Alliance Online News: Houston Announces it has Ended Veteran Homelessness

Alliance Online News View in browser www.endhomelessness.org Tuesday, June 2, 2015 spotlight on... Houston Mayor: We have Effectively Ended Veteran Homelessness Mayor of Houston Annise Parker announced on Monday, June 1, that her city had effectively ended veteran homelessness. The fourth largest city in the United States with a veteran population of around 300,000, Houston is the largest city to announce such an achievement. Houston joins New Orleans, which announced this year that it had ended veteran homelessness, and Salt Lake City and Phoenix, which have announced ending chronic veteran homelessness. Mayor Parker is among the 460 mayors around the country who have accepted First Lady Michelle Obama’s Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness, an initiative that calls on mayors and local leaders to commit to ending veteran homelessness in their cities in 2015. In Houston, 35 local agencies collaborated to house 3,650 homeless veterans in a span of three years. “Too often those that answered the call of service still find themselves struggling long after leaving the military,” said Mayor Parker. “Houston is there for our heroes, and just like on the battlefield, we will leave no one behind.” Read the full press release » Report: Increase in Rental Stock in Major Cities Fails to Keep Pace with Demand The growth of median rent is outpacing inflation in 11 of the nation’s largest cities and is growing considerably faster than median renter income in five, according to the report “Renting In America’s Largest Cities,” released late last month. The report, which compiles findings from a study commissioned by Capital One and conducted by the NYU Furman Center, examines rental housing affordability trends from 2006 to 2013 in the nation's 11 largest metro areas. Read the report » Webinar Video: Host Homes for Homeless Youth A video recording of a webinar that originally streamed on Tuesday, May 26, as part of our ongoing youth practice knowledge project series is now available for viewing on the Alliance website. In the webinar, speakers explored two host homes programs in Minnesota and Nebraska, including the challenges of host homes and their benefits, both for young people and for the communities in which the model is used. Watch the video » Job Opportunities at the Alliance The Alliance is currently seeking qualified applicants for two open positions. For qualifications and information on how to apply, see the job opportunities page of the Alliance website. Senior Program Officer Program and Policy Analyst Job opportunities » from the blog Ending Homelessness Today the official blog of the national alliance to end homelessness Houston Mayor: We Have Effectively Ended Veteran Homelessness by Kate Seif Today, Houston – the fourth largest city in the country and the city with the second highest population of veterans – became the largest city to date to announce that it had effectively ended veteran homelessness. Mayor Annise Parker made the announcement alongside Secretaries Bob McDonald (Department of Veterans Affairs), Julián Castro (Department of Housing and Urban Development), and Tom Perez (Department of Labor), as part of the secretaries’ three city tour focusing on how communities can come together to end veteran homelessness. The theme of the announcement was clear: by working together, many different agencies across Houston were able to quickly deploy resources to house over 3,650 veterans in just over three years. Collaboration in the form of regular (weekly!) coordination meetings, and efforts to align federal, local, and state resources, and a high-functioning coordinated assessment system were key components of the city’s success. Secretary Perez emphasized Houston’s success in breaking down siloes and encouraged communities to take a similar approach to ending veteran homelessness. Read more » comments » | Meet the Homeless Teacher by Emanuel Cavallaro Thomas Rebman is a middle school teacher and a veteran who has been traveling across the country to raise awareness about homelessness by living as a homeless person. You may have already read about him as he’s appeared in local news outlets several times during his tour. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to speak with him while he was living homeless in Skid Row, an area Los Angeles that is notorious for its high concentration of chronic homelessness. Where are you right now and what’s it like there? I’m about two blocks east of Skid Row on First. I’ve been on Skid Row for about four days. I came here to highlight mental illness among the homeless, because I knew there was a lot of it here. But I had no idea how much. Los Angeles really is a completely different animal than any other city I’ve visited. The amount of mental illness I’ve seen on Skid Row is shocking. Read more » comments » | The State of Homelessness in America: Trends in Populations at Risk by Liza Doran Why do people become homeless? This is a complicated question with numerous, complex answers. For some people, it may be because they lost a job or had an unforeseen medical crisis. For others, it may be because the cost of rent rose and they were unable to afford the payments. Every person who experiences homelessness has a unique situation. However, research shows that homelessness often is a result of two factors: economic problems and/or housing problems. Economic problems include poverty and unemployment. In other words, if you don’t have the money to pay for housing, you’re vulnerable to homelessness. Housing problems include severe housing cost burden—in which a poor household pays over half of their income in rent—and living doubled up—in which people live with family or friends. Housing problems generally stem from a lack of affordable housing. Read more » comments » |