The National Coalition for the Homeless and more than a dozen other national homelessness advocacy groups, including PNTEH, have called upon President-Elect Barack Obama to take steps immediately upon becoming President to address the urgent crisis of homelessness in the United States.

The incoming Administration has previously expressed a commitment to addressing homelessness. President-Elect Obama was a sponsor of the Homes for Heroes Act, which would provide housing assistance for homeless very low-income veterans, and Vice President-Elect Biden was a leader in the Senate working to prevent domestic violence survivors from becoming homeless through the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

NCH and their partner advocate groups are now urging the Presidential Transition Team to commit to ending homelessness by accepting six key recommendations, beginning by demonstrating its commitment in the first year by completing a federal plan to end homelessness and holding a White House Conference to begin implementing the plan.

Other recommended policy priorities include increasing access to affordable housing; ensuring adequate incomes; expanding access to health services; ensuring access to education for homeless children and youth; and protecting homeless people from discrimination. 

“Even though this year’s presidential candidates rarely mentioned homelessness on the campaign trail, the current economic crisis will surely make the numbers grow,” said Michael Stoops, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "We urge the new Administration and Congress to act immediately in taking the steps necessary to prevent and end homelessness.”

Stoops serves on the PNTEH Public Policy Committee as well as NCH.

You can read the letter to the Obama administration by clicking here.

Endorsing organizations are America’s Road Home, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Give Us Your Poor, National AIDS Housing Council, National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, National Coalition for the Homeless, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, National Housing Law Project, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.