House Financial Services Committee Holds First-Ever Hearing on Homelessness

The House Financial Services Committee held on February 13 its first full committee hearing of the 116th Congress, “Homeless in America: Examining the Crisis and Solutions to End Homelessness.” This is the first time the full committee has held a hearing specifically on homelessness, a top priority for Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA). The committee and witnesses discussed several draft bills aimed at addressing homelessness, including a bill from Chair Waters that provides $13.27 billion in new funding over five years for building new affordable rental homes through the national Housing Trust Fund, increasing the number of housing vouchers, and providing additional case-management and other assistance.

Witnesses included Ann Marie Oliva, a senior policy advisor with Corporation for Supportive Services; Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and member of NLIHC’s board of directors; Joshua Stewart, the director of policy for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans; Justin T. Rush, the public policy director for the True Colors Fund; Carolyn Darley, an advocate for the National Coalition for the Homeless; and Dr. David S. Lucas, a postdoctoral research fellow for the Institute for an Entrepreneurial Society.

Several witnesses and committee members discussed the shortage of affordable homes as the main cause of homelessness. Ms. Roman emphasized that homelessness is driven by the lack of affordable homes and the growing gap between low incomes and housing costs, exacerbated by racism. Mr. Stewart also argued that ending homelessness in a community is possible with the creation of more affordable housing. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) stated that housing is what solves homelessness and reminded the committee that most Americans are rent-cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent and utilities. Representative Tlaib spoke of her experience in the third poorest congressional district in the country, where housing costs have recently spiked.

Ms. Darley spoke about her personal experience with homelessness and how the Housing First program helped her. She stressed that stereotypes about people experiencing homelessness are inaccurate and harmful and noted that recent disasters have increased homelessness across the country.

Dr. Lucas told the Committee that using performance data for evidence-based decision-making should be the main priority, along with allowing service providers more flexibility for experimentation. He argued that the important policy question was how to end homelessness in the aggregate, which, he said, “we do not yet know how to [do].” Ms. Roman responded that the answer to ending homelessness is simple — “Put them in houses.”

Other witnesses discussed specific populations experiencing homelessness. Mr. Rush noted that LGBTQIA youth are some of the most vulnerable to housing instability and encouraged additional training to ensure services are culturally and linguistically appropriate. Mr. Steward called for more investments in veteran-specific programs like the HUD-VASH program and encouraged increased eligibility for Veterans Affairs (VA) services for “other-than-honorable” discharges. Ms. Oliva made the case for supportive housing – permanent housing with services designed to meet the specific needs of tenants — and other interventions across systems like those for criminal justice and child welfare.

The committee and panel discussed numerous draft proposals to address homelessness, including the “Ending Homelessness Act of 2019,” the “Working Together to End Homelessness Act of 2019,” the “Homes for Our Heroes Act of 2019,” and the “Veteran Housing Opportunities and Unemployment Support Extension Act of 2019,” as well as the “People CARE Act” (H.R. 841).

Submitted testimony materials, proposed bill text, and a recording of the hearing can be found at: https://bit.ly/2SPzU6f