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 StatesInteragency 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 st