Today, the Federal Interagency Council on Homelessness released a long-awaited Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Below is the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s response:
HEALTH CARE GROUP RESPONDS TO FEDERAL HOMELESSNESS PLAN
The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, released today by the Obama Administration, represents a major turning point in efforts to end 30 years of mass homelessness in America, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
The Plan, called Opening Doors, explicitly focuses on the provision of affordable housing as the most important tool for ending homelessness. It promotes a “Housing First” approach that bypasses emergency shelters and transitional programs to ensure that people are safely and securely housed.
“This is the first comprehensive federal plan after 30 years of ineffective policies that have not ended homelessness,” said John Lozier, Executive Director of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. “It recognizes the critical connection between homelessness and poor health, and looks to the opportunities present in Health Reform to help break those deadly linkages.”
In 2014 (or earlier at state option), most homeless people will become eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Currently, 70% of homeless adults are uninsured, resulting in escalating health problems that dramatically complicate their homelessness and create costly inefficiencies in the health care system. “Health Care Reform makes significant changes to this cycle,” said Lozier.
The Plan calls for interventions like Medical Respite Care, facilities that provide a safety valve for hospitals that might otherwise discharge people back into homelessness. Opening Doors also requires coordination of health services and housing programs, particularly in Permanent Supportive Housing programs, for people with chronic health problems. In addition, the new health law provides for significant financial investments in Community Health Centers, which include Health Care for the Homeless projects, for more service locations and expanded programs.
“The serious blind spot in the Plan is its neglect of the situation of undocumented people, who are homeless in significant numbers,” said Lozier. “The Affordable Care Act explicitly excludes undocumented people, but the nation cannot afford to continue to have millions of its poorest residents and workers languish outside of its systems of care.”
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is a national organization of health care providers and patients of its member clinics. Mr. Lozier and the leadership of the organization’s National Consumer Advisory Board participated in the development of the Plan through a broadly participative process conducted by the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness.
“We congratulate the Obama Administration and the Interagency Council on the inclusive approach that resulted in Opening Doors. This is the most important federal effort to address the problem since mass homelessness emerged in the early 1980’s,” said Lozier.
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