Live from Seattle!

So here I am in cold, rainy, dreary Seattle, missing the warm rays of the Florida sun. I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to the Conference on Family Homelessness, and have been soaking in the collective wisdom of about 700 peers for the past day. Particularly of interest to HOME are sessions on designing and funding housing subsidy programs, designing and funding prevention programs, and policy advocacy. I also attended an excellent session on self-sufficiency rating scale tools, which HOME currently uses and Community Vision is making an integral part of their self-sufficiency effort as well.

There has been an undercurrent of excitement in relation to the upcoming change in leadership at the White House, and policy leaders seem to feel pretty confident that funding for mainstays such as McKinney-Vento and the Section 8 program will be maintained if not increased during the upcoming administration. The push to end family homelessness is bipartisan and far-reaching: I think we are close to reaching the "tipping point" on this issue becoming something the public and leaders both perceive as a key priority. I am not sure if this is because the current economic environment is making the "two paychecks from homelessness" less of a cliche and more of a reality for many families, or maybe it's a result of the out of control foreclosure rate. Either way, it seems that when I turn on any national news program, poverty and homelessness are more a part of the conversation (and less of a stigma) than ever before. Sphere: Related Content