FY 2011 The Verdict for Housing Projects

       So it looks like homelessness was not dealt the huge blow of the governement axe but will remained well funded for the most part. The McKinney-Vento programs saw an amazing increase of 40 million that will make the total funding of these programs 1.905 billion dollars. This was a huge win for all the programs that are funded through McKinney-Vento. I believe that all of the supporters that contacted their congressman to let them know how important it is to actively pursue funding for Homelessness programs impacted the outcome we saw in a positive way. There is absolutely no way that this amount of increase would have been considered if constituents hadn't been active in this venture.
     Some of the other things to consider with the new budget are that there was an increase that enables an estimated 7,690 additional homeless veterans to have a place to live. This was due to the 50 million dollars that was awarded to the the HUD and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing programs to help alleviate this tragedy of our veterans living on the streets or in unsuitable conditions. The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act saw their funding remain the same at 116 million dollars leaving the ability to fund this program intact.Section-8 Tenant Based Rental Assistance have the ability to fund all existing vouchers with the funding of 18.4 billion dollars.  The community development block grant saw a decrease in its funding to 3.3 billion dollars and no funding for Housins and Services for Homeless Persons Demonstration vouchers. Overall with all of the cuts that were made to the FY 2011 budget this is a strong show of support from congress that they see the need to keep homelessness at the forefront of all programs funded. The next step is activism for the FY 2012 bill.