URGENT: Congress's COVID-19 Funding Does Not Include Homeless Services
As Congress works to provide an emergency supplemental spending bill to aid communities during the coronavirus pandemic, they need to help an important population: people experiencing homelessness.
There's an extremely narrow window for lawmakers to include funds for homelessness in the bill. The Senate hopes to complete its work on this legislation by the end of the week, meaning that key decisions about what's in the bill will be decided within the next 48 hours.
We are asking for lawmakers to include $5 billion to serve people who are homeless, and $5 billion more to divert people who are at immediate risk of becoming homeless during this crisis. We're also calling for $50 billion to support housing stability, through a program like the one proposed in the bipartisan Bennet-Portman Eviction Crisis Act (S. 3030).
We need you to contact your Senators and members of Congress immediately to demand homelessness funding in the Coronavirus response. People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19, and many are already in poor health. We need an immediate increase in shelter capacity and adequate housing to bring people inside before they get sick – and we need a massive infusion of personal protective equipment and supplies similar to what OSHA requires for frontline medical personnel.
Emergency funding would be able to provide these critical resources during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lives are in the balance, and we must act quickly.
Sincerely,
Steve Berg
VP for Programs and Policy National Alliance to End Homelessness |