Transcripts For CSPAN2 Advocates For The Homeless Testify On Solutions 20220802

Transportation and Committee Development will come to order. This hearing is in hybrid format. We will have witnesses testifying both in person and by video and senators may appear in person or by video as well. I want to thank senator rounds for join in this bipartisan hearing focusing on issue of homelessness. Senator rounds found out late yesterday i think that he is needed at an important markup of the Foreign Relations committee so you will be able to stay for the entire subcommittee which we understand, and thank you for being here. And thank you also to our panelist, those of you in person as well as of those of you joining virtually for being here today. So without a safe decent affordable place to live, nothing in yourr life works. Its nearly impossible to maintain a job, go to school or stay healthy. Based on data from 2020, almost 600,000 americans experience homelessness on any given night. This number, 61 of those experiencing homelessness are sheltered and another 39 are unsheltered. Homelessness is a significant challenge in our country, and getting worse. While Current National data is sparse, we know the number of people experiencing homelessness already too high begin writing again around 2015 and, of course, the pandemic is only exacerbated the challenges that individuals and families face. But addressing homelessness is an area ofin bipartisan interest in the senate. For example, senator bennet and senator portman along with our full Committee Chair senator brown have introduced the eviction crisis act which would direct assistance to families who are most at risk of losing their homes and help prevent families from becoming homeless. Their bill draws on the lessons of the pandemic and i look forward hearing from our witnesses to about that important i partisan measure. I know several other colleagues on the subcommittee had been working on important bills to address homelessness and many of them bipartisan. Senator van hollen leads legislation with senator young to provide opportunities for family mobility. Senator reed and senator collins have worked together for years to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on homelessness. While its outside the jurisdiction, senator cantwell and senator young have had a built reform and expendable Income Housing tax credit. These examples illustrate the bipartisan important work happen in the senate and a look for to hearing from the Witnesses Today about these pieces of legislation and how we can work with going to try to advance some of these measures. It also must be acknowledged that the biggest factor in the rise in homelessness is a severe shortage of Affordable Housing and thek lack of housing suppl. People sometimes have the misunderstanding that folks in the unhoused because the experience mentalta illness or Substance Use disorder when the reality is that most people become ill because they dont have a safe, affordable place to live. In my view the answers to provide shelter and Housing First and the support services that are necessary to help people get stable and healthy. The backup to the issue of homelessness is that our nation is facing an Affordable Housing crisis. , not one state in our country has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for the lowest income rentals. Renters. For the 1. 8 million in families with extremely low incomes in the United States there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes. This is an incredibly alarming problem. The challenge, finding and keeping a safe, affordable place to live israel in every part, urban is real, and every part, urban, rural and suburban. My home state of minnesota, while native americans make about 1 of the adult population, the 2018 state study found native americans make up 12 of the adults experiencing homelessness. The experience of native people in tribes around homelessness led me to partner with the Ranking Member of the Indian Affairs committee to write and pass our bipartisan tribal access to homeless assistance act, which makes tribes eligible for department of housing and urban Development Homeless assistant funds to the continuum of care program. We are focusing on implementing this on hope to hear what we can do to make sure it is successful. Homelessness remains a significant challenge for veterans. No one who serves our country should ever find themselves without a safe, decent place to call their home. Efforts have charlie reduce the rate of sharply reduced the rate of homelessness among veterans. Senator rounds, i look forward to working on this issue with you. Homelessness is not only housing crisis but also a Public Health crisis. As like the lack of housing exacerbates, so do challenges. The covid19 Public Health emergency created new challenges for on house people, both for People Living in congregate shelters where there were deep worries about safety in Public Health as well as people without any shelter though at all. Cares act provided billions of dollars in emergency solution grants, assistance and homeowner assistance to help people avoid foreclosure and to keep them in their homes. This emergency funded directed to states and local providers made a huge difference, keeping people healthy, safe and sheltered. And it created opportunities for Community Organizations to improvise, innovate. Much of that funding is now coming to an end. I hope today, we can hear both, what we have learned from the last two years in terms of Innovative Strategies that have worked in also what our experience has been and what it tells us about the importance of Adequate Funding for homeless prevention efforts. I often hear from people in this field is that we know what to do we just needed the will to fix it. We have data driven strategies that have proven effective in addressing homelessness in recent years. We have seen this in addressing veteran homelessness in the state of minnesota. The model builds on what we know. If you dont have a state a safe and stable place, it is hard to get a job or the health care you need. It has been successful in reducing homelessness in many parts of the country and i believe we should build on its success. Addressing homelessness has been an issue that republicans and democrats share concerns about. I hope we can find concrete steps to address the challenge with a comprehensive approach, effective strategies and the resources we need. Thank you and i now turn to senator rounds for your Opening Statements. Sen rounds i will apologize for having to leave early. We have the markup session into nato for sweden and finland this afternoon this is one we want to move forward on really quickly. I would like to think our witnesses for taking the time to be here today. Especially jamie who was coming to us from rapid city, south dakota this afternoon. From sioux falls to washington dc, americans are experiencing growing housing and security read homelessness implicates several critical issues. America has a huge shortage of america can affordable homes, addiction, Domestic Abuse and violence. The need goes beyond just a safe place to stay. Individuals also need supportive services, whether it is clinical health, Case Management, so they can break the cycle of homelessness. That is why organizations like a journey on, which is successfully working in rapid city, as well as the dope fund in new york have expanded array of services that are successful in going well beyond the shelter. Journey on partners with Law Enforcement in rapid city, south dakota, to provide social services in case work and is meant o management for calls to unsheltered individuals. They have run into mild miles of government red tape. Even when they have received dollars, the money is too long to receive. We should be removing barriers to address homelessness not creating new ones. Over the last decade, it has pursued Housing First, two help individuals obtain stable housing as quickly as possible without barriers or preconditions. The Housing First model often ignores the underlying causes of homelessness. And are only proven to being effective at curbing homelessness at the individual level rather than at the Broader Community level. Hud, now allocates 75 of all competitive grants to permanent Supportive Housing projects, even though these projects were intended to serve a portion of the total Homeless Population who are chronically homeless. The sole reliance of Housing First has prevented federal assistance for any alternative approaches by Housing Providers that may at her address local Housing Needs that may better address local Housing Needs. Operation wide, it is a study of how federal policy, disadvantages federal organizations who have made strides in providing stable housing, dignified work and like Life Coaching to improve their clients lives. And analysis of the work found in 2020, 80 2 82 percent of graduates and maintained their jobs month after leaving the program. The average starting wage of 16. 60 for every dollar, new york city taxpayer spent on the program, they save an average of 3. 60 in costs from Emergency City Services and criminal justice costs. These successes raise serious questions of how we prioritize federal funding. Although Housing First model may be effective in some cases, a onesizefitsall solution is not the answer. We should, instead give it communities flexibility to implement interventions that address their issues. We also need greater at local level accountability with the continuum of care funding distribution model, used by hud to make sure homeless dollars are used help those with the greatest needs. Untargeted Government Spending is inappropriate, at a time of elevated inflation. Hud should put into place Performance Measures that indicate whether the program is succeeding or failing in reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness veterans represent a unique subgroup of the entire Homeless Population, as they are eligible for specialized federal programs and benefits, despite tremendous success in reducing the number of Homeless Veterans, tangible impediments remain for this group. Including a severe shortage of affordable homes, under underutilization of vouchers and a lack of a v. A. Support and medical staff. Every single veteran should have a place to call home, which is why i have sponsored legislation like the reducing of veterans homelessness act which would make much needed improvements to both the hud group and the programs to make sure every veteran has the resources they needed to find a home. Nationwide, native americans have the highest rate of homelessness according to the National Alliance to end homelessness, 2020 state of the homeless report. For those native americans who live on the reservation, traditional homelessness tends to not be as big of a problem as under housing and overcrowding. According to a 2017 urban institute report, 16 of tribal area households were overcrowded and 6 were severely overcrowded. Overall, there is a major lack of reliable data and research on native homelessness and overcrowding. It is something hud should prioritize. I want to think madam chair for holding this important hearing and i look forward to this discussion on how to address homelessness in america. Especially among our native and veteran population. This is one area republicans and democrats really do Work Together in a bipartisan fashion. It one area we can find additional success. Thank you, madam chair. Sen. Smith thank you. I am now going to introduce our witnesses. I will introduce all five of you and then turn to each to make your opening statement. We have three witnesses who are with us in person today. We have the chief executive officer of the National Alliance to end homelessness. We have the cofounder and bo president board president of work works america. We have the chief executive officer for National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and joining us remotely we have the assistant commissioner and executive director of the minnesota Interagency Council on homelessness and the board member from journey on based in rapid city. Welcome, thank you all for your willingness to speak today and i look or to hearing from each of you. Before you begin your Opening Statements i have a few reminders. For witnesses and senators joining us by video, once you start speaking there will be a slight delay before you are displayed on the screen. To minimize background noise, click the mute button until it is your turn to speak. We should all have one box on your screen labeled clock that will show you how much time is remaining. For all witnesses you will have five minutes for your Opening Statements, your old written statement will be made part of the record. For all senators, the fiveminute clock applies to your questions. If there are any Technology Issues we will move onto the next witness. Senators, we will have the opportunity for everybody task all your questions to the portion of the hearing. I will now turn it to ms. Oliva for Opening Statements. Members of the subcommittee, i am the ceo of the National Alliance to end homelessness and the board member of true colors united. Thank you for having me. I want to commend the subcommittee for the housing related relief measures during the pandemic. I am going to talk about the positive results of those investments momentarily. First, i want to start with the data. All the reliable evidence tells us the situation for people experiencing homelessness is incredibly urgent. The homelessness crisis, which predates the pandemic, will persist without serious intervention. In 2020, hud reported to unfortunate first. We saw an increase in the number of people on and families living unsheltered. And we saw the number of individuals living on the street, exceed the number of individuals living in shelters for the first time. More than 580 thousand people experience homelessness on a signal night in january of 2020. 580 thousand people experienced homelessness on a single night in january 2020. People of color and marginalized people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness. Families experiencing homelessness are headed by women, many are headed by young parents. They include High Percentage of young children. Youth, veterans and adults experiencing chronic homelessness arc suffering on our streets and in our shelters every day. Data shows that more than half of sheltered people and 40 of unsheltered people, work but still cant afford housing. Most continuums of care that we surveyed believed that unsheltered homelessness has increased. Our information from the field indicates that the number of families experiencing homelessness seemed to have decreased during the pandemic. This is likely the result of pandemic relief measures like the Child Tax Credit, unemployment supplements, rental assistance, the Eviction Moratorium and other effects the federal government took to help low income families from the impact of the pandemic. Those programs worked. But as those policies and investments and, end at the same time we see rents skyrocket nationwide, we can expect to see negative consequences if we fail to act. Skyrocketing rents make it harder for low income people to stay in their homes, create even greater challenges for people exiting incarceration or the child where first system welfare system. The inability of people to afford housing is the major driver of homelessness. People experiencing homelessness do want and need other resources, like health and Behavioral Health services and Employment Services. But, a safe, stable and affordable place to live ends homelessness and provides the foundation for achieving other life goals. The Housing Investments made as part of the Pandemic Response help people across the country keep or get into housing. About three point 8 million households received emergency rental assistance so they could stay in their home. 90 of the 70,000 emergency housing vouchers for households experiencing or at risk of homelessness. We can learn from what has worked and what hasnt as we look to the future but given the circumstances we know these programs are not enough. We are facing daunting challenges. Rising rents and low vacancy rent rates find keeping housing more difficult for homeless and atrisk people. Homeless systems report staffing challenges, like shortages, high turnover and burnout. Linking mainstream how and Behavior Health can be a challenge. Kamil is asian of people experiencing homelessness is criminalization of people expressing homelessness is rising. We know policy decisions and sustained investments at the National Level is critical. This includes protecting the Affordable Housing stock we have, increasing supply, increasing affordability by expanding the Housing Program and making the services that people want and need more accessible. Further, it means supporting evidence based as choice for healing from the trauma of homelessness. It means partnering with people 12 live the experience so that the changes are informed by expertise. The information we have tells us the public wants an end to homelessness, not by criminalizing people, but by implementing sound housing and Service Solutions so people can thrive. We know how to do that. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Sen. Smith thank you very much. We will turn to our next witness. Thank you so much to the committee for hosting today. I am the cofounder and board chair of work works america. I have worked in direct Service Since 1998 in new york, philadelphia, and metro denver colorado. Im here to talk about the work works model as an example of how we need to expand our toolkit to address homelessness in cities across this country. Thank you for my fellow witness and for both senator smith and senator rounds for your introduction. I do not need to tag on more around the need. But what i do want to talk about a solutions and what we need to do to expand our response. The work works model was founded 30 years ago. It has since been scaled to six communities nationwide. We regularly get requests for many more. We are in atlanta, georgia, colorado, philadelphia and working in texas and maine. What we know is the combination of paid work and social enterprise, coupled with Transitional Base supported housing and support services is fundamental for people experiencing homelessness that are not qualifying or other resources. In a hud report, earlier this year, through the program, it was indicated that for adults experiencing homelessness, we only have 15 units for 100 people on the street. This is both an eligibility issue and availability issue. Yes, we need to expand access. But what i have seen, i Running Services on the ground, particularly in colorado where i found the ready to work program, we see that as a shelter provider, a third of people come in self resolved, we dont see them for more than a couple of days. And they are on their way. A third are eligible for a lot of the funded programs youve heard today, permanent Supportive Housing, and so forth. What about that middle third . This is where i ask you today to think about expanding our response. Most importantly, two key factors, looking at policy and expanding the ability to act quickly and swiftly with creative models. This means, flexibility about what we define as housing. There are people on the streets that would prefer to live in a tiny home. Frankly that can be much more practical to implement on the ground. Secondly, lets share a response with other players. The u. S. Interagency council on homelessness already has a format for doing that. Lets engage other agencies beyond it and others to look at these populations that are disproportionately represented in our Homeless Population across the country. Work works model is one example. It is a great example of how with creativity, we can leverage Publicprivate Partnership and bring models to cities across the country. The work works model is paid work and social enterprise. People are going to work, earning money, saving money and they are preparing to reenter the mainstream work hours force. We all know we have a labor shortage. Why dont we reach into marginalized communities with good better paying jobs to meet our labor needs . The second leg of the work works model is housing. In colorado we renovated Office Buildings into highquality dormitory housing with privacy as well as community space. We did it in 16 months in two different locations in colorado, renovating existing commercial real estate. That is something we should be looking at is another tool. It is wonderful to build from the ground up. But what about the cost, the timeline, and all of the issues . This is a model that is just one example of how we need to get creative. Lastly, connecting to supportive services. We see incredible challenges on the ground related to opioid use, related to all sorts of Behavioral Health concerns and the public crisis of being on the street. We can cut homelessness, the length of it, in, half or even less, or we can be swift and respond quickly if we have more tools in our toolkit. I asked this committee to think through those two key points. How can we look through our policies and expand our ability to act . How can we bring more players to the table . Our communities need it and we need to promote innovation on the ground because our communities know they need and they need more tools to be able to help them get there. Thank you so much. I look forward to your questions. Sen. Smith thank you very much. Thank you you for the opportunity to join you today. As you all know, 82 communities in three states have achieve the federal benchmark criteria for ending veteran homelessness. But, there were still 32,000 veterans homeless on any given night in 2020. When we think about how we got to that point, we know decreases in veteran homelessness were due to congressional investment and key federal programs, implementation of evidencebased solution like Housing First and dedicated coronation at the national and local level. Homelessness is caused by fundamental mismatch between the availability of Affordable Housing in communities market and an individuals ability to pay for that housing. This mismatch paired with the results of systemic and institutional racism has been the major driver for the housing and stability, particularly along among marginalized people and veterans alike. During the pandemic, what we saw in the space was that Homeless Service providers pivoted their programming, reimagine most possible for veterans, and they worked so hard to keep veterans in their Community Safe and moved on to permanent housing. The confluence of rising inflation rates and our economy and the Housing Affordability crisis we are seeing paired with the winding down of the pandemic assistance programs creates this perfect storm where we will see homelessness increase if we do nothing. In my opinion, now is the time we need to create permanency among programs, particularly those for v. A. That have continued on these 90 day extensions because they were authorized and that authorization is tied to the end of the public state or local health emergency. We need to continue to implement lessons we learned during the pandemic. We also need to double back to address persistent barriers that slow the housing process and perpetuate further equities prepandemic was not a great normal for many people who were facing housing stability. Homelessness is a symptom of those challenges. So, when we think about the growth of the unsheltered population we need to focus on Crisis Response Services Like shelter and outreach. We need to address the root causes. We need to think about how we can develop more Affordable Housing, address affordability, rather than thinking about ways we can utilize a Law Enforcement as the default response to the social problem. Housing affordability is the number one challenge that we hear from our members, who are working with veterans were exiting homelessness. Nationwide there approximately 36 affordable units for every 100 individuals. That is a recipe for disaster. The housing shortage has driven nationwide rent increases. We have seen that rents increased over 70 in 2021, by another 5 this year, until july 1. I think what we see is the shortage of units is really going to increase the risk and create a whole lot of pressure for folks out there who are looking for housing. So, i am telling you this again, invest in Affordable Housing housing please. Congressional support for v. A. s Homeless Program was great during the pandemic. It created flexibility and offered spending authorities to meet emergent needs and it wraps up the capacity of v. A. Programs during covid. But sufficient funding must be incorporated permanently into nonemergency appropriations and authorization caps to maintain our ability to respond effectively as we move away from covid specific emergency funding. The program, which is the transitional Housing Program, awarded two rows of Capitol Grounds grants. We think those grants should be continued. We feel the rate should be addressed. The maximum reimbursement rate will drop from 152 to 60 a day. That is a rate to provide overnight housing, meals and Wraparound Services for military veterans. We recommend you pass it to address these issues immediately. The program has recently been expanded, due to its success during the pandemic and we support its extension and recommend further studies to improve this program. I want to touch quickly on the program because it has been fairly successful at meeting the acute needs of veterans. I do think v. A. Has struggled with offering Case Management services to veterans. Despite the program successes, we think that there is more v. A. Can do to diversify options there and think about contracting and doing other things to staff up. The second challenge they are facing with this program is that, it is more challenging to use because of the housing affordable crisis and landlord stigma. Staffing for both v. A. And grants remain a challenge. There are only so many providers in any region and to a certain degree they are competing for the same amount of talent. So we do think Congress Needs to look at how they can support v. A. And providers to address this challenge. Thank you for your continued interest. Sen. Smith thank you so much. We will now turn mr. Chair . I am delighted that we are joined by the big chair of the banking housing committee. Thank you for being with us, senator brown. Sen brown thank you for your work on the Veterans Committee in your work with hud. I apologize for not being able to stay. I just wanted to stop by and think chair smith and Ranking Member rounds for the work they do. I appreciate them for that. Jack reed has been working on combating homelessness almost as long as a and i have been alive. [laughter] before we were in the senate. So thank you for that. This is a serious Public Health issue. Im hopeful we can address, if not in this reconciliation packaged on the road for sure. Sen. Smith thank you. Now, we will turn to our next witness who joins us remotely. I am delighted to have her join us. We have had the opportunity to Work Together in a variety of environments over the years. Welcome. Thank you very much. Chairwoman smith, Ranking Member rounds and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am the assistant commissioner and executive director of the interagency. Minnesota has a strong history of bipartisan leadership on homelessness. I worked on the issue for nearly 30 years and during the service in Public Policy roles i have witnessed projects, missed opportunities, Lessons Learned and heartbreak. We have, in this moment, critical opportunity to shift how we respond to homelessness. To see the crisis in the Public Health emergency that it is. I want to show you what is working in minnesota and what challenges remain. Minnesota is home to 87 counties and 11 tribal nations. Homelessness affect every part of the state. 8000 people are homeless on a given night. Half of families have children, and 20 are children without shelters living outside. 40 of all people identified as homeless or in rural parts of our state. One in four minnesota households pay more than they can afford for housing putting them at risk for homelessness. Over the last two decades, rents rose 21 , while incomes rose by just 3 . Homelessness shows the impact of racism. In minnesota if you are black, your 15 times more likely to be homeless than a white minnesota. If youre native american you are 27 27 times more likely to be homeless. Our work on homelessness has showed uneven progress, we have had engagement investment from all levels of government, weve had the greatest success. Our best proof that any homelessness preventing homelessness is possible as our work with the veteran homelessness. With dedicated resource research, the outcome has been stunning. We have ended veteran homelessness in 85 of minnesotas 87 counties. Being a veteran in minnesota is a protective factor for homelessness. I look forward to the day when being a child in protective factor, with Serious Health issues is a protective factor. In minnesota, we have increased resources for families with children, leading to a 32 decrease in family homelessness statewide starting in 2010. We credit these reductions to targeted prevention, courting nation with Employment Services and investments in families with the various very highest barriers. We have learned that all people are ready for housing. We need housing that is ready for them. The pandemic, while devastating and traumatic, was also a moment of great learning. Federal resources helped us save lives during the pandemic. Statewide, with established 2800 hotel rooms and other safe spaces to allow physical distance, emergency staffing, food, supplies, isolation and state Housing Support. Increase researching thats research has expanded shelters increased research has expanded shelters. In addition to the resources that help protect people and shelters and outside, federal rental assistance during the pandemic was critical to stemming the tide of homelessness. The county reported over 1000 fewer children experienced homelessness in 2021 then they did two years earlier and they credit that to the widespread availability of rental assistance. Sadly, the federal resources come to an end. We are starting to see return to the 2019 rate of family homelessness. Federal partnerships will be critical to our success going forward. I have four highlevel recommendations to share with you. One, the homeless system is overwhelmed and undid underfunded. During the pandemic we witnessed the lifesaving work of shelters and we know that while shelters save lives, helping is what ends homelessness. Housing is what ends homelessness. People with complex medical conditions are not used to. Our system to prevent homelessness for veterans works. We need to sustain that commitment and we need to expand it. All of the solutions require that we center the voices of people who have faced homelessness. We know that housing is a determinant of health, but it is also social determinant of educational achievement. The resources that we adapted to respond to the pandemic is my hope we will use to respond with that same level of urgency. We can achieve the vision that all people of us a place to call home. And that we can live in the state and a country without homelessness. This is a problem we know how to solve. Thank you. Rep. Smith i am now happy to welcome virtually to the committee our next witness. Thank you so much to the committee for inviting me to be here today. I am a current board member of journey on and an employee of the Rapid City Police department where i serve as nonLaw Enforcement in community engagement. It was clear that native americans suffered disproportionately. The high call volume resulted in low morale in officers. They did not have the resources to provide solutions. We are lacking the need for greater coordination. The Rapid City Police department approached journey on to see if they would be willing to build capacity. Soon thereafter a core group of partners from journey on, the Police Department applied for a hud grant. This grant has funded Jimmie Allens efforts. Journey ons efforts. Since early december of 2021, journey on has responded to nearly 5000 calls. It operates as part of a larger team that includes the Police Departments qualityoflife unit and volunteers of america. Since early december, we estimate that journey on has saved the city a lot of money. Each of journey on team members use a Culture Forward approach to service. Most of the Board Members are native american as well. A collection of partners developed a we connect business toolkit. The booklet focuses on educating businesses, native american culture, appropriate responses and many other topics. For the challenges. Federal funding does not allow for staff to receive paid time off and provides no avenue for health benefits. The reimbursement of federal grants makes it difficult to secure federal grants and maintain them. Developing capacity is difficult. Journey on had one employee. Over the past two years i collected group of Board Members devoted time to develop capacity. It is one of three native organizations now working with the hot white house. Journey on is receiving Technical Assistance and many grants. And needs much more funding over a longer period of time. In rapid city we have few options for emergency shelter. Rapid city reported 35 of the overall total unsheltered housing which is more by 50 15 the largest city in south dakota reports. People who are not used to live in the home in their own need to learn how to care for their home. Rapid city has 3000 Affordable Housing units short of what it needs. Rapid city is nearly impossible to Incentivize Developers to get involved in Affordable Housing projects. There are very few federal incentives that developers can take advantage of. It does not allow communities to address those who are housing insecure. Many of those living in our troubled areas do not have access to any form of emergency shelter. Some of these homes are not fit for human habitation. I would like to thank the committee and the members of the senate who invited us here to speak today. Rep. Smith thank you so much to all of you. We will now begin our round of questions from senators. Each senator will have five minutes. I would like to have senator reed go first. Thank you all for your excellent testimony. I can tell you the same story you told us. In providence, the average rents have jumped 23. 8 in the previous year. That is extraordinary. We are running out of emergency funds. Shelters are closing down. Our frontline staff is really burning out after the pandemic. That is why it is essential that we increase funding for the homeless. That would include the continuing care program, also the emergency solution grants. Why are grants essential to combating homelessness, particularly as pandemic programs begin to wind down . Thank you for that question. I ran those programs that hud for 10 years so they are near to my heart. Those programs that are funded through the homeless assistance grants dont account really formed the backbone of our homelessness response in this country. In a lot of communities, they are, most of the funding that is available for homeless assistance programs. Increasing resources are the backbone and the lifeline for many communities in their response to homelessness. It creates a way for hud to put forth promising practices and evidencebased approaches and prioritized funding for those types of resources. I would note three things. Thank you so much for the legislation that allows tribes to receive the continuum of care program. It is important. There are issues related to implementation that we are working out, but it was important. Two, in hollands last budget, they asked for two tools that i think will be very important. One is increasing the cap on planning for continuums of care. It is important because they are the subject matter experts. They also mentioned wanting the two here cycle. We would support that. In part for some of the reasons that Ranking Member rounds mentioned. The last thing i would note is around staffing and increasing the Program Requires increases in fair market rents. I would say we need to do the same for staffing so that providers are properly resourced and can provide their staff with costofliving increases when they need to. Thank you very much. Let me shift quickly. One of the things i have observed there are many areas where the vouchers and an underutilized. Can you give them give us some insights . There are a number of issues to unpack their. From a lack of staffing to a rental market that may not be as willing to accept vouchers. We hear from the communities that it is getting harder and harder to move veterans with vouchers into permanent housing. Even for some of those veterans who have vouchers to retain the housing they have because the Housing Market is so hot and landlords can move to higher playing paying clientele. I think we have to get creative on how we can incentivize landlords. But also how we support v. A. To better case manage people who are utilizing vouchers. Thank you very much. My time has expired. But i want to thank all of the panelist for your thoughtful testimony today and your incredible efforts. Thank you very much. I want to start here. I think each of you talked about during the course of the pandemic, the impact of the resources we were able to provide for rental assistance and the Child Tax Credit to help lift peoples income and make housing more affordable. Several of you also talked about how this is an opportunity for innovation and trying new things to find success on the ground. Ive been happy to see success in minnesota where we see the lowest number of people experiencing homelessness in the last 17 years. Can you share with us briefly what we have seen in minnesota about the impacts on the ground of covid relief funding streams. What are the Key Takeaways in terms of what we have learned . Thank you. I am happy to respond. We were able to be more flexible and to get those dollars out to the community quickly to respond to the crisis at hand. Because of that, they were coming up with innovations we have not seen before. When the pandemic hit, many people sought refuge in encampments. At one point in minneapolis, we had an encampment of over 210 people really struggling. We were able to use federal resources quickly. One of our Housing Providers, hotel to homes models, bring them into hotels to protect them from the pandemic. And then get them out of the hotelss into permanent housing so they did not return to the street. That same provider went into the encampment and talked with almost every Single Person staying in the encampment to find out from them what would work to bring them in and make them feel safe. They developed a program called the village, an indoor village of structures where people have their own space. They could come in, be safe, and they could work individually to get people into permanent housing, which is the goal of all the programs that we are working on. I cannot say enough about how important the flexibility and the ways it was delivered with urgency make such a difference. It was not just in the metro area. In rochester, multiple organizations operated warming spaces, and moving people in Ramsey County out of hotels and to programs. We were very grateful in minnesota for the resources we were able to use. We really saw fewer people experiencing homelessness. That is the kind of intervention we can keep people in housing. Thank you so much. I am going to return to the other members of the panel. I know that the senator from montana is online. Thank you madam chairman. This is an issue that is fundamental to communities. One of the most successful initiatives in the effort to end veterans homelessness. It continues to suffer from the v. A. s ability to hire case managers. What are your thoughts on the bs current effort to resolve the issue . I will start by saying that contracting is a great opportunity to address the shortages. But i do think there was a lot more that the v. A. Can do. They were getting creative about using some of the rescue plan funding to pay for hiring incentives and moving costs to recruit members to communities. They are not able to do that once the current Emergency Health designation ends. We have also seen communities where the v. A. Has gotten creative around what constitutes Case Management. They are utilizing the support appears to help stretch the ability of a social worker to be able to case manage the veterans. I think there is a lot more that we can dive into if congress is willing to support them. I heard your Opening Statements. Housing is not only not available for lowincome people. I would bet you the charwoman would say it is not available in minnesota. It is not available anywhere. We are doing nothing as congress. What do you think we could do to help speed up availability and i will leave low income out of it. Just Affordable Housing for people to be able to fill jobs and important jobs too, whether it is a teacher or a mechanic. Is there anything the federal government can do . I think what we have seen during the pandemic is that some communities have gotten creative around taking existing space and converting it into housing. We have seen this predominantly for Affordable Housing, but i think it is a model that could work for Workforce Housing as well. And potentially could be easier to execute because he would not be worrying about subsidies. The model is all about work and all about getting people back to work and also creating opportunities here is the problem. We have jobs, a lot of jobs. You could get a good paying jobs but they cannot be hired because there is no place to live. How do we fix that . The part of the model where we can create Affordable Housing is through converting commercial spaces. The problem is there is no funding from the federal level to do that because it is not traditional units and all the regulations. But you can have very high quality residences like the former sros reimagined that can accommodate workforce populations that we know we need to invest in higher wages and training so that people can move up the ladder. It is costeffective to convert commercial spaces, hotels. The problem is the funding stream. As we talk about innovative solutions, we should expand on the existing funding streams and we need to think more about other models that can be funded so that it is possible for developers on the ground to quickly act and the housing. Since you are from minnesota, may be the charwoman would let you respond to that. I am out of time. Go ahead. Thank you. I think it is an all in the strategy. I think in minnesota, our largest source of Housing Resources to create housing is the federal lowincome tax credit. Increasing the opportunities to invest in that is important. We need housing supply at all price points. It is not just low income. We need to make sure our tools will work to create lower Income Housing as well. We are 100,000 units short in minnesota. That is more dramatic than the rest of the population, but i agree we need it at all levels. Thank you very much. Thank you senator chester. I believe we have our next senator who is ready. I am. Thank you to all of the panelists. I am going to followup what my colleague from montana got right. To address the Affordable Housing needs to make sure those who are homeless, we are providing a roof over their heads. You guys touched on it and i have been talking to people in my state about this. We have to cobble together financing to figure out how we build more supply so that we can make it Affordable Housing. If anybody disagrees with this please let me know. One of the things we can focus on to do that here in congress is expand low Income Housing tax credits. There are some provisions in there that will enable us to cancel out for those builders the opportunity to add additional units. Does anybody disagree with that . No, definitely not. But i would add the home program and the National Housing trust fund to the list of programs that could be expanded to increase Affordable Housing supply. Absolutely. Fat is on my list as well. That is on my list as well. If there is anything else on your list let me know. There are a very simple things for us to do. In my state, my concern is not just Workforce Housing. But i am hearing from veterans and seniors in my state who are facing a increases in their monthly rent and who are worried they will be out on the street because there are not enough housing options. With respect to veterans, is there can you talk about is there a certain type of housing that is needed . What should we be looking at when we are looking for to address the homelessness of veterans . I think an all in approach is needed. When your thinking about the act risk population at risk population, really what will help is not necessarily new housing, but direct cash transfers. That is a great approach to help people who are on the brink state housed. The ability for hud to do something similar would be helpful. Thank you. What is interesting to me is that the past few years, nevada and other states have seen a we are leaning on the expertise and learning from them and partnering with them. As a number of things to learn from this program that can be applied across the board. Thank you. Thank you very much. We are now joined by senator van holland from his office. Thank you for holding this hearing and the focus you had on these important issues and Affordable Housing which become more urgent, severe with every epassing day and think we all recognize there are two big pieces to this equation, one is supply but the other is making sure we continue to make available as was indicated in the testimony. Housing choice vouchers and thank you for mentioning legislation senator young and i proposed Bipartisan Legislation that would allow more families to move to areas of opportunity with more flexible Wraparound Services. I saw we also off during the Pandemic Congress together with President Biden provided Emergency Services and things in my view would have been a lot worse if it wasnt for those support but not the longterm challenge we continue to face. If you could talk about the challenge we are facing with respect to purchasing power the Housing Choice Voucher Program as you see rising rates and rents and demand for rental housing increasing, more and more landlords want to lease to the person who can quickly make a Security Deposit orse somebody who can defray other costs not n currently covered by the housing choice voucher so should we be asking hud to use existing auauthorities to make use of the vouchers more flexible . In maryland we are seeing 80 of vouchers for 2022 not able to be used, people are not able to match vouchers up with landlords because of the competition and the fact they cant use the voucher purchasing power for those expenses, could you speak to that . I think there is quite a bit to learn from the emergency housing voucher and fermentation as mentioned in my testimony, we are up to about 90 eitherr leased up or issues to individuals experiencing homelessness. In some communities in washington state, the utilization rate is quite high even in tight markets. The reason we see that is because of its ability provided to hud for the implementation including waivers that make it easier to get into the program but most to allow for landlord incentives, Housing Navigation the kinds of things programs can used to partner with landlords and be flexible and creative how a partner at the local level. I think catherine would agree we should permit those flexibilities and Flexible Funding for programs like hud and other parts of the Housing Choice Voucher Program generally so other programs that are not this program can use them and hopefully bring up utilization. Would you agree with that assessment in respect using authorities to be flexible . Yes, thank you. Thank you. Let me ask about the Housing First approach because i think there are sometimes confusion for some suggest Housing First excludes a number of Wraparound Services and at least in my understanding, its an important out of the model but we want to make sure people have a safe place to live and call home as they access Wraparound Services so can you talk about the benefits of the Housing First approach . Yes of course and thank you q for that question. I agree theres a lot of misinformation out there and i am happy to dispel some of that misinformation as part of this hearing today. Housing first is really an approach rather than a program an approach grounded in treating people with dignity and providing choice to people in vulnerable situations and expanding homelessness. It means accessing permanent housing this prioritized so people expanding homelessness have a safe and p Stable Foundation to support achieving other goals. I recently heard somebody describe something this, you dont give a drowning person a Swimming Lesson. You bring them to safety on shore and then decide whether they actually need a Swimming Lesson or Something Else was happening. Let me be clear on this, Housing First is never housing only when implemented according to the model so services are offered even before a person moves into the permanent housing and tailored to the needs of the person or family. Evidencebased is incredibly strong, hypertension rates and the last thing is the data shows cost saving for Housing First approach in a lot of cases because of people have more consistent support and they dont have to access emergency c services, cost of Community Goes down to theres evidence behind Housing First, its rudy and dignity and choice and not housing only. Thank you for dispelling some of the myths i think we have heard. A lot more questions but i see the time is up so thank you very much for bringing us together around this important subject. Thank you veryth much. Im going to ask a few more questions while i have the opportunity with all of you and i want to go back, ms. Kirsch whos with us remotely, i appreciated the comments you made around the unique challenges native communities and tribal land so can you describe for us what you have seen in your work around good approaches to addressing challenges and overcrowding in tribal communities and how can we be sensitive to this issue from policymaking perspective as we look at opposing programs and policies we want to advance . Thank you for the t question. I would say first and foremost what we see here in rapid city is the greatest impact is doing the outreach, putting culture first and allowing folks to access resources and individuals who are native american and can provide native American Resources to them. Helping them access support from their that either housing or Addiction Recovery or Mental Health support or medical services, being able to connect folks to those spaces offering sage burning or smudging, offering folks connection from these can be healing factors and make them far more successful in their housing search and securing of services throughout the spectrum. It is challenging because in rapid city we are the most impoverished counties in our nation and there is a vast issue with under investment in tribal areas. A lot of cases it is hard to do Affordable Housing development because theres no infrastructure, no Water Infrastructure or electoral infrastructure so is a lot more cost affiliated with trying to do Affordable Housing in those areas. In rapid city because we are urban center because folks come from hundreds of miles to seek support here in rapid city, the key is creating models through which folks can get support in the way they want to be supportive and feel comfortable in those spaces whether i totally support the Housing First model because we have absolutely no, not Housing Available or of Affordable Housing available for individuals, folks feel most comfortable and congregate shelters that but culture first and they are more successful with their goals once able to access that culture and community so i hope i answered your question. That is very helpful and as i listen to your response, i am struck by what we know, the challenge people feel around isolation as they experience housing and security or house business and to me it makes it clear taking a culture first approach or Housing First culture first, putting culture at the center of the work makes the most difference because thats the way of overcoming that sense of isolation people feel, would you agree . One 100 i would agree, yes. I want to touch on the question of connection between housing and health. I will direct this you, can you discuss the connection between housing and health and how permanent Supportive Housing or what we can do to understand we cannot address peoples Health Issues if we are not if they dont have a safe place to live. I think you summarize it perfectly. The biggest lesson or one of the biggest lessons weve learned during the pandemic is that you cant shelter in place if you dont have a home and housing is absolutely court to being able to be healthy from Behavioral Health standpoint and physical health standpoint so i think the biggest lesson as i mentioned, from the pandemic is really about this connection between ability to be healthy and havinn a safe and stable place to live. A safe and stable places to live also sort of help advance positive impacts of other investments the government is making in healthcare and education and climate. All of those things are better when somebody, as weve seen from the Housing First model, really housing provides the foundation by which all of those other aspects of life can be improved and people can thrive in their communities so its not just its about other pieces and what housing brings to the table to improve them. I really appreciate that. I am proud that minnesota has been Understanding Social determinants of health. The Minnesota Medicaid Program covers Housing Support services to help them find and maintain Affordable Housing and making the connection, its a weakness of lots of federal strategies because we are silent and dont connect docs as best we could and that means providers, people out there trying to make thingsu work are struggling all the time because the doctors dont connect as well as they should its one example we are doing in minnesota with the medicaid program. Would anybody else like to comment on that . Thank you so much. I would will upon what she was saying as far as access to employment and income, another metric around stability and health. I think one thing that gets lost in the conversations, theres a group of people using the metaphor of drowning but dont even have access to a life ring so we need to create more life rings, whatever before you want to use and i think this is about expanding our ability to use Housing First approach beyond just the tools we have to promote health, stability andss access to economic opportunity, i would argue is part of the social determinants of health especially for those people who not only need the income because they dont qualify for other benefits but also parents and taking care of their families and returning from incarceration and need access to jobs while they might be available, they are not prepared for or stable enough for. When we talk about Housing First, i would argue we should look at it as and said, a category, a philosophy we need to look at it beyond just units themselves and Start Talking about how to help people stabilize off the streets, out of institutions with support services they need to live the best lives they can . Theres a group of people as i mentioned about what percent of folks coming into our shelters every day that are not self resolving and do not have access even if we had enough units, even if we had enough doctors, they are not qualifying so thats why i think when we talk about models, they can bring in the public and other benefits in the community. The reason Something Like work works can add value to the community, it brings in the Business Community and creates better conditions for quality of life for the whole communityr which gets more people involved in wanting to solve this issue and i think its an important piece we have to remember. To do the, braked and the barriers around those two issues. I think im happy to add on because va is also providing a really great deal of Housing Resources of veterans. I think what we see is that access to housing helps people manage chronic conditions when you think about the fact certain medications need to be refrigerated and you cante do that when youre unsheltered. When you think about the fact you are ableee to Access Health your food and store health your food in the home to help you manage your chronic conditions through diet and other things. I do think there are also psychological benefits to being housed and not being subject to all of the violence that we see unsheltered people face on the street on a daily basis. The fact that you somewhere you can call your own is really big deal i think a special as we look to the ways that many communities are starting to criminalize homelessness, and rely on encampment suites. Thats dramatically to think about the fact everything you own, what little you been able to retain can be gone in an instant. Repeatedly, right . Thats a hard thing for people to deal with. Housing is a really critical resource and i think thats why we allg have tended to look at the fact that we need to put people in housing and then wrap them with the services that they want and need. Thank you very w much. Ms. Ten broeke, anything found to add before we wrap up . Thank you, chair sniff. I think you summed this up so well, and i think the experience during covid putie such a spotlight on your question and importance of the questions. One thing we knew when the pandemic it, people who were experiencing homelessness were at greater risk of really devastating results because of the pandemic. T not onlyri because of the settis where people were living where they couldnt be im distance but many peopley also have healh conditions and i think the data that we have from the pandemic, if people were sleeping outside and they contracted covid they were 11 times t more likely to d up inn the hospital then other side covid and i a tenth more likely to end up in the icu. So both the conditions and the settings are so important that we need to start to connect the dots between our housing system, or social service systems, our Health Systems to be successful in serving people better. Thank you very much. I will just offer quickly in terms of Public Health, i think trauma and the impact of dramatic experience of homelessness especially in our youth can have lifelong effect on our young people and we see it time and time again here in rapid city where we see youth who are affected by houseless does or come in contact with Law Enforcement and really coming up with creative wayssor to respond our houseless Committee Members to minimize that trauma and support innovative practices and Sustainable Solutions creating opportunities with individuals to identify the resources they telling you to become housing successful, and that includes everything from culture which ive talked a loter about but al the way through to helping folks stay housed once they are housed. Housing prevention, or preventing houseless nest is it important i would say as important as addressing the actual homelessness occurring on or stricter if we can help minimize the amount of trauma, user o experience as a result of evictions and is that come up with innovative ways to help families stay home to i think where pharma successful in the end with our efforts that we are just responding at the crisis. And thanks again for line need to be here today to testify. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today and providing such great testimony. I am struck as i listened to the questions and your answers and testimony that there is broad agreement about what needs to be done, as a set of the asked that i think we know what to do get wettest of the centrality of housing to work, to health, physical and emotional health, and that weve also been able to see the innovation atio the success we have seen because of the resources that we put into that covid, the i deep covid challenge, those challenges are still there and, in fact, i think we are seeing the great impact of somee of resources going away right now. So i think this hearing has given i think all of us lots of good thoughts from for when go from here and the work we have to do together. Before we adjourn i would like to enter into the record a letter from Catholic Charities of st. Paul and minneapolis. Without objection, i see none, for senators at which to select question for the records of those questions will be due one week from today which will be tuesday, july 26. For witnesses you will have 45 days respond to any questions for the record. Thank you again so much, and this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] and the use senate now in recess until 2 15 p. M. Eastern for their weekly party meetings. They will hold a confirmation vote for Elizabeth Wilson hanes to be u. S. District judge for the Eastern District of virginia. Watch live coverage when members return here on cspan2. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communications. Broadband is a force for empowerment. Thats why charter has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowerin