The White House Blog: Poverty

One Year Later: Remembering the Miners of Montcoal

Ed. note: This was originally posted on Work In Progress, the Department of Labor blog. Read another blog post on this topic on the Middle Class Task Force blog.

One year ago today, in West Virginia, 29 men died in the worst mine disaster in 40 years.

Wives lost husbands. Parents lost sons. Children lost fathers. Neighbors lost friends.  And a community lost a big part of its soul.

Since that day, I have been convinced that the best way to honor these men is to do everything in our power so that a tragedy like this never happens again.

The administration has taken many steps to make that goal a reality.  The Mine Safety and Health Administration (a part of the U.S. Department of Labor) has made available unprecedented resources to find out what exactly happened on April 5, 2010 and we are making sure that the U.S. Department of Justice can fully prosecute any wrongdoers.

Moving forward on Benefit Access Recommendations from Advisory Council

In the past few months, momentum has been building around the recommendations put forward by the President’s Advisory Council for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships around increasing access to income enhancing benefits.  Benefit access, referred to in recommendations 6-9 of the Economic Recovery and Domestic Poverty Taskforce, focus on efforts that help eligible families and individuals access and use the federal and state programs that can help families move out of poverty. 

Recently, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation within the Department of Health and Human Services launched a study that will increase our understanding of benefits access tools.  With additional funding from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) as well as the HHS Partnerships Center, this study will summarize the various private and public sector benefits access initiatives, provide in-depth overviews of selected benefits access tools, and synthesize extant data on benefits access outcomes. 

In addition to this study, ACF awarded five one-year grants for social services and income maintenance benefits enrollment coordination totaling $1.7 million. These grants will support demonstration projects to develop and implement evidence-based and innovative programming in the area of benefits enrollment coordination models that could be strengthened, adapted, and assessed for impact and results in communities nationwide.

Lastly, HHS is moving forward with an effort to simplify a process known as the Advance Planning Document or APD.  Simplification of this process will reduce barriers for States to implement new IT systems that will facilitate innovations in client enrollment while still safeguarding State systems and client data.

The recommendations from the President’s Advisory Council identified coordinated benefit access as an important  means to strengthen partnerships between faith-based and neighborhood organizations and the government in order to better serve people in need, as well as to more effectively help people out of poverty.

Alexia Kelley, director of our HHS Partnerships Center, and Mara Vanderslice, Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, have been helping to lead the charge on these important issues.  If you would like to comment about this posting or to receive more information, email whpartnerships (at) who.eop.gov or partnerships (at) hhs.gov.

Joshua DuBois serves as Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Fighting Foreclosures and Strengthening Neighborhoods

We all understand the impact the foreclosure crisis has had on homeowners. But the crisis has hurt communities, too. Foreclosed and vacant homes have a debilitating effect on neighborhoods and often lead to blight, neighborhood decay and reduced property values.

That’s why the Administration is announcing today another $1 billion to help communities struggling with foreclosures.  Already, HUD has provided $6 billion in two rounds of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding.  These funds help communities buy and redevelop foreclosed and abandoned homes and residential properties – putting Americans back to work, creating more affordable rental housing and helping the neighborhoods that need it most. 

Today, the $4 billion first round of Neighborhood Stabilization funding is in communities, buying up and renovating homes, and creating jobs.  The $2 billion included as part of President Obama’s Recovery Act is making a difference as well.  This second round of funding differed from the first in that it was competitively awarded – to encourage innovative local partnerships, reward the best ideas for tackling the housing crisis and grow local economies in impactful ways.

On a Path to Ending Homelessness

Ed Note: In case you missed it, check out Secretary Donovan’s post on HUD’s blog following yesterday’s release of the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

Someone once told me -- in your head it's a dream, but on paper it's a plan.  As a nation, we’ve talked about addressing the issue of homelessness, and now we have a plan.  Over the last year, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), consisting of 19 federal agencies and chaired by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, drafted the nation’s first comprehensive strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

The impetus for such a plan was simple.  In the United States, no one should spend a single night without a place to call home.  Yet, 634,000 people, including 107,000 veterans, experience homelessness on any given night.  The families and individuals that experience homelessness and the advocates that work so hard on this issue know that we need to act with a renewed sense of urgency.

Yesterday, the lead Cabinet secretaries from USICH – Secretary Donovan, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki – joined USICH Director Barbara Poppe to unveil and submit Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness to the President and Congress. 

The plan sets ambitious but measurable goals: (1) end chronic homelessness in five years; (2) prevent and end homelessness among veterans in five years; (3) prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children within a decade; and (4) put us on a path to ending all types of homelessness.

The plan builds on existing interagency partnerships and evidence-based models that are working at the local level.  It will focus the resources and efforts of federal agencies to offer a variety of comprehensive solutions.  For example, the partnership between HUD, HHS, and Education will provide homeless families with not only a home, but the wrap-around services they need to remain off the streets.

This is doable but it requires all of us to work together - Congress, federal agencies, state and local officials, faith-based and community organizations, and business and philanthropic leaders across our country.

We applaud the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness for their tireless efforts to put on paper what we know is possible.  Preventing and ending homelessness will positively impact the lives of individuals and families, veterans, children and youth, those who are chronically ill, those suffering from domestic violence, and those combating discrimination of all sorts.

We look forward to working with dedicated state and local leaders to open doors and opportunities for men, women, and children all across the country.

Melody Barnes is the Director of the Domestic Policy Council