A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

National Homelessness and Housing Organizations Respond to USICH Report

Funders Together to End Homelessness joins national organizations partner organizations in the efforts to end homelessness to release the following statement:

Today, the Trump administration’s United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released a document that purports to lay out a plan to address homelessness. 

This is a plan in name only. It does not contain the interventions proven to reduce and end homelessness, which have been embraced by administrations on both sides of the aisle. The vast majority of what has been proposed cannot be implemented by the agency. The document continues to leverage data that has been widely disproven by experts. 

The White House — by putting forth such an ineffective and dishonest document — fails to take seriously the grave dangers facing our neighbors and country today. Homelessness has always been a matter of life and death for those experiencing it. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness has become a deadlier threat to the most vulnerable people in our communities, and an imminent risk to millions of Americans. Studies estimate that millions may soon face eviction or become homeless

This report only adds to a history of actions by the administration that fail to reduce or end homelessness across our country, and instead advances harm that disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Examples include:

We know the nation can do better on homelessness because the nation has done better on homelessness. In the past 15 years, the nation has achieved periods of sustained and dramatic progress. During this time, federal leaders aligned around data and evidence on what worked, and targeted policies and investments to support the needs of communities. 

Lives of our neighbors and the values of our country are at stake. Homelessness reflects the racism, discrimination, and inequity that hurts our neighbors and our nation — and our unrealized potential to build a stronger country. If the nation is ready to recognize and reconcile its ongoing crisis of racial inequity, then the nation must also become ready to end homelessness. 

We can build a future where everyone in our country has a fair and equal opportunity, which begins with a place to call home. Communities have proven what is possible, and we all have a responsibility to support this reality. This path forward requires serious federal leadership that believes in that future and can develop a meaningful plan to support it. 

Funders Together to End Homelessness
A Way Home America
Community Solutions
Heartland Alliance 
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
National Homelessness Law Center
National Innovation Service
National Low Income Housing Coalition 
True Colors United
Youth Collaboratory


Other Resources:

Ann Oliva Tweet thread

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Federal Plan to End Homelessness Rejects Proven Strategies, Won’t Meet Rising Need

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Tweet thread

Margot Kushel, M.D. Tweet thread

National Alliance to End Homelessness: Statement in Response to USICH’s “Expanding the Toolbox” Report

National Low Income Housing Coalition Tweet thread

TheCaseMade: The Road Just Forked in Our Efforts to End Homelessness. It’s Time to Decide Who We Want to Be.


Showing 1 reaction

  • Lauren Bennett
    published this page in Blog 2020-10-19 16:21:37 -0400

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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