The House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment offered by Representative David Price (NC-04) yesterday restoring funding for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to the Fiscal Year 2014 level ($2.5 million). The amendment was offered during the committee's consideration of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. It will allow the Council to continue working toward its goal of ending family homelessness by 2020.
"While we have made progress addressing homelessness among veterans and the chronically homeless, far too many of our fellow citizens still go to bed at night without a roof over their heads," Rep. Price said. "The government-wide collaboration and coordination facilitated by the USICH is vitally important to ensuring all Americans have access to a safe, affordable place to call home."
While the USICH is set to meet its goals for veterans in 2015 and the chronically homeless in 2016--mostly male populations--the original committee bill's low-funding level would have hampered our nation's ability to meet its goals for homeless families and children in 2020. The average family experiencing homelessness is headed by a single mother in her late twenties with two children, at least one of whom is under the age of six. More than 80% of mothers with children experiencing home¬lessness have previously experienced domestic violence in their lifetime. The Price amendment will allow the USICH to continue this work and address the needs of all homeless Americans--male and female.
The USICH was created to coordinate a national response to homelessness. It is composed of the 19 directors of federal departments and agencies whose policies and programs have some responsibility for homelessness, including Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Veterans Administration.
The Price Amendment was supported by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Shelter Partnership, Inc., the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, the Homelessness Technical Collaborative, Cloudbreak Communities, Funders Together to End Homelessness and Circle the City.