Title
To Join House America and Respond With Urgency to Homelessness in the City of Columbus
Body
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus is committed to ensuring that all residents have a safe and affordable place to live; and
WHEREAS, Homelessness continues to impact a significant number of our residents, and a lack of housing remains a barrier to the health, safety, well-being, employment, and education for these individuals and families; and
WHEREAS, More that 580,000 people on a given night were experiencing homelessness in America when the COVID-19 pandemic began and had to endure the COVID-10 pandemic without the safety and protection of a stable home, while the homelessness crisis has been further impacted and/or exacerbated during and due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and
WHEREAS, The most effective approach to solving homelessness is the Housing First approach, which entails identifying and assisting households experiencing homelessness to obtain permanent housing quickly- without treatment or sobriety pre-conditions and with few to no barriers-through housing counseling and navigation assistance, tailored levels of rental assistance, and/or wrap-around supportive services, as needed; and
WHEREAS, The American Rescue Plan provides communities with significant new resources to address homelessness, including 70,000 emergency housing vouchers and $5 billion in grants through the HOME Investment Partnerships program; and
WHEREAS, House America, launched in July 2021, is a partnership between the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), states, and communities to respond with urgency to address the crisis of homelessness; and
WHEREAS, Through House America, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge calls on state and local leaders to set and achieve ambitious goals for re-housing households currently experiencing homelessness and developing new supportive and affordable housing units;
WHEREAS, The City of Columbus is committed to working with HUD and USICH to use American Rescue Plan resources and other federal, state, and local resources to make progress towards ending homelessness;
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council does hereby, announce and proclaim to all citizens that, as of July 26, 2021, the City of Columbus proudly joins House America and pledges to respond with urgency to homelessness in our community by setting and achieving ambitious re-housing and housing creation goals.