Action needed now!
Congress is working to pass a second economic stimulus bill that is focused on creating new jobs, and Members of Congress hope to move forward with the legislation immediately following passage of a final health care reform bill. The Advocacy Network along with the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) and several partners are advocating for a final jobs bill that includes $1 billion to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) and $1 billion to expand the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). Before the holidays, the House passed its version of the legislation, which included funding for the NHTF but not for HPRP. The Senate has not yet released its jobs bill proposal, but it is expected to be released shortly.
The Advocacy Network has actively supported both of this initiatives as being crucial not only to our efforts to end homelessness but also to the economic recovery.
Today we provide more information about the HPRP expansion.
The Advocacy Network and NAEH recommend that any new jobs bill should expand funding for HPRP by $1 billion to create 2,500 additional jobs in community agencies, provide temporary rent payments that will fund additional jobs in the housing industry, and stabilize housing for 200,000 additional homeless or near homeless families, giving them a fighting chance to become or remain employed.
Use these tools to help convince your Member of Congress to take action to ensure that Congress includes an additional $1 billion for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) in any jobs package.
Please continue to ask Senator Menendez and Senator Lautenberg to contact Senator Durbin (D-IL) (the lead Senator working on the jobs bill) to ask him to include in the Senate jobs bill $1 billion for the NHTF and $1 billion for an HPRP expansion.
Click here for a position paper on Expanding HPRP.
Click here for a sample letter.
