Press Room

Hawaii has taken bold steps to house the homeless during the past few years, opening six new shelters since May 2006 and helping thousands of people with no roofs over their heads. Overall, the number of people taking refuge at homeless shelters on Oahu has grown steadily, reaching 5,311 in the last year, up from 3,857 in 2005, according to the Center on the Family at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. But Honolulu's street population shot up even faster.

Housing first isn't going to be a cure for all Anchorage's problems with alcohol. And it's not rehab for the people who live there. But studies show when you take chronic alcoholics off the streets, they drink less, and that means fewer visits to emergency rooms, the sleep-off center and jail. That saves a lot of public money.

Every year, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce sends a delegation to Washington, D.C. to push for business-friendly policies and vie for federal funds. In the past, they’ve tackled issues related to mass transit, water and education. The Chamber is returning to the nation’s capital March 15-17, but the lobbying agenda includes a new issue this time: homelessness.

Ohio is violating the constitutional rights of mentally ill inmates by releasing them without proper access to follow-up care, a prisoners' rights group alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

A Minnesota program offers a model for how to meet the challenges of long-term homelessness.

Last year, when the city of Raleigh, N.C., partnered with Wake County to announce a new program to help homeless families find housing, officials knew demand would be high. But the inundation of requests that poured in was shocking. At one of the two nonprofits administering the program, the call volume over the first weekend literally shut down the phone system, which maxed out at 999 voicemails. "They were flooded and had to shut down almost immediately, because they were so overwhelmed" says Joe Rappl, Raleigh's special housing coordinator.

Three smart investments by the Washington State Legislature since 2004 have helped families in 15 counties end homelessness. Pummeled state lawmakers wrestling with a tight economy, bleak revenue projections and grim budget choices rightly agonize about every penny spent. They can confidently renew a $6 million appropriation for Washington Families Fund, an innovative and effective public-private partnership.

According to the VA, as of 2009, more than 3,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had sought housing assistance in the past four years, up from 1,800 in 2008. And the number of female veterans who are homeless has doubled in the past decade.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday passed a bill that, if signed into law, could create job opportunities and better housing for homeless veterans, particularly women and veterans with families. With two amendments by Sen. Jon Tester, these services would be delivered to the struggling veterans in Montana and across rural America.

More and more Twin Cities families are spending a lot of their income on housing, and that's forcing some of them out of their homes. There's stimulus money designed to help. Millions of dollars came to the state late last year to pull some families back from homelessness, or keep them in their homes. The idea is to pay the families' rent for one or two months, giving them a one-time chance to pay other bills, build up cash, or look for work. For some, a couple of months help isn't enough.