In the United States,the number of homeless people on a given night in January 2023 was more than 650,000 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homelessness has increased in recent years,in large part due to an increasingly severe housing shortage and rising home prices in the United States.
The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 is a United States federal law that provides federal money for homeless shelter programs. It was the first significant federal legislative response to homelessness,and was passed by the 100th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 22,1987. The act has been reauthorized several times over the years.
Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional,permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people,and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s,and in the following decades became government policy in certain locations within the Western world. There is a substantial base of evidence showing that Housing First is both an effective solution to homelessness and a form of cost savings,as it also reduces the use of public services like hospitals,jails,and emergency shelters. Cities like Helsinki and Vienna in Europe have seen dramatic reductions in homelessness due to the adaptation of Housing First policies,as have the North American cities Columbus,Ohio,Salt Lake City,Utah,and Medicine Hat,Alberta.
Jennifer Lee Brunner is an American attorney,politician and judge. She is currently an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court,a position to which she was elected after serving as a judge on Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals. On June 8,2021,Brunner announced her candidacy for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court in the November 8,2022,general election. Brunner is a member of the Democratic Party who served as the Ohio Secretary of State;Brunner was the first woman to serve in this capacity. She took office after sixteen years of Republican control,which included two four-year terms by her predecessor J. Kenneth Blackwell,who oversaw the 2000 and 2004 state elections. Brunner served only a single term as Secretary of State. When it came time for re-election in 2010,she instead made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. Prior to being elected Secretary of State,Brunner worked in the Ohio Secretary of State's Office and served as a County Judge in Franklin County,Ohio. She also owned her own private practice;during her private practice career,she focused on election law and campaign finance law. She represented a broad range of candidates,businesses,political parties and committees before the Ohio Elections Commission on quasi-criminal matters.
Mary Taylor is an American businesswoman and politician who served as the 65th lieutenant governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019.
The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) is a non-profit organization in Seattle,Washington,providing services for that city's homeless population. The organization was founded in 1979 to aid men and women living in a state of chronic homelessness who,due to their severe and persistent mental and addictive illnesses,were not being served by the existing shelters of the time. At its opening,the non-profit sheltered nearly 200 adults from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the ballroom of the Morrison Hotel. Today,DESC is a recognized national leader in homelessness services that specializes in shelters and supportive housing projects. It operates under a Housing First model with a low-barrier for entry into services. DESC clients engage with mental health services,case management and employment services at DESC projects. DESC currently operates 5 shelters and 15 supportive housing projects and is largely funded by the City of Seattle and King County.
The Shelterhouse,formerly Drop Inn Center,is a homeless shelter in Cincinnati,Ohio. The name was a reference to "drop-in center". The Shelterhouse is the largest homeless shelter in Cincinnati.
Shannon Jones is an American politician from the state of Ohio. A Republican,she was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009 and a member of the Ohio Senate from 2009 to 2016. She is currently a county commissioner in Warren County,Ohio and the Executive Director of Groundwork Ohio.
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) is an independent federal agency within the U.S. executive branch that leads the implementation of the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. USICH is advised by a Council,which includes the heads of its 20 federal member agencies.
Helen Jones-Kelley is the former Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS),Ohio's largest agency,from 2007 to 2008. During her tenure she received substantial media attention for various ODJFS-related activities,and for her role in the Joe the Plumber database search controversy.
Barbara R. Sears is a Republican politician who formerly represented the 47th District of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2008 to 2016. She served as the Majority Floor Leader in the Ohio House of Representatives. Her district included much of suburban Toledo,Ohio.
Robert G. Marbut,Jr. is an American homelessness consultant and professor who served as the Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness from 2019 to 2021 after being appointed by then-President Donald Trump.
The 100,000 Homes Campaign was an initiative of Community Solutions designed to "help communities around the country place 100,000 chronically homeless people in 186 communities in the United States into permanent supportive housing." Due to the cost of emergency department treatment,the program aims to provide housing for the homeless,as it is cheaper in the long run. In 2014,the program was featured on 60 Minutes,focusing on the homeless population in Nashville,Tennessee. Becky Kanis Margiotta was the campaign director. By July 2014,the 100,000 Homes Campaign had reached its goal and housed 105,580 of the most vulnerable homeless individuals.
Jennifer Ho is an American government official. She was the Senior Advisor for Housing and Services at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,during the administration of President Barack Obama. She had a history of working to fight homelessness in America. Prior to her appointment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development,she oversaw the creation of Opening Doors,the country's first federal plan to end homelessness,while serving as deputy director at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Homelessness is a growing problem in Colorado and is considered the most important social determinants of health. Homelessness is very difficult for many Coloradoans to escape due to the continuous increase in costs for housing in Colorado,along with mental health treatments and other factors. When people are forced to live without stable shelter,they are then exposed to a number of risk factors that affect physical and mental health. Although it is difficult to pin point any one cause of homelessness,there is a complicated combination of societal and individual causes.
Amy Leigh Acton is an American physician and public-health researcher who served as the director of the Ohio Department of Health from 2019–2020. She played a leading role in Ohio's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Philip F. Mangano is the President and CEO of The American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness,and former Executive Director of the White House United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) was established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2011 to create public-private partnerships to rapidly re-house homeless Veteran families and prevent homelessness for very low-income Veterans at imminent risk due to a housing crisis. SSVF has been led since its inception by John Kuhn,the previous VA National Director of Homeless Evaluation.
Joan Brown Campbell is an American Christian minister and ecumenical leader. She has standing as an ordained minister in both the Christian Church and the American Baptist Church. In 1991,she became the first ordained woman to serve as the general secretary for the National Council of Churches of Christ USA. During her career,she also served as the head of the US office for the World Council of Churches,and later,as director of the Religion Department for the Chataqua Institution. In both cases,she was the first woman to hold these roles.
The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress,produced by The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,estimated that 10,654 Ohioans faced homelessness during the year,representing 9 in every 10,000 individuals. Over 80% of the homeless were sheltered. This population was made up of 3,214 people who belonged to families with children,703 unaccompanied youth,633 veterans,and 1,023 chronically homeless individuals.
