"The applications were very competitive..."

Absolute horsehockie. Since when do we have to "compete" to save the lives of our fellow citizens? This is the major problem of legislation like McKinney Vento. It forces agencies to compete for very scarce resource dollars. When agencies must compete for minimal resources there is a strong incentive to overinflate their own accomplishments while minimizing the positive impact of competing agencies. Why would anyone lend support or provide kudos to another agency when it could mean that agency might end up receiving the money next year that went to you this year? There is little doubt in my mind that competition like this leads to a decrease in cooperation, fosters secrecy and alienation between agencies and generally inhibits cross-agency collaboration. The current mentality of many federal officials, who can spend $20 million dollars on a Ferry to nowhere yet force our social service agencies to compete for dollar-crumbs, is simply inexcusable. Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Chattanooga gets no extra federal funds to help homeless

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Roy A.Bernardi	- Download MP3-

PDF: Homeless grants

By Pam Sohn Staff Writer

Federal housing officials Friday announced a record $1.5 billion for homeless assistance, including just over $1 million to Chattanooga for existing local programs, but the city won no additional money for new initiatives, according to Washington officials.

"The applications were very competitive," said Brian Sullivan, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Chattanooga could have scored well, but other cities scored better."

Chattanooga, a pilot city for HUD homeless initiatives in recent years, received $1,061,656 to fund existing programs operated by the Chattanooga Homeless Coalition; the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults; Chattanooga Church Ministries; Fortwood Center; CADAS; and the city of Chattanooga.

Karen McReynolds Blevins, director of the Homeless Coalition, which collected and compiled the grant applications, could not be reached for comment.

Richard Beeland, spokesman for Mayor Ron Littlefield and the city's homeless efforts, declined comment.

"We haven't seen it yet," he said of HUD's Friday announcement.

Janna Jahn, with the Chattanooga Housing Authority, had sought new money for the agency to pay for additional housing vouchers to expand the number of apartments available for homeless people.

"We don't know why we didn't get it," she said Friday afternoon. "We won't know until we have a chance to get with HUD (officials) and ask about it."

Altogether, 10 cities and regions in Tennessee received $16.4 million for programs to help the homeless.

Memphis received more than $4.8 million, including nearly $841,000 for three new supportive housing programs.

Nashville received $3.3 million, including nearly $1 million for three new supportive housing programs.

Knoxville received almost $1.2 million for existing programs.

HUD Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi said the funding nationally will offer transitional and permanent supportive housing to more than 168,000 homeless individuals and families.

"We know this will literally save lives," Mr. Bernardi said in a teleconference.

Mr. Bernardi said half of the people served are families with children. Another segment of homeless people receiving attention are the chronically homeless, those people who are homeless over and over, or for a long time.

According to HUD research, about 20 percent of all homeless people experience long-term or chronic homelessness, and the chronically homeless use more than half of all emergency shelter resources designed to assist all homeless individuals and families.

"Just a few weeks ago we announced an 11.5 percent reduction in the chronic homelessness nationally between 2005 and 2006," Mr. Bernardi said. "That's the first time in this country we've ever been able to see a reduction of homelessness of any kind. It's significant, but we still have an awful lot of work to do."

E-mail Pam Sohn at psohn@timesfreepress.com