On November 18, Congress approved the HUD budget for fiscal year 2012, which runs through the end of September, 2012.  Under the terms of the budget agreement struck this summer, it was clear going into the budget process that HUD funding would likely face a cut.  Unfortunately, the eight percent cut that Congress ultimately approved was disproportionate to those of other federal agencies.  Had the cuts been allocated more equally among agencies, HUD's cut would have been 50 percent smaller.

The approved budget provides nominal new funding for the Section 8 program, but that funding will only go to cover the program's new renewal expenses.  No new "regular" housing vouchers will be offered, and advocates are concerned that many Public Housing Authorities will not have enough funding to reissue all the vouchers that turn over.  However, the bill did include funding for 10,000 new HUD-VASH vouchers for homeless veterans and their families.

Homeless assistance programs received level funding in the bill.  While this was better than many HUD programs fared, HUD had requested significant new funding to implement important provisions of the HEARTH Act; without that money, HUD will have difficulty implementing the law.  Programs taking especially harsh cuts were the public housing operating fund (cut by 14 percent) and the HOME program (reduced by 38 percent).  While HOME is a demonstrably important program that provides gap financing for many affordable housing deals and allows communities to offer tenant-based rental assistance, the program was hurt by a series of sharply critical Washington Post stories detailing misuse of previously-granted funds by a number of local government agencies and affordable housing developers.  Unfortunately, the Post series failed to put HOME in the proper context.  By focusing on a small number of problems, the articles ignored the one million units of affordable housing that the program has produced over the past twenty years.  

On November 17, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) introduced the Housing Rights for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence Act (S. 1892).  S. 1892 was also fully incorporated into a much larger bill to rewrite the law governing the full slate of VAWA programs: the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on November 30.

On Friday, December 9, 2011, in two separate cases, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued rulings ordering the re-enrollment of homeless children from two families who were wrongly removed from school.  The families were represented by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and a team of pro bono attorneys from DLA Piper, who successfully argued that the school was in violation of the federal McKinney-Vento Act.

The parents of the children, N.J. and C.H. (identified by initials only because the cases dealt with minors), lost their homes for different reasons. N.J. lost her home in the Malverne School District to fire, and has been living doubled-up with various friends, some of them outside the school district.  C.H.'s two boys were living with their mother and enrolled in the Hauppauge School District.  When she lost her housing, the children began missing school as they attempted to commute from a homeless shelter.  C.H. had lost his own housing and was living with his sister in a neighboring district, but determined it was in the children's best interest to come with him.  C.H.'s younger son is autistic, and any disruption to his schedule is extremely harmful to his educational progression.

The children clearly qualified for McKinney-Vento's protections, which allow homeless children, including those doubled-up due to economic hardship, to remain enrolled in the same school through the end of the school year in which they find permanent housing, even as they move throughout their time of homelessness.  But both N.J. and C.H. were told their children did not qualify and that they would be disenrolled.  McKinney-Vento requires each state to have a dispute resolution procedure and to keep the children enrolled pending a final decision.  However, as these families appealed, the State failed to grant an order staying the disenrollment and both sets of children were removed from school.  The State had been twice notified by federal Department of Education monitors that their procedure violated federal law, but refused to change it.

"These victories represent important steps forward not only for these individual children, but also for the thousands of children facing homelessness in New York State," said Eric Tars, director of human rights and children's rights programs at the Law Center. "Homeless children have a right to attend school, but often have a difficult time proving their case. The court held, as Congress intended, homeless children should be in school until their situation is fully resolved. We thank the court, and we now look to Congress to strengthen these protections so children don't have to suffer more uncertainty when they are already facing the most difficult time in their lives."

The Law Center is pleased to announce that its new pro bono initiative, the Associates' Advisory Council (AAC), has been hard at work to expand the Law Center's network of young pro bono attorneys and donors. The Council is comprised of law firm associates dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness. Since its launch in July 2011, the Council has met regularly and undertaken numerous activities in support of the Law Center.

During National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in November, the AAC hosted a Happy Hour Fundraiser at Science Club to introduce members to their colleagues and help raise awareness about the Law Center's work. The event was a great success and the AAC successfully recruit three new associates from Covington & Burling, Jones Day, and Hogan & Lovells.  More recently, the Council launched a holiday fundraising campaign, Tech Aid for Advocates, seeking to raise funds toward the $27,000 needed to overhaul the Law Center's IT infrastructure. The Law Center is thrilled with the AAC's initiative and leadership and looks forward to the Council's continued growth and success in 2012!