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## TESTIMONY OF PHILIP F. MANGANO

**EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR**

**UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS**

**BEFORE THE HOUSE VA/HUD/INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE**

**MARCH 17, 2004**

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mollohan, Members of the Committee. I am pleased to be
here this afternoon to discuss with you the work of the United States
Interagency Council on Homelessness and our budget request for FY 2005.

This is the first time that I have been called to testify on behalf of
the Interagency Council on Homelessness since the Council was
revitalized in 2002 in accordance with the FY 2001 VA/HUD Appropriations
bill. That Act extended the Council's then-expired authorization to
October 1, 2005. The Council represents the collaborative efforts of 20
member agencies. In the two years since its revitalization, the Council,
its Senior Policy Group, and Council staff have begun to develop and
implement a federal strategy on homelessness that is research-driven and
performance-based.

For FY 2005, the President's budget requests \$1.5 million for the
Council, the same level as was appropriated for the Council in FY 2003
and FY 2004.

Funds will be used for staff salaries and benefits, travel, rental of
space, communications, and other administrative needs.

With the additions of the White House Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives and the USA Freedom Corps as affiliate members,
there are now 20 Cabinet Secretaries and Agency directors who are
members of the Council. The Council has held four meetings since its
revitalization in 2002 with a fifth meeting scheduled April 1, 2004. In
March 2003 HHS Secretary Thompson became the first non-HUD Secretary to
serve as Chair of the Council since passage of the McKinney Act in 1987.
At the Council's April 2004 meeting, VA Secretary Principi and Labor
Secretary Chao will begin one-year terms as Chair and Vice Chair
respectively. The rotation of these leadership positions reflects the
reality that homelessness has many causes and that the solutions to
homelessness cannot be fashioned by any one agency but require
collaboration by all.

The Council is establishing a new standard of expectation for the
investment of federal homeless resources. That expectation is that our
new initiatives will result in visible, measurable, and quantifiable
change in our communities, on our streets, and in the lives of homeless
people. Billions of dollars have been spent on homeless programs since
the enactment of the McKinney Act in 1987. Research tells us that there
are now more than 40,000 homeless programs around the country. Yet
despite all this investment of resources over the last twenty years,
there have been and continue to be thousands of people experiencing
chronic homelessness living on the streets and in encampments in our
communities and long term in our shelters. To get a different result,
our investments must be guided by a management agenda that prioritizes
results.

The "verb" of homelessness needs to be changed. For 20 years, we have
been "managing" the problem; now this Administration is working to end
the disgrace of chronic homelessness. To achieve different results, the
Council staff and its member agencies are implementing the President's
Management Agenda, which calls for investments and policies to be
research and data driven and performance-based.

The President's FY 2005 proposed Samaritan Initiative is part of the
Administration's larger effort to end chronic homelessness -- a goal
that is directly driven by research that shows this is a problem that
can be solved. Chronic homelessness is the most visible form of
homelessness in our country, and is most often a result of disabilities.
This form of homelessness, often finding its expression on the streets
of our communities, is cited by the public, the media, community
leaders, neighborhood groups, Chambers of Commerce, downtown business
districts, and others as demanding a response. Seemingly intractable,
chronic homelessness has been addressed by communities across the nation
that have attempted ad hoc responses with little evidence of long term
success.

Over the last few years a body of research has been developed that tells
us that those experiencing chronic homelessness are a finite group
representing only 10% of the homeless population. They, however, consume
over 50% of all emergency homeless services and ricochet around the
acute side of very expensive health care systems. As a result, they are
some of the most expensive people in social service systems.

Most importantly, the research tells us that there are interventions
that are not only effective in ending the homelessness of individuals
who have been living long term on the streets and in shelters but which
can be cost effective.  Research shows that supportive housing
strategies, such as multidisciplinary, clinically-based engagement with
housing and appropriate supportive services, help to sustain tenancies.
 These models of housing, along with other models, can be effective in
moving chronically homeless persons off the streets and out of shelters
into sustainable tenancies and toward recovery and self-sufficiency.
 Outcomes of different models of supportive housing efforts in New York
City, Columbus, Ohio and San Francisco, demonstrate a strong success
rate of housing stability and retention for those most vulnerable and
long-term shelter and street inhabitants.

The research shows chronically homeless persons not only spend
significant periods of time living on the streets and in other public
spaces, they also cycle repeatedly through a variety of expensive
community care systems including shelters and correctional and emergency
health care facilities. One study of nearly 5,000 homeless persons with
severe mental disorders in New York City found that they had used an
**average** of over \$34,000 a year in publicly funded hospitalization
and correctional services.

Learning from - and acting on - what the research shows

has given us a policy direction. That policy direction is

embodied in the Samaritan Initiative which would provide

authority for the Departments of Housing and Urban

Development, Health and Human Services, and Veterans

Affairs to jointly fund community-based efforts to

coordinate the provision of housing with supportive

services, including health care, mental health, and

substance abuse treatment services to move chronically

homeless persons from the streets and out of shelters

into permanent housing with the supportive services

available to sustain those tenancies. The President's

budget requests \$70 million in new resources for this

competitive grants initiative - \$50 million from HUD,

\$10 million from HHS, and \$10 million through the VA

Medical Care account. VA involvement ensures that chronically homeless
veterans can be identified, engaged, and referred to the appropriate VA
services.

The Samaritan Initiative is a performance-based program intended to
result in a visible and quantifiable reduction in the number of
chronically homeless persons living on the streets and long term in
shelters. Grantees would be expected to quantify the reduction in the
number of chronically homeless persons.

In addition to the Samaritan Initiative, which is an intervention
strategy in the lives of those who are experiencing chronic homelessness
that works to end homelessness through innovative engagement and housing
strategies, the Council has also focused on prevention of homelessness.
To accomplish the Administration's objective to end chronic homelessness
in the next decade, the Council has reprioritized prevention in the
national strategy. Waiting for at-risk populations to fall into
homelessness only creates more homeless specific programs, increases
costs, and deepens the human tragedy.

The Council seeks to coordinate a more comprehensive strategy that
includes intervention and prevention. To that end, the Administration
continues its investment in mainstream prevention resources in the FY 05
budget including resources targeted to emerging populations that could
fall into homelessness, including funding targeted to prevention and
better outcomes for ex-prisoners, and young adults aging out of foster
care. Deeper investments in mental health services and substance abuse
treatment capacity will also have a preventative impact.

The Council has also worked to ensure that prevention is made tangible
through improved discharge planning strategies and protocols at the
federal, state and local levels. These strategies are evident in the
state interagency councils and community

10-Year Plans fostered by the Council.

In fashioning a national response to preventing and ending chronic
homelessness, the Council is establishing partnerships between federal
agencies, state houses, city halls and county executive offices,
downtown associations, Chambers of Commerce, faith- based and community
organizations, the United Way, providers and advocates, and homeless
people themselves. The Council recognizes that homelessness is a
national problem with local solutions. No one federal agency, no one
level of government and no one sector of the community can reach the
goal alone. Federal agency collaborations and partnerships with state
and local governments and the private and faith-based and community
sectors are key to achieving the objectives of preventing and ending
chronic homelessness.

Since its revitalization, the Council has established a broad range of
intergovernmental partnerships to focus resources, incubate innovative
solutions, and share best practices.

-   \$*35 million Collaborative Initiative on Chronic Homelessness***.**
    At the inaugural meeting of the revitalized Council in July 2002,
    the Secretaries of HUD, HHS, and VA announced an historic \$35
    million joint funding initiative to address chronic homelessness.
    Funded through existing resources provided by each of the agencies
    and utilizing a single application and an interagency team for the
    review process, this successful and unprecedented federal
    interagency collaboration on homelessness resulted in 11 awards in
    communities across the country for new efforts to end chronic
    homelessness through supportive housing. This Collaborative
    Initiative demonstrated both the feasibility of the multi-agency
    approach, and with over 100 applications received from communities
    around the country, the need and interest that exist in communities
    for such assistance.

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-   *Federal Regional Interagency Councils*. With direct

support from HUD, the Council has appointed Regional

Coordinators in the federal regions. These Regional

Coordinators have been instrumental in convening the

regional representatives of the various federal agencies

as Federal Regional Interagency Councils to mirror the

work of the federal partners in Washington to make

resources more available and accessible to homeless

people.

To date, there are Federal Regional Interagency

> Councils in 9 regions.

-   *State Interagency Councils on Homelessness*.\
    As a former Governor, HHS Secretary and current ICH

Chair Tommy Thompson has helped lead the Council's

efforts to encourage every state and territory to establish

a State Interagency Council on Homelessness to

examine and better coordinate the use of state resources

and federal block grant funding to states to prevent and

end homelessness. A series of Policy Academies

sponsored by HHS, HUD, VA and DOL with other

Council members, provided direct technical assistance

to every state in examining mainstream resources

and their applicability to ending chronic homelessness.

47 states have taken advantage of this opportunity, and

by the end of April 2004, four additional States and

territories will have received this assistance.

> The Council has facilitated the creation of state
>
> councils through technical assistance, provided
>
> through our Regional Coordinators. This technical

Assistance has included mentoring and peer models

including assistance with language for executive

orders that create such councils.

> The Council has also produced and distributed *"Developing a State
> Interagency Council on Homelessness: A Step-by-Step Guide."* The
> purpose of these state councils is to buttress the efforts by the
> federal Interagency Council in making mainstream agency resources more
> available and accessible to reduce and end chronic homelessness.
>
> To date, 45 Governors have taken steps to create
>
> state interagency councils.

-   *City/County 10-Year Plans to End Chronic*

> *Homelessness*. The President's\
> FY 2003 budget called for ending chronic
>
> homelessness in ten years. Cities and counties
>
> across the country are being encouraged by the
>
> Council to create 10-Year Plans to end chronic
>
> homelessness. At their annual meetings last year,
>
> the US Conference of Mayors, the National
>
> League of Cities and the National Association of
>
> Counties all endorsed resolutions forwarded by
>
> the Council and actively supported by HUD
>
> supporting the Administration's goal of ending
>
> chronic homelessness in ten years and
>
> encouraging communities to develop 10-Year Plans.
>
> The Council has produced and distributed a guide to facilitate the
> development of these plans, *"The 10-Year Planning Process to End
> Chronic Homelessness in Your Community: A Step by Step Guide".* The
> Council's Executive Director and Regional Coordinators have
> aggressively supported communities in their planning processes through
> direct technical assistance. The Collaborative Initiative and the
> proposed Samaritan Initiative are part of the federal investment of
> resources intended to achieve this 10 year goal.
>
> To date 92 mayors, county executives and city managers have endorsed
> 10 year planning processes for their communities*.*

-   *ICH Website***.** The Council has created a website at
    [www.ich.gov](http://www.ich.gov/) to disseminate innovative ideas
    and best practices information to state and local governments and
    the public. Federal resources on the strategies to end homelessness
    are facilitated through links to all 20 member agency websites. The
    ICH website is also used to post notices of funding opportunities,
    and to disseminate information concerning the state interagency
    councils and community 10-Year Plans. Cities and states can turn to
    the ICH website for examples of Executive Orders and

10-Year Plans developed by other communities.

**Identifying Innovative Initiatives**

Over the last 19 months the Council has held a number of national focus
groups to inform our policy deliberations and identify best practices
and innovative programs that are achieving the desired outcomes of
preventing and ending homelessness and that can be replicated in other
communities. Prior focus groups have focused on rural homelessness,
family homelessness, innovative housing solutions, and faith-based
initiatives. Future focus groups are planned on youth homelessness,
research, state interagency council development and implementation,
implementation of community 10- Year Plans to end chronic homelessness,
and technical assistance.

In conjunction with the Council's work with communities in the
development of 10-Year Plans, the Council has held regional focus groups
bringing together city and county administrators from 180 communities.
Innovative practitioners from around the country

and city officials from communities whose plans are already underway
served as faculty. The impact of these focus groups was to encourage
many communities to engage in

10- year planning processes and to disseminate information on
results-oriented, evidence-based practices across the country.

*(Language is included in the President's budget for the Council asking
that restrictive language on rental of conference rooms in the District
of Columbia be deleted which would facilitate the Council being able to
hold more local and regional meetings*.)

# The Continuing Work of the Council

In FY 2005, the Council intends to continue its statutory activities
of: 1) federal homeless program coordination 2) governmental and private
programs evaluation 3) information distribution, and 4) provision of
technical assistance. Additionally, the Council will continue to foster
new collaborative prevention and intervention opportunities among
federal agencies as well as monitor those initiatives already underway
to document outcomes and identify best practices.

The Council will continue to work with federal, state and local agencies
to strengthen partnerships. Our goal, by the end of 2004, is that every
state and territory will develop a state interagency council on
homelessness, and that more than 100 cities and counties will create and
implement 10-Year Plans to end chronic homelessness.

The Council will continue to develop the ICH website as the central
federal website on homelessness and will work with member agencies to
improve navigation to homelessness information on their sites.

Since its revitalization in March 2002, the 20 member agencies that
comprise the Council and the Council staff have taken an approach to
homelessness that is based on accountability, collaboration and results.
We believe that our approach to strengthen prevention programs and to
fund performance-based, results-oriented interventions will produce a
visible reduction in homelessness in this country.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.