CT Capitol Hill Day 2016

Sarah Fox

On Thursday, July 28th Connecticut providers headed to Capitol Hill to meet with Connecticut’s Congressional representatives about federal homeless response resources. The Connecticut Delegation for the National Alliance on Ending Homelessness Capitol Hill Day included representatives from the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Partnership for Strong Communities, Pacific House, Inc., Journey Home, Columbus House, and Supportive Housing Works. Team CT held meetings with housing legislative staffers in the offices of both Senators and all our Congressional representatives.

Every staffer echoed back to us their enthusiasm for the energy, drive, urgency, and sense of collaboration in our communities today – driven in large part through the Zero:2016 Initiative, Connecticut’s leadership and success in being the second state to effectively end veteran homelessness, and statewide declines in chronic homelessness.

This year, participants focused on key priorities such as funding for HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants, support for the continuation of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) from 2017 to 2020, identifying champions to introduce and support legislation to dedicate $11 billion in mandatory spending to a Homeless Assistance to Families program, and to support the passage of S. 2680, the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016, and bring this bill and H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016 (which already passed through the House), to a conference committee to reform our mental health system.

Check out these fact sheets and other resources from our legislative agenda:

Federal Investments are Helping to End Homelessness in Connecticut: Opening Doors Fact Sheet

How Would Terminating USICH Affect Efforts to End Homelessness

Mandatory Spending Proposal: Homeless Assistance for Families

FY 2017 Appropriations HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants

Mental Health Reform A Key Component of Ending Homelessness