McKinney Vento Law Signed

Obama Signed Housing and Homeless Law

This is an example of having to vote for a big bill that will help millions despite some of the negatives. The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act was signed into law on May 20 by President Obama. There are so many good things in this bill, but there are some big problems in the homeless piece of the legislation. Overall, the new law begins to address some of the huge problems within the housing market and corrects some of the problems in previous foreclosure bills. The press release from the White House about the bill only mentions briefly the homeless piece of the legislation.

• The flawed foreclosure bill from 2008 was corrected to help those homeowners underwater with their mortgages. There is also a provision to permit modification of federally guaranteed farm loans.
  
• The law attempts to increase lending, and will extend the increase in deposit insurance. It will increase borrowing authority for the FDIC, and will allow the credit union administration to create a stabilization fund to allow America's credit unions to lend.
• This law establishes protections for renters in foreclosed homes. This is one of the most important components of the law in that existing leases will be honored and will require a minimum of 90 day notice before an eviction can take place.
  
• The new law will allow borrowers to know who owns their loan, and they must be told when their loan is sold or transferred.
  
• The law, if given proper appropriation, will significantly increase funding for homeless services and will prioritize funding for homeless families.
  
• Fraud enforcement and recovery act, which bring brokers and other private mortgage institutions under the criminal code. This new law prohibits the manipulation of the mortgage lending business.
  
• The law corrects problems from the TARP legislation, and extends commodity futures and options market into the anti-fraud statutes. The law will hire additional fraud prevention and enforcement staff to investigate and prosecute fraudulent activities in the mortgage industry.
  
• Overall, the law will strengthen the federal government's regulatory and enforcement power to prevent future instability in the housing sector.
  

The homeless portion of this bill was given scant attention by the White House or the media, but this is actually a major step forward. All of the legislation that impact homeless people are wrapped up in the McKinney Vento law, but that has not been renewed by Congress since 1992. This was hold over legislation from the last Congress. The bill made it through the House, but did not clear the Senate. It was disguised as the HEARTH Act, but the real HEARTH Act was introduced by Congresswoman Julia Carson who passed away. This was a compromise legislation that is going to cause a lot of anxiety in the field. There is a tension in DC between those who are big supportive housing advocates and those who want to serve every homeless person. There is also a split between privacy activists and those who feel that it is in the best interest of the United States to count homeless people.

I stand firmly on the side of those who believe that homeless people should be able to remain private even if they want a bed from a publicly funded shelter. Of course, I want everyone to have access to housing assistance, and not just those with a disability or those who have been homeless for a long period of time. Here are the problems with the "HEARTH" portion of the law that was passed:

• The definition of homelessness was expanded, but not to the much better Department of Education definition. The problem for the local community is that the new definition is several pages long and will be very difficult for the local shelter case worker to figure out if the person in front of them meets the definition.
  
• Prevention and rapid rehousing will be a eligible activity under the Emergency Shelter Grant funds. This is helpful if there is a significant increase in ESG funding. If there is not then emergency shelters will have to compete for funds from the new projects being funded as part of the homeless prevention stimulus funding.
  
• The Homeless Management Information System will now be a part of the law, and case workers may have to collect a lot more personal information from their clients. These systems are expensive and rarely provide useful data. In Cleveland, this system is a big drain of resources to a corporation down in Louisiana that has yet to give us anything of value.
  
• Consolidated the various homeless programs under one program to make it easier for communities to access these dollars. This could present problems for rural communities.
• A set aside for 10 percent of the funding must be used for homeless families. Again a good idea, but it takes the away the decisions at the local level and forces those decisions to a bureaucrat in DC.
• In addition, there are goals to reduce family homelessness to 30 days or less as well as an incentive program to develop rapid rehousing programs for families.
  
• The new law will require 30 percent of the funding for permanent housing for people with serious disabilities. This a good concept, but it forces small communities to use their resources for permanent housing even if that is not the priority.
  
• Families are added to the offensively named "chronic homeless" definition. This would allow heads of households who have been homeless for a long period of time could gain access to some of the housing resources previously available only to single adults.
  
• Finally, there is a provision that prevents age discrimination of children. This is not a big deal in Ohio, because the state had outlawed separation by the shelters of 14 year old or older boys from being separated from their parents.

The big picture is that the law will help millions of homeowners, renters and yes, even some homeless people. The bill could have been so much better. The homeless portion of the bill could have help move toward an end of homelessness in America. We waited 17 years since the McKinney Vento bill was reauthorized. I hope that we do not have to wait until 2026 to get another homeless bill through Congress.

Brian
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