by Mary Ellen Hombs /1/

When the United States Conference of Mayors announced findings from its 1998 annual survey of the growth of homelessness in major U.S. cities, the news was not good. The December 1998 report of mayors from 30 cities was released at its customary time, just at the start of winter./2/ Data from the report show an 11-percent increase in demand for emergency shelter in the surveyed cities, in contrast to the previous year's 3-percent rise. Some 72 percent of the cities reported increased demand, up from 59 percent reporting increases in 1997./3/

The mayors’ report cited the lack of affordable housing as the leading cause of homelessness, with substance abuse, mental illness, low-paying jobs, domestic violence, changes in public assistance, poverty, and lack of affordable health care completing the list./4/

The bleak news was delivered by the mayors as part of an effort they have undertaken since 1982, years before the passage of major federal legislation to address homelessness. It came from mayors representing cities as diverse as Boston, Charleston, Kansas City (Missouri), Miami, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and San Diego./5/ The 1998 report was released just days prior to HUD’s December 23 announcement of $850 million in awards of HUD Homeless Assistance funds to more than 300 communities around the country./6/ Under the present funding approach, states and regional and municipal planning groups package applications for new low-income housing developments and renewals of existing projects and forward them to HUD under the umbrella description of the area's "Continuum of Care" homelessness plan. HUD expects this plan to include an analysis of the inventory of resources for the homeless population, documentation of gaps in resources, prioritization for meeting needs, and identification of proposed projects in relation to key gaps./7/

The mayors reported that the nation’s strong economy has shown little positive impact on the needs of the homeless population./8/ Overall, the report depicts a large-scale affordable housing crisis for homeless persons with disabilities that has surged even in the face of an all-time boom in the national economy. Growing homelessness comes at a time when the nation’s welfare rolls are continuing to spiral downward, and other indicators such as crime, drug use, inflation and unemployment are at new lows./9/

Federal spending for homeless programs under HUD’s jurisdiction has risen steadily over the last two fiscal years (see chart at end of this article). The Administration’s proposed FY 2000 budget includes a return to the funding levels in place in FY 1995 for these programs. Of the $975 million passed for FY 1999, about $750 million will be used for competitive funding in the spring of 1999, and the balance will largely be used for Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG) delivered by formula funding to entitlement jurisdictions. ESG funds are the only HUD Homeless Assistance dollars that can be used to pay for homelessness prevention services.

The 1999 competition will for the first time require that 30 percent of the funds be used for the permanent housing components of the HUD programs, either in the form of new projects or renewals of existing projects./10/ HUD has estimated that in its prior competitions about 18 percent of funds have been used for permanent housing. Congress has also required a new 25-percent match for supportive services applications. Both measures were designed to push HUD and its applicants toward the use of funds for permanent housing and away from other eligible uses. These measures were passed in the FY 1999 federal budget after efforts over the 1997-1998 legislative terms failed to result in comprehensive reauthorization legislation to reorganize the programs and redirect spending priorities.

(b = billion; m = million)

Footnotes

1    Mary Ellen Hombs is the Director of Special Projects at the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance in Boston, Massachusetts.

2    The United States Conference of Mayors, A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in American Cities 1998: A 30-City Survey (Washington, D.C., Dec. 1998).

3    Id. at 2.

4    Id.

5    Id., Appendix.

6    HUD Press Release, "President Clinton Announces $850 Million in Assistance to Help More Than 3,330,000 Homeless Americans" (Dec. 23, 1998).

7    See 1998 SuperNOFA for Homeless Assistance at 63 Fed. Reg. 23,989 (Apr. 30, 1998).

8    United States Conference of Mayors Survey, supra note 1, at 3.

9    Fed-Up Cities Turn to Evicting the Homeless, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP. (Jan. 11, 1999) at 28.

10    These programs are Shelter + Care (24 C.F.R. Part 582), Permanent Housing for Handicapped People (24 C.F.R. Part 583), and Section 8/SRO Moderate Rehabilitation (24 C.F.R. Part 882).