{"id":1914,"date":"2013-07-25T15:23:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T21:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2013-07-25T15:23:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T21:23:36","slug":"sequestration-takes-away-services-that-are-proven-to-reduce-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/sequestration-takes-away-services-that-are-proven-to-reduce-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequestration Takes Away Services That Are Proven To Reduce Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Bryce Covert<\/a>, Think Progress
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, more than a dozen advocacy groups that work to protect the homeless and those living with AIDS\u00a0rallied at the capitol<\/a>\u00a0to protest sequestration\u2019s impact on programs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The group is calling for a complete overturn of sequestration. \u201cAs a community fighting for an end to homelessness across the country, we are concerned by the impact of both proposed cuts to housing programing in the FY2014 budget and the impact of the sequester on these vital programs aimed at supporting those who are most vulnerable,\u201d stated Christine Campbell, vice president of national advocacy and organizing for Housing Works.<\/p>\n

Sequestration has taken a brutal toll on housing programs. As ThinkProgress previously reported, low-income people are\u00a0already being denied vouchers<\/a>\u00a0to assist them with paying for rent. It will also have a devastating effect on programs that help the homeless. HUD estimates that\u00a0more than 100,000<\/a>\u00a0homeless and formerly homeless people will be removed from programs.<\/p>\n

These programs are already feeling the impact. Homeless services such as shelters, health care, and substance abuse programs \u201crely heavily on federal money because states and local jurisdictions in many cases don\u2019t have as much money set aside in their budgets for that,\u201d Jerry Jones, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told ThinkProgresss. And unlike the Federal Aviation Administration, which was\u00a0given the authority to use money<\/a>\u00a0set aside for other purposes to blunt the blow of the budget cuts, HUD programs have very little that they can shift around. \u201cThe cuts almost immediately translate into grant reductions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The decrease in funding has been swift and severe for Triumph Treatment Services in Yakima, WA, according to Ben Miksch of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. Many homeless people turn to drug abuse treatment centers like Triumph to get back on their feet, but thanks to the way Washington\u2019s budget works, the organization \u201chad to take an entire year of sequestration cuts in three months,\u201d Miksch reports. That meant a $75,000 reduction in April, May, and June. The program usually has 68 beds for those recovering from substance abuse, but had to drop down to 50 for April through June and is now hovering around 64. \u201cThat means they served 27 less people for the three months,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Next year they will have to cut about two beds every month. Statewide, Miksch anticipates losing 31 beds a month for treatment programs for the rest of the year, which translates to 32 fewer people a month who would otherwise have accessed those services.<\/p>\n

Other services in the state are going to suffer. Shelters for the homeless, youths, and domestic violence survivors, all part of the network that help people avoid homelessness, are funded with Continuum of Care money through HUD, which will issue final numbers on budget cuts in the fall. The intense demand from programs across the country to renew those grants are likely to act like a 4 to 8 percent cut in how much gets doled out. That will mean shutting down programs, Miksch said. As shelters scramble to keep beds, they may also have to cut other supportive services such as help with childcare and back to work programs. The impact on these \u201cfrontline responses\u201d to homelessness \u201cis going to be really brutal and tragic,\u201d Miksch said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And cuts to housing vouchers will have a trickle-down effect on the homeless. People in transitional housing programs or shelters trying to get into their own housing with the assistance of the Section 8 program will be left on their own. This will \u201ccreate a brick wall\u201d for programs trying to help move people out, Jones said.<\/p>\n

The activists pushing HUD to reverse sequestration say that prior investment in programs that serve the homeless has recently seen success in a 1 percent reduction in homelessness between 2009 and 2011. Miksch also argues that the effectiveness of this spending has been seen in separate vouchers that go to helping homeless veterans that have been \u201crobustly funded\u201d by Congress. Homelessness among veterans is on track to end by 2015. \u201cIt blows my mind that we can show that when we invest resources in this we really can end homelessness,\u201d he said. Yet the government is now going in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Bryce Covert, Think Progress click here for original article On Wednesday, more than a dozen advocacy groups that work to protect the homeless and those living with AIDS\u00a0rallied at the capitol\u00a0to protest sequestration\u2019s impact on programs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The group is calling for a complete overturn of sequestration. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/homeless-225x300.jpg?fit=225%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}