LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. Hundreds of Mayors from across the nation, many of whom are among the more than 300 Mayors partnered with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to develop 10-Year Plans to end the homelessness of their most disabled and vulnerable citizens, gathered in Los Angeles last week for the five-day 75th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. USCM President and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer (pictured here) presided over the meeting. Miami Mayor Mannie Diaz was affirmed as Vice President of the Conference.

At a plenary session on Monday, the Conference of Mayors affirmed its continuing commitment to end chronic homelessness, supported the National Project Homeless Connect effort, indicated support for permanent housing for homeless veterans, and confirmed their five-year partnership and support for the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and ongoing partnership through 10-Year Plans. See the e-news "Words of the Week" for more details.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Des Moines Mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie convened a meeting of the Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness and invited initiatives that are creating results to report from around the country. The Mayors invited United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano to update them on the National Partnership achieving results in ending homelessness. Director Mangano praised the Mayors for creating 10-Year Plans to end homelessness in their communities and strengthening the National Partnership. The Mayors acknowledged the partnership of Sodexho and heard from Sodexho School Services President Lorna Donatone who offered Sodexho's continuing support in their efforts to reduce and end homelessness and hunger.

At the Community Development and Housing Committee meeting on Saturday, Committee Chair and Green Bay Mayor James Schmitt and partner Mayors considered a range of resolutions regarding housing and community development initiatives. Several of these pertained to initiatives in which the U.S. Conference of Mayors is partnered with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and other federal agencies. Mayor Schmitt used the opportunity to thank Director Mangano for meeting with him and other community leaders in Green Bay recently to help launch the Mayor's 10-Year Plan effort. In addition to the above described resolution, the Committee approved two other resolutions presented to them by Mayor Newsom on behalf of the Hunger and Homelessness Task Force :

• Endorsing the Innovation of National Project Homeless Connect to End Homelessness
• Ending Homelessness For Veterans by Increasing Permanent Supportive Housing Resources

Both of these resolutions were supported and later adopted by the full Conference on Monday.

Director Mangano and a number of the Council's Regional Coordinators met with Mayors from all regions of the country throughout the annual meeting to provide technical assistance and encourage new 10-Year Plan commitments.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness convened to update Mayors regarding progress over the last year. In that regard, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported on results in the nation's cities. The 23-city Task Force, co-chaired by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Des Moines Mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie, invited United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano to update Mayors on the results being achieved in the National Partnership constellated by the Council.

Director Mangano thanked the Mayors for their partnership over the last five years and for demonstrating the political will to bring all stakeholders in their communities together to focus on solutions to homelessness through the creation of 10-Year Plans framed around business principles and infused with evidence based, field tested innovations. Jurisdictional planning efforts are producing results as more than 25 jurisdictions engaged in 10-Year Plan efforts have reported reductions in street and chronic homelessness, including last week's report from Monterey, California of an 11% reduction in street homelessness. See related story in this e-news.

The Task Force also heard from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, whose city recently reported a 36% reduction in chronic homelessness, and who noted that "chronic homelessness is a financial sinkhole for any city in ER, jail, and emergency services costs." He described a soon to be expanded parking meter initiative that has reduced the number of panhandlers in the downtown area from 24 to 3. Other cities at the Task Force meeting were inspired to replicate this program.

According to the Mayor, public sentiment towards persons who are homeless has changed positively as the city "changes the public consciousness, takes ownership of the problem, and the public sees solutions can be found and can be made to work."

Mayors also heard reports related to concerns regarding veterans and youth. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Director of Homeless Veterans Programs Peter Dougherty provided an overview of VA programs for homeless veterans and described pending legislation in Congress that would allow the VA to provide supportive services to veterans in permanent supportive housing. Bay Area-based First Place for Youth Executive Director Sam Cobbs discussed reducing homelessness among foster youth (see related e-news story); and Adolfo Bailon representing U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer discussed S 1512, The Foster Care Continuing Opportunities Act, to amend Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to give states the option for youth to elect to remain in foster care until age 21. San Francisco-based Swords to Plowshares and Sodexho School Services President Lorna Donatone also participated. Sodexho has a long relationship with USCM in support of the Mayors' reports on hunger and homelessness.

Pictured here (top) U.S. Conference of Mayors President and Trenton, NJ Mayor Doug Palmer with Director Mangano. Below, left to right at the Hunger and Homelessness Task Force Meeting, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Task Force co-chairs Mayors Newsom and Cownie, and Director Mangano.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. In Los Angeles to attend the 75th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (see related e-news story), U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, accompanied by Council Region 9 Coordinator Ed Cabrera, also had meetings in Los Angeles with City and County leaders. Meeting with Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky and his deputy, Flora Gil-Krisiloff, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles County Homeless Coordinator Garrison Smith, City of Los Angeles Homeless Policy Coordinator Leslie Wise, and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Executive Director Rebecca Isaacs, Director Mangano discussed and encouraged a regional 10-Year Plan approach to developing solutions to end homelessness with strong county, city, business, and United Way leadership.

Director Mangano and Coordinator Ed Cabrera also met with key provider agency executives working in Skid Row, a 55-square block area east of downtown Los Angeles where thousands of people are living on the streets. During the meeting, these agencies indicated their concerns related to the Safer Cities Initiative targeted to Skid Row, and its repercussions in the lives of homeless people, property owners, and communities.

Agencies in attendance included Skid Row Housing Trust, Chrysalis, SRO Housing Corp., Downtown Women's Center, JWCH Institute, Union Rescue Mission, Midnight Mission, Lamp Community, Beyond Shelter, PATH, and Homeless Health Care of Los Angeles, which work with very low income and homeless residents of Skid Row to provide shelter, transitional and permanent housing, health care, mental health and substance abuse counseling, job training and employment services.

The meeting was hosted by Executive Director Mike Alvidrez and held at the Rainbow Apartments, an 87-unit permanent supportive housing project developed by the Skid Row Housing Trust and dedicated last November in a ceremony at which Director Mangano commended the Skid Row Housing Trust for the latest addition to their portfolio of over 1100 units of housing.

The housing and support needs of young people aging out of the foster care system at age 18, as well as re-entry issues facing youthful offenders, were the focus of a meeting and tour with Executive Director Lorrie Jean and representatives of a variety of service providers and agencies that comprise the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership (HHYP). Curt Shepard, Government Relations Director for the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, organized the event that was also attended by Deputy to Board of Supervisors Chair Flora Gil Krisiloff. Earlier this year, the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children's Hospital Los Angeles announced receipt of a two-year, $212,000 grant from The California Endowment to fund a collaborative effort with the HHYP to conduct an updated needs assessment of runaway and homeless youth in Hollywood to enhance planning and coordination of services.

During the meeting, Director Mangano affirmed the importance of cost benefit analysis for the population, noting some of the insights into the needs of the population, including those aging out of foster care, that were developed during his tenure as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, which initiated statewide data collection on the population and developed a policy agenda for ending homelessness and reducing risk for the population.

WOODLAND, CALIFORNIA. Yolo County will partner with the cities of West Sacramento, Woodland, Davis, and Winters to develop a 10- Year Plan to end the homelessness of the community's most vulnerable residents living on the streets and in shelters. Yolo County Board of Supervisors Chair Mariko Yamada invited U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano to a meeting of the Board this week to talk about the National Partnership to end chronic homelessness and to provide insights into successful planning efforts. Introducing Director Mangano, Supervisor Yamada admitted that she'd been skeptical when she received an invitation to the Council's National Summit for Jurisdictional Leaders in March but became persuaded by the level of participation and seriousness of the approach she found at the Summit.

In his presentation, Director Mangano welcomed the Board into the National Partnership with its focus on investing in the result of ending people's homelessness. He stressed the importance of including a broad spectrum of stakeholders in the planning process including law enforcement, hospitals, faith based organizations, the United Way, business leaders, housing developers, service providers, academia, librarians, parks and recreation departments, and homeless consumers. He noted that much groundwork has already been laid through research and the development of evidence based and field tested innovations that are achieving results in other 10-Year Plan cities and can be replicated including permanent supportive housing, housing first, rapid rehousing, assertive community treatment teams, and Project Homeless Connect.

Among those present for the Board meeting and discussion were U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development Sacramento Field Office Director Cynthia Abbott, Yolo County Housing Authority Executive Director Lisa Baker, County Homeless Coordinator Janice Kritchlow, Homeless and Poverty Action Coalition Director Bill Pride, and Council Region 9 Coordinator Ed Cabrera. A $60,000 planning and technical assistance state CDBG grant is being sought to help support development of the plan. Director Mangano is shown here addressing the Board.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. First Place for Youth is a Bay Area non-profit organization founded in 1998 that helps youth 18-24 and those within two years of aging out of foster care make a successful transition to independent living. Executive Director Sam Cobbs was among the presenters at last week's U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness meeting in Los Angeles during USCM's 75th Annual Meeting. He described the plight faced by young people "emancipated" from the foster care system at age 18 to begin living on their own as adults without further guidance or financial supports. The Child Welfare League of America has reported that nearly 25% of former foster youth will experience homelessness. For foster youth whose lives have often been "one continual transition", creating stability in housing, employment, and relationships are important steps to self -sufficiency.

To help bridge the gap between their "emancipation" and self sufficiency, the First Place offers housing assistance, life skills training including economic literacy, and employment and education resources. Through its Supported Housing Program, First Place offers emancipated foster youth participants housing in two-bedroom apartments in the East Bay where they receive a wide range of services and support that include financial assistance to pay housing start-up costs, monthly rental subsidies, weekly in-home case management, weekly life skills training, economic literacy training, transportation assistance, monthly food vouchers, community building peer events, and health advocacy. Director Cobbs is pictured here (second from right )with Mayors (left to right: Cownie, Newsom, and Hickenlooper) at the USCM Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness meeting.

Through its First Step program (formerly known as Emancipation Training Center), 500 "emancipated" foster youth annually access services including therapeutic case management, emancipation planning, housing search assistance, emergency food vouchers, emergency utility assistance, computers, recreational activities and educational resources.

The Emancipation Specialist Program is targeted to at- risk young people within two years of aging out of the foster care system who receive intensive case management from specialists who help them develop goals and and identify community resources in the critical areas of education, housing and employment.

Outcome measures for First Place indicate that First Place participants are 6 times less likely to be arrested or incarcerated; 4 times less likely to experience homelessness; 3 times less likely to receive general assistance or TANF; and 50% more likely to be employed.

Recently the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support held a hearing on disconnected and disadvantaged youth. In his opening statement, Congressman Jim McDermott, chairman of the Subcommittee, pledged to hold future hearings on the specific issue of youth aging out of the foster care system. "Our burden to help these kids is especially high since the government has acted as their legal parent and no parent I know ends contact with their children when they turn 18 years of age."

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 170 homeless veterans received assistance at the second annual Central Massachusetts Stand Down this month sponsored by Massachusetts Veterans, Inc. (MVI) at a former armory turned shelter and service center in Worcester. The Stand Down was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.

A variety of community organizations, and state and federal agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, Massachusetts Department of Revenue and Registry of Motor Vehicles were on hand to provide services ranging from hair cuts to benefits application assistance to IDs. Housing providers present in addition to Massachusetts Veterans Inc. included the Montachusetts Veterans Outreach Center in Fitchburg, United Veterans of America in Pittsfield, and Veterans Transitional House in New Bedford. Also on hand were Legal Assistance Corporation staff, substance abuse treatment professionals from ADCARE Hospital, and employees of the Workforce Central Career Center in Worcester. The Veterans Homestead of Fitchburg provided a mobile medical van (shown here).

In addition to providing shelter, case management and supportive services to homeless veterans, MVI operates numerous other programs including a number of employment and training programs, a Computer Training Academy, and Mobile Education Center for both veterans and non veterans, a Feed-a-Vet food pantry for eligible veterans and their families, and a transitional support program for veterans who move on from the shelter. MVI will also be participating in the initiative of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, Home and Healthy for Good Housing First permanent supportive housing effort.

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Region 1 Coordinator and Vietnam Veteran John O'Brien attended the Stand Down. Coordinator O'Brien also met with the Worcester Task Force on Homelessness, cochaired by former Mayor Jordan Levy and former City Manager William Mulford.

Read More about the Massachusetts Home and Healthy for Good initiative.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. Family reunification and breaking the generational cycle of addiction, incarceration, and homelessness are two key outcome objectives for the Freedom Recovery Community, the latest initiative of The Next Door Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee. The 20-apartment project being dedicated this week will provide permanent housing with on-site access to recovery support services for women diagnosed with co-occurring mental health and substance addiction disorders and their children. The women will be referred from local transitional housing centers, emergency homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and other agencies. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director John Walters participated in the dedication ceremony.

Creating the Freedom Recovery Community was a logical extension of the work of The Next Door, Inc., a non-profit originally created through the vision of women parishioners of First Baptist Nashville who sought to meet an identified community need for a transitional living, mentoring, and life skills program for women re-entering the community from incarceration. The first women residents of The Next Door arrived in May 2004, and since then more than 325 women "in crisis" re-entering the community from incarceration, inpatient treatment facilities, or homelessness have been assisted through the transitional living program.

The new Freedom Recovery Community program will provide permanent housing opportunities coupled with recovery support services including family counseling, mentoring, a job services coach to help them maintain employment, and will include early drug use prevention classes for children. The new Freedom Recovery Community is funded with support from Tennessee Housing Development Agency's Housing Trust Fund, Memorial Foundation, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development McKinney Act funds, and numerous private donors.

Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, an early partner in 10- Year Planning and member of the Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, has recently reported a 21% decrease in street homelessness in his city. Next Door CEO Linda Leathers, who recently visited the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness while in Washington, DC, with Board member Andrea Overby briefing policymakers on the Nashville program, affirmed the importance of the Nashville 10-Year Plan effort to Next Door's housing initiatives during a meeting with Council Deputy Director Mary Ellen Hombs.

Meeting at the United States Conference of Mayors 75th Annual Conference last week in Los Angeles, Mayors of the nation's largest cities adopted numerous resolutions, including measures in support of the Council's work, the national replication of San Francisco's Project Homeless Connect innovation, and meeting the needs of veterans. Below are excerpts from the resolutions.

ENDORSING THE INNOVATION OF NATIONAL PROJECT HOMELESS CONNECT TO END HOMELESSNESS.

Project Homeless Connect, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's innovative one-day, one-stop engagement strategy for persons who are homeless, was first developed two years ago, and has, with the encouragement and technical assistance of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, been adopted in more than 115 cities nationwide. Forty cities took part in the Council's National Project Homeless Connect Week in December 2006.

. . . mayors and cities are on the front lines of the response to homelessness . . . the recent innovation of National Project Homeless Connect is helping cities welcome people experiencing homelessness back into community life by mobilizing volunteers from all walks of life to provide services and housing in one-day, one-stop engagement events that support the goals of their ten year plans; and over the last two years more than 115 cities of all sizes have adopted this innovation, and building on models of response to Katrina and in veterans' Stand Downs . . . mayors have organized Project Homeless Connect events specifically to engage homeless youth, homeless families, and chronically homeless individuals; and mayors have engaged business, academia, professional sports, and an expansive range of new public and private partners in executing Project Homeless Connect events . . . Project Homeless Connect strategies and results improve the quality of life for individuals, the community, neighborhoods, and the taxpayer . . . NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports the increased involvement of mayors in joining the 2007 National Project Homeless Connect Week and throughout the year in proven strategies that end homelessness; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the U.S. Conference of Mayors commends this innovative initiative and encourages mayors to adopt the National Project Homeless Connect model and participate in the 2007 National Project Homeless Connect Week.

ENDING HOMELESSNESS FOR VETERANS BY INCREASING PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING RESOURCES

Mayors attending the USCM Annual Meeting and especially those participating in the Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness expressed their concern and commitment to meet the housing and other needs of all those who have served their nation, especially those service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This commitment is strongly shared by United States Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary and former United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Chair R. James Nicholson, who in the most recent Full Council meeting of March 5, asked new Council Chair and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to increase attention to homeless veterans, including strategies for securing needed supportive services and access to permanent housing opportunities.

. . . the men and women of the armed services have made sacrifices for the American people and we have an obligation to care for them if they need services or housing; and WHEREAS, mayors are committed to supporting homeless veterans and assuring they have the housing and services they need to rebuild their lives; and homeless veterans with disabilities often need housing that is deeply affordable with onsite services to help them remain housed and thrive in our communities; and WHEREAS, creating permanent supportive housing for disabled veterans will increase the availability of existing transitional housing units for the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who become homeless and are in need of stabilization services to re-integrate back into the community; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the U.S. Conference of Mayors support the increased investment to end homelessness for veterans using proven strategies such as creating permanent supportive housing units designated for veterans; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors continue to endorse legislation that creates new funding sources to create permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans that includes funds for new construction with dollars for operating and onsite treatment services through increased resources for the HUD-VA Supportive Housing program, and targeted resources within the Department of Health and Human Services for mental heath and substance abuse treatment services and within the Department of Labor for workforce assistance.

ENDORSING INNOVATIVE POLICIES TO SUCCESSFULLY END AND PREVENT CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS ACROSS THE NATION

National Partnership between the nation's Mayors and the Interagency Council is built on a long foundation of collaboration and 10-Year Planning. Starting with a resolution unanimously passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2003, which stated: "The U.S. Conference of Mayors supports the 10-year planning process and strongly encourages cities to create and implement . . . strategic plans to end chronic homelessness in 10 years," more than 300 of the nation's Mayors have joined the National Partnership, which now includes more than 25 Mayors who are able to report reductions in street or chronic homelessness under their 10-Year Plans.

. . . numerous studies compiled by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness have shown that permanent supportive housing models to end chronic homelessness are highly effective and that the cost of providing supportive housing is substantially offset by savings in the most expensive systems of community care including hospitalizations, jails, and other correctional facilities; and WHEREAS, these supportive strategies improve the quality of life for both the individuals being housed and the community at large; and WHEREAS, ending chronic homelessness requires collaboration and coordination at all levels of government, together with community institutions, businesses, and faith-based organizations, to determine how best to implement prevention and intervention strategies; and WHEREAS, over 300 cities have created jurisdictionally-based 10- Year Plans to end chronic homelessness, many of which are showing results . . . The U.S. Conference of Mayors affirms the value of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and commends its initiatives to support mayors as they implement ten year plans.

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