“To amend the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act with respect to the definition of homeless individual, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the definition of "homeless" under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302)—which governs eligibility for HUD homeless assistance programs such as Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grants—by (1) expanding paragraph (5), for individuals or families imminently losing housing, to include those who may reside in indigenous, rural, or marginalized communities (as defined by the Secretary); (2) striking "unaccompanied" from paragraph (6), thus broadening it beyond unaccompanied youth to all youth (accompanied or not) and homeless families with children and youth defined as homeless under other federal statutes who have experienced long-term housing instability due to chronic disabilities, physical conditions, or other causes; and adding to that paragraph the same allowance for residence in indigenous, rural, or marginalized communities; and (3) directing the Secretary, within the domestic violence definition, to specifically include women, women with children, survivors, and other persons at risk of gender-based violence as a recognized subpopulation (as defined in applicable federal statutes and regulations).
This section revises Section 412 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to establish a set-aside within the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program—as background, ESG provides formula and competitive grants to states, localities, and nonprofits for homeless assistance activities such as emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, and homelessness prevention—for direct grants to private nonprofit organizations serving high-needs populations, including homeless pregnant women and children, chronically homeless persons, families with children and youth, victims of gender-based violence or trauma, seniors, and other special needs populations designated by the Secretary. Grants may fund (1) operating costs; (2) outpatient services such as mental health and substance use treatment; (3) supportive services including childcare, employment assistance, case management, food, therapy, trauma counseling, and victim services; (4) housing relocation and stabilization services for homeless persons, families, or those at risk of homelessness; and (5) other Secretary-designated services. Grant recipients must submit applications and evaluations, including unduplicated counts of served women, children, seniors, gender-based violence victims, special needs populations, individuals receiving housing relocation services, and those placed in transitional or permanent housing, plus data on coordination with Continuum of Care programs and other entities. The Secretary must provide technical assistance to grantees on trauma-informed services, staff training, and coordination for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.