive behavioral and primary health care systems and often through correctional institutions. While the research in this area is limited, several studies indicate that the cost of housing chronic homeless people are nearly offset in savings in mainstream health system, law enforcement and correctional costs.”
Mr. Mangano said that the Samaritan Initiative “authorizes new federal resources aimed directly at our nation’s streets, focused on those who are most likely to be living on the street, disabled, and at risk of death and those living long term in our shelters.” He also explained that the initiative streamlines the grant process for federal agencies and grantees so that grantees “will not be faced with four separate grant agreements or have to abide by reporting requirements for four separate agencies.” Mr. Mangano expressed the administration’s expectation that the Samaritan Initiative would “result in fewer expenditures on emergency services for [the chronically homeless] population, and enable resources to be shifted to other populations among homeless people.”
James Mauck, president and CEO of Catholic Charities and Community Services in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, focused his testimony on the needs of homeless families with children, stating, “Because members of these families often suffer from domestic violence or sexual abuse, mental illness, chronic substance abuse, and other disabling conditions, intensive support services, in addition to housing assistance, play a crucial role in helping them to stabilize, improve their well-being, and make progress towards self-reliance.” Explaining that families with children account for 40 percent of the homeless population utilizing assistance programs in the United States, he offered a number of statistics to profile homeless families: · 21 percent of homeless mothers with children report having been homeless at least 3 times; · 34 percent of homeless mothers report that they have been homeless for a period of 7 to 60 months; and 5 percent report having been homeless for over 5 years; · 16 percent of homeless parents are fleeing domestic violence or abuse; · 32 percent of homeless women have experienced recent domestic violence; and · 58 percent of homeless parents report mental health or substance abuse problems.
Mr. Mauck explained that homelessness has a “devastating” impact on children: “Children experiencing homelessness suffer from poor nutrition, inadequate health care, [and] greater exposure to environmental hazards like lead poisoning; as a result, they have high rates of both acute and chronic health problems. They also struggle with school. Children experiencing homelessness are diagnosed with learning disabilities at twice the rate of other children. And they suffer from emotional or behavioral problems that interfere with learning at almost three times the rate of other children.” Mr. Mauck also noted that 12 percent of homeless children end up in the foster care system, stating, “Our public policy should promote family stability, not force children into the overburdened child welfare system.”
With regard to the Samaritan Initiative, Mr. Mauck expressed his concern that the policy changes would result in homeless families having less access to “crucial” services, such as substance abuse treatment and mental health care. He recommended that the bill be amended to expand eligibility to homeless families with children, individuals who have been homeless for less than a year, and families “lacking fixed, regular, or otherwise adequate housing, even if they are not living on the street or in a shelter.”
Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver, Colorado explained that the city of Denver is developing a 10-year plan to end homelessness, but the challenge is to find and secure funding for the proposal. He said that the Samaritan Initiative would help the city by providing new and sustainable funding to help reduce the number of chronically homeless persons on the streets and in shelters; by saving money spent on emergency medical care, hospitalization, and law enforcement costs related to chronic homelessness; by fostering increased collaboration among stakeholders at the local level; by reducing administrative burdens through a streamlined application and grant process; and by improving access for chronically homeless persons to housing, primary health care, substance abuse and mental health treatment, and other services that “can really lead them to the stability, recovery and self-sufficiency that they deserve.” Although supportive of the bill, Mayor Hickenlooper argued that funding for the Samaritan Initiative must be new and separate from existing programs. “We cannot afford to supplant federal funding currently earmarked for existing housing and homeless programs that are critical to our cities,” he stated, adding, “The Samaritan Initiative is complementary to, not a substitute for, core homeless programs and Section 8 vouchers, which are essential for assuring that permanent affordable housing is available for the rest of the homeless population, including families and children.”
Barbara Poppe, executive director of the Community Shelter Board of Franklin County, Ohio, profiled the homeless families in the Franklin County shelter: “An analysis of families served by the shelter found that the average family consist[s] of a single African American mother with two children. The average monthly income of families served is $625, or 48% of the poverty level of $15,670 for a family of three, with 20% earning income from employment at entry. Approximately 70% of families served in emergency shelter move to permanent or transitional housing. However, the number of families returning to shelter increased to 16% in 2003 from no more than 10% in recent years. Both the increase in [the] number of families seeking shelter and the increase in the number returning after housing placement highlights the worsening plight for homeless families in Franklin County, exacerbated by the general lack of affordable housing, limited incomes and other unmet health and welfare needs of predominantly single parent households.”
Ms. Poppe explained that Franklin County has established the Family Housing Collaborative as an alternative to traditional homeless shelter services. The goal of the program “is to quickly place a homeless family in a permanent apartment. Services include housing search assistance to help a family locate housing and providing assistance with [the] deposit, several months’ rent, and utility arrearages. The services continue until the family is stabilized in their new home.” Ms. Poppe said that, as a result of private partnerships, the program has had a success rate of greater than 95 percent.
