The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities and works to end hunger in the United States and internationally. It is headed by the secretary of agriculture, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who has served since February 24, 2021.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and urban development, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet.
The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services by the Department of Education Organization Act, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law on October 17, 1979.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
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.
Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by different professional academics and US governmental departments that supported housing. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders, mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities or other serious challenges to stable housing.
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.
United We Ride is an interagency Federal national initiative that supports states and local communities in developing coordinated human service delivery systems, generally focused around public transit. In addition to coordination grants, United We Ride provides state and local agencies with transportation-coordination and planning self-assessment tools, technical assistance, and other resources. Eleven federal agencies and one Presidential initiative make up the United We Ride program.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a United States-based organization addressing the issue of homelessness. The Alliance provides data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates. They also work on the local level to provide community partners with information on best practices and technical assistance.
The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs is a group within the executive branch of the U.S. government, and is responsible for promoting healthy outcomes for all youth, including disconnected youth and youth who are at-risk. The Working Group also engages with national, state, local and tribal agencies and organizations, schools, and faith-based and community organizations that serve youth.
Barbara Poppe was the executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) from 2009 to 2014. Prior to her appointment at USICH, she spent over 20 years working on homelessness with housing-related organizations in Ohio. After her role at the USCIH, she founded a consulting business, Barbara Poppe & Associates LLC.
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.
The White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) is a United States governmental office that coordinates an ambitious whole-of-government approach to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The Initiative collaborates with the Deputy Assistant to the President and AA and NHPI Senior Liaison, White House Office of Public Engagement and designated federal departments and agencies to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for AA and NHPIs in the areas of economic development, education, health and human services, housing, environment, arts, agriculture, labor and employment, transportation, justice, veterans affairs, and community development.
Sam J. Tsemberis is a Greek Canadian clinical and community psychology practitioner, and the founder and executive director of Pathways to Housing, a Housing First program for individuals with serious mental illnesses, long histories of homelessness, and often co-occurring substance abuse. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor in Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of Los Angeles California.
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.
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.
Housing in the United States comes in a variety of forms and tenures. The rate of homeownership in the United States, as measured by the fraction of units that are owner-occupied, was 64% as of 2017. This rate is less than the rates in other large countries such as China (90%), Russia (89%) Mexico (80%), or Brazil (73%).
