WASHINGTON, DC - This morning U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Kit Bond (R-MO) held a press conference on Capitol Hill with District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty to push for passage of their bipartisan plan to help communities reduce homelessness nationwide. The Reed-Bond bill passed by voice vote this afternoon as an amendment to the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act.

The Senators and the Mayor were joined by Steve Berg, Vice President for Programs and Policy, National Alliance to End Homelessness, and Cheryl K. Barnes, a resident from N Street Village who has experienced homelessness, to help announce the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009.

This legislation will provide $2.2 billion for targeted homelessness assistance grant programs; increase current levels of funding for homelessness assistance grants by $600 million; and allocate up to $440 million for homelessness prevention initiatives. It also expands the definition of homelessness in order to help families on the verge of becoming homeless and reauthorizes federal homelessness aid programs for the first time since 1989.

"Homelessness is a pervasive problem that touches every state across the nation. While strides have been made to reduce homelessness, the current economic decline has halted that progress. We have already seen tent cities forming, shelters turning away people in need, and most major cities reporting double digit increases in the numbers of families experiencing homelessness. This bill invests $2.2 billion for targeted homelessness assistance grants and provides communities with greater flexibility to spend the money on successful, local programs like N Street Village," said Reed, a senior member of the Banking Committee, which oversees federal housing policy. "This bipartisan bill combines federal investment with new incentives to help local communities assist families on the brink of becoming homeless. It is a wise use of federal resources that will save taxpayers money in the long run by preventing homelessness, promoting the development of permanent supportive housing, and optimizing self-sufficiency."

"Being homeless is no longer a hopeless situation. We have learned that stable, supportive permanent housing is the key to ending homelessness," said Bond, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds our nation's housing programs. "We do not want our nation's homeless to have to worry about where they will receive their next meal or where they will sleep tonight. Working together, we can solve homelessness. The HEARTH Act is an important step forward in fulfilling that goal."

"I want to commend Senators Reed and Bond for their leadership on the HEARTH Act, an important step toward reducing homelessness here in the District and nationwide," said Mayor Fenty. "My administration welcomes the grant assistance this legislation provides as we continue to work to provide permanent supportive housing for the District's most vulnerable residents."

According to the Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2.5 to 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year. On any one night, approximately 672,000 men, women, and children are without homes. Studies show that children are most likely to experience hunger, chronic health problems, and long-term negative consequences as a result of being homeless. The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness estimates that there were over 6,000 homeless persons in the District of Columbia in 2008. And as a result of the recession, 1 million additional Americans nationwide are likely to experience homelessness over the next two years. This means more trauma for children and adults, more dislocation from schools and communities, and more of a drain on local community services.

"Since the inception of the McKinney Act in the late 1980s, we have learned a lot about what works to end homelessness. Such activities should not only be allowed, but should be incentivized. The HEARTH Act does this by encouraging permanent supportive housing for those most in need; by focusing on getting families quickly back into housing; and by preventing homelessness in the first place," said Nan Roman, President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "We commend Senator Reed and Senator Bond, and all of their colleagues in the Senate and in the House who have built upon the hard work and learnings of the HUD homeless programs to create this important new step forward."

The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness by developing cost-effective policy solutions, informing policy debates, and educating the public and opinion leaders.

"Homelessness doesn't have to be a harsh reality like it was for me -- this funding can help end poverty and homelessness for folks in the future," said Cheryl K. Barnes, a formerly homeless individual, who now works in several important volunteer roles at N Street Village.

N Street Village is a nonprofit social services community in Washington, DC, that provides a spectrum of services to meet the needs of over 700 homeless and extremely low-income women as they move to stable housing and maximum self-sufficiency.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Congress passed earlier this year, provides $1.5 billion to cities and states to help prevent homelessness. However, programs providing assistance to families already without shelter are facing increasingly cash-strapped budgets. The HEARTH Act seeks to address this growing problem by reauthorizing the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. It would simplify and consolidate three competitive U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homelessness assistance programs into one program and allow more funding to flow to communities that can demonstrate a commitment to accomplishing the goals of preventing and ending homelessness. It would also:

• Allow up to 20% of funds or up to $440 million dollars to be used to for homeless prevention initiatives. This new "Emergency Solutions Grant" program would allow cities and towns to serve people who are about to be evicted, live in severely overcrowded housing, or otherwise live in an unstable situation that puts them at risk of homelessness.

• Require HUD to provide incentives for communities to implement proven strategies to significantly reduce homelessness.

• Provide local communities with greater flexibility to spend money on preventing homelessness.

• Expand the definition of homelessness, which determines eligibility for much of the homeless assistance funding, to include people who will lose their housing in 14 days (current practice is 7 days) and people fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, or other dangerous or life threatening situations.

The Reed-Bond bill has 11 original cosponsors, including: U.S. Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Richard Durbin (D-IL), John Kerry (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Groups endorsing the HEARTH Act include: The National Alliance to End Homelessness; U.S. Conference of Mayors; the League of Cities; the National Association of Counties; Habitat for Humanity International; National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies; Local Initiatives Support Corporation; Enterprise Community Partners; National Low Income Housing Coalition; Corporation for Supportive Housing; the National Equity Fund; National Alliance on Mental Illness; the Housing Assistance Council; and the National Community Development Association.