Press Room

On the heels of news that more than 1,000 families in Massachusetts have overflowed the capacity of emergency homeless shelters and are instead living in motels paid for by the State, United Way today announced that the organization will invest $661,100 to advance the Housing First strategies of 13 organizations in Boston, Cambridge, Lynn, Lowell, Quincy and Somerville --communities that have all launched 10 year plans to end homelessness. These new funds will fuel the third year of United Way's strategy to fight homelessness in the region through a Housing First approach, which stabilizes families in permanent housing as a first step to recovery from chronic homelessness.

On any given night, an estimated 43,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles' Continuum of Care, according to the 2009 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Report (HC09), released today by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). The number of homeless people in Los Angeles, while still the highest in the nation, represents an estimated 38% decrease from 2007.

Tom Keith of Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina discusses the reauthorization of TANF and the implications for South Carolina.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Growth Philanthropy Network and Duke University on Tuesday announced the creation of a first-of-its kind collaboration of philanthropic funders, practitioners, researchers and others designed to make it easier for top-performing social programs to expand widely to communities that need them.

The Obama Administration held the second Full Council meeting of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness yesterday. It was the first meeting chaired by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who was elected chair by his fellow Cabinet Members and agency heads at the Council's first meeting on June 18, 2009. Members of the homeless advocacy community including the National Law Center on Homelessness and Policy, National Alliance to End Homelessness, and National Coalition for the Homeless attended and participated for the first time in several years.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today joined U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to introduce the Reducing Emergency Department Utilization through Coordination and Empowerment (REDUCE) Act (S. 1781), which would address Emergency Room (ER) overuse, improve quality of care, and save taxpayers' money. The legislation would establish pilot programs to better coordinate care for frequent ER users.

Fearing another year of shriveled budgets and sky-high need, Charlotte-Mecklenburg leaders are pressing nonprofits to collaborate, or even merge, to improve efficiency and stretch donor dollars.

Donovan became the 15th secretary of HUD this year after serving as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE recently asked him about his newly assembled HUD team and the job ahead.

Even after living in her one-bedroom apartment for nearly seven years, Estella Morris, 66, never tires of opening her front door. "I can put my key in the lock and come on in. If I want to throw my shoes underneath the bed, I throw them underneath the bed, and if I want to walk around in my underclothes I can do that," she says.

The CEO of the world's largest charitable foundation on Friday urged Seattle business leaders to get involved in one of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's smallest initiatives.