By Eugene T. Lowe
October 22, 2007

James Michael Van Leeuwen appeared before the House Subcommittee on Housing Community Opportunity of the Committee on Financial Services on behalf of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the National Community Development Association (NCDA). The October 16 hearing was on the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Des Moines (IA) Mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie submitted written testimony for the record.

Elements of two legislative measures were the focus of the hearings: H.R. 840, “The Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2007” and S. 1518, “The Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007.” S. 1518 was passed by the Senate Banking Committee several weeks ago.

Leeuwen, Project Manager for Denver’s Road Home, Denver’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, explained to the subcommittee Denver’s response “to an increasing rise in homeless persons… and the mounting increase in public safety concerns.” In October 2003, Leeuwen said Denver’s Road Home began when Hickenlooper convened a commission to develop a plan to “address the root causes of homelessness and bring an end to homelessness.” Leeuwen said Denver’s plan serves the chronically homeless and “all persons living on the street, in shelters or doubled up with friends and family.” The plan has eight primary goals: 1) permanent and transitional housing, 2) emergency shelter systems, 3) prevention, 4) services, 5) public safety and outreach, 6) education, training and employment, 7) community awareness and coordinated responses, and 8) zoning, urban design and land use. Two years into the initiative, Leeuwen said, “There is evidence that Denver’s Road Home is responding with an 11 percent reduction in overall homelessness and a 36 percent decrease in chronic homelessness.”

Cownie, co-chair of the Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homelessness, said in submitted testimony, “Leadership on the federal level is important for research, guidance and continued funding, but decisions about what funding is available for emergency sheltering and homeless prevention activities should be left up to local policy-makers. Through my leadership on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force, I know that not all cities experience the same level and types of homelessness. In Des Moines, chronic homelessness is less that half the national average, but the need for family shelters is high. Redefining chronic homelessness to include families and allowing cities to allocate the necessary portion of their funding would be more effective in Des Moines in addressing homelessness than imposing national caps and/or set asides.”