Ending Homelessness in America -- A New Sense of Urgency -- Homelessness in Key Cities Jumps 25 Percent Over Past Year

Washington, DC -- In a National Neighborhood Coalition-sponsored forum that took place yesterday, Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, reported that after 10 years of gradual increases in homelessness, the past year delivered a dramatic upward spike of nearly 25 percent in many major cities across the country. Reliable information coming from cities including Washington, Seattle, New York and Chicago all cite the same trend -- homelessness is drastically increasing. Roman suggested that the slowing economy has exacerbated the problem, while housing markets have remained strong.

While that spike will cause problems for shelters across the country, homelessness prevention advocates are even more concerned with bringing an end to homelessness entirely. A 10-year plan presented by the National Alliance to End Homelessness points out the need to reinstate programs that were cut or dramatically reduced from our federal budget - programs driven by social service and the criminal justice systems that worked to prevent homelessness. Two other presenters, Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and Roosevelt Darby, Deputy Director of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness, agreed that an end to homelessness could be achieved in ten years if mainstream system providers were able to intervene before families became homeless.

We need to prevent homelessness, not intervene after they are homeless," said Phillip Mangano. The Interagency Council on Homelessness has been reestablished with the goal of moving people off the street and into permanent housing or mainstream systems and the Administration and Program Secretaries are on board for this goal."

The National Alliance to End Homelessness 10-year Plan to end homelessness can be found on its Web site at www.naeh.org.

The Ending Homelessness in America forum was sponsored by the National Neighborhood Coalition, whose goal is to build and maintain healthy neighborhoods across the country, especially those that lower-income residents call home. NNC was founded in 1979 and today has more than 115 members forming a network of national and local community development leaders who are forging cutting-edge policies and programs to promote healthy neighborhoods. We believe in neighborhoods as the heart and soul of our nation and its communities. For more information, please visit us at www.neighborhoodcoalition.org.

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