Support the Homeless Children and Youth Act:
Help Cut the Red Tape for Homeless Children and Youth

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the House Financial Services Committee's Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee passed HR 32, the Homeless Children and Youth Act, by a voice vote.

HR 32 is bi-partisan legislation that amends the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition of homelessness to include children, youth, and their families who are verified as homeless by local homeless education liaisons, Head Start programs, Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs (RHYA), and early intervention programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C.

Recent regulations issued by HUD make it virtually impossible for most families and youth who are living in motels and paying for the motel room, or are sharing the housing of others because they have nowhere else to go, to qualify for HUD Homeless Assistance programs. These regulations require children and youth in such living situations to meet extremely burdensome requirements in order to be deemed "homeless" and therefore eligible for critical HUD programs. Motel and doubled-up situations are precarious, unstable, and very often unsafe living situations that are damaging to child and youth development. These living arrangements are considered homeless by other federal programs, including public schools, Head Start, RHYA, and IDEA early intervention programs. These programs recognize the urgent needs of children and youth, and the reality of child and youth homelessness. HR 32 would eliminate the new HUD regulatory burdens by creating a streamlined referral process so that vulnerable children and youth who are identified by these four federal programs are eligible for HUD-funded emergency and transitional housing, as well as critical support services.

In passing HR 32, the Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee rejected the unfounded argument that the bill would harm the neediest homeless children. The children and youth who testified before the subcommittee in December 2011 experienced violence, instability, hunger, and deprivation during their motel and doubled-up experiences, yet still would not have qualified for HUD homeless assistance due to HUD's statutory and regulatory requirements (an analysis may be found here). NAEHCY's members work daily with children and youth in all homeless situations, including hundreds of thousands of extremely vulnerable kids who are regularly excluded from homeless services because of HUD's rules. Only people working directly with families and youth can determine relative vulnerabilities; a family or youth's challenges cannot be determined merely by where they happen to lay their head that night.

As mentioned, the subcommittee's vote rebuffed the deceptive and alarmist argument that HR 32 would displace needier homeless children and youth. HR 32 does not require communities to spend HUD funding on families and youth who are verified as homeless through the four federal programs mentioned above; it simply gives them flexibility to do so when these families and youth are in need of HUD homeless services. Local service providers, not HUD, are in the best position to determine the service needs of families and youth, and to assess who among all eligible families and youth should be served.

HR 32 is supported strongly by a broad array of homeless, education, and child and youth organizations.

1. If your U..S Representative sits on the Financial Services Committee, please urge him or her to vote yes on HR 32, and to co-sponsor the bill.
View a complete list of committee members.

2. Regardless of whether your U.S. representative is on the committee, please urge your U.S. Representative to sign on to HR 32.
View contact information for U.S. Representatives.

3. Please forward this information to all local and state community partners.

Download a sample letter requesting co-sponsorship of HR 32.
Download a basic fact sheet about HR 32.
Download a fact sheet responding to misinformation about and arguments against HR 32.
Download a summary of HUD's recently released regulatory requirements for its amended definition of homelessness.
Download an analysis of child and youth testimony from the December 15, 2011, Congressional hearing on HR 32. This testimony was submitted by six child and youth witnesses and demonstrates how these children and youth repeatedly fell through the cracks of HUD's statutory definition and its newly issued regulations.
Download a list of national organizations endorsing HR 32.

On December 15, 2011, the Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity of the U.S. Congress held a historic hearing. The hearing featured testimony from six homeless or formerly homeless children and youth, including three homeless children under age 18, and three unaccompanied homeless youth. The children and youth spoke about the challenges of homelessness, especially about the hardships of being doubled-up, or living in motels. A second panel featured government representatives, including a local homeless education liaison (Ms. Estella Garza, of San Antonio Independent School District) and a Head Start State Collaboration Director (Dr. Grace Whitney, Director, Connecticut Head Start Collaboration Office).

Access the archived video and testimonies at http://financialservices.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=271819.

Please contact Barbara Duffield at bduffield@naehcy.org or (202) 364-7392.