Federal Plan to End Homelessness Released

On Tuesday, June 22, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness released Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness at a White House press conference. The event featured four cabinet secretaries and the Interagency Council's executive director, Barbara Poppe.

The plan's creation was mandated by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, which the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and other advocates were instrumental in passing in 2009.

Opening Doors is the Obama Administration's official policy position on homelessness. The plan has been shaped by the recommendations of state and regional interagency councils on homelessness, national and local advocacy groups, direct service providers, homeless people, and the general public.

It articulates four major goals: 1) finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years, 2) prevent and end homelessness among veterans in five years, 3) prevent and end homelessness for all families, youth and children in 10 years, and 4) set a path toward ending all types of homelessness.

The plan outlines 10 objectives and 52 strategies to accomplish these goals, and it provides an extensive overview of issues of homelessness and all of the subpopulations who experience it. It comes at a critical time as family homelessness is rising dramatically, and the economic and foreclosure crises direct the nation's attention to these issues.

The Law Center is excited to see this level of federal collaboration and commitment, and will be working to hold the government accountable to these goals, objectives and strategies.

Click here to read our analysis of the plan.