The House Financial Services Committee will vote on the “Ending Homelessness Act,” introduced by Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA). The legislation is a comprehensive plan to ensure the lowest-income people have safe, decent, and affordable homes. The vote will take place on March 26 at 2:00 p.m. ET in room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building and will be broadcast live at: https://financialservices.house.gov/live/
The “Ending Homelessness Act” would invest $13.27 billion over five years to address the shortage of affordable housing and to combat homelessness. The bill would provide $1 billion annually to the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF), the first new affordable housing program in a generation targeted to those most in need, and $50 million each year for rental assistance to be used in conjunction with HTF housing. The bill would provide 410,000 new affordable homes for the lowest-income households.
In addition to providing more affordable housing, the bill would fund outreach and case management to ensure homeless people are connected to the services they need and would help states and local jurisdictions better align their healthcare and housing interventions. It would also permanently authorize the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness—both of which are essential to ensure homeless people have access to emergency shelter and services, transitional housing, job training, primary health care, and education.