The Mckinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

Updated: 12/08/03

THE MCKINNEY-VENTO HOMELESS ASSISTANCE ACT

I. Introduction

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, Pub. L. No. 100-77, 101 Stat. 484, was the first—and remains the only – comprehensive federal legislative response to homelessness. Congress passed the statute, now known as the McKinney-Vento Assistance Act, in 1987, marking the federal government’s recognition that homelessness is a national problem requiring a federal response. NLCHP’s Executive Director, Maria Foscarinis, was a major architect of the Act, and leads NLCHP’s efforts to ensure that the Act continues to serve the purposes Congress intended.

This information sheet briefly discusses the history and substance of the Act. It then outlines the Act’s current programs, with links to those parts of the NLCHP web site that discuss the programs in more detail.

II. History of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

In the early 1980s, as homelessness and poverty reached emergency proportions, the federal government initially viewed homelessness as a problem that did not require federal intervention. In 1983, the administration created the Federal Interagency Task Force on Food and Shelter for the Homeless, which was charged with educating localities on how to obtain surplus federal property such as blankets, cots, and clothing. Also in 1983, Congress appropriated $140 million for an emergency food and shelter fund and charged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with administering it.

In the following years, advocates around the country demanded that the federal government acknowledge homelessness as a national problem requiring a national response. With this goal in mind, the Homeless Persons’ Survival Act was introduced in both houses of Congress in 1986. This bill contained preventive and emergency relief measures, as well as long-term solutions to homelessness. Only small pieces of this proposal, however, became law. The first, the Homeless Eligibility Clarification Act of 1986, removed permanent address requirements and other barriers to existing programs such as Supplemental Security Income, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Veterans Benefits, Food Stamps, and Medicaid. Also in 1986, Congress adopted the Homeless Housing Act, which created the Emergency Shelter Grant program and a transitional housing demonstration program.

In late 1986, legislation containing Title I of the Homeless Persons’ Survival Act—emergency relief provisions for shelter, food, mobile health care, and transitional housing—was introduced as the Urgent Relief for the Homeless Act. After an intensive advocacy campaign, the legislation passed by large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress in 1987. After the death of its chief Republican sponsor, Representative Stewart B. McKinney of Connecticut, the bill was named the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. President Ronald Reagan signed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act into law on July 22, 1987, with an official White House statement of reluctance. It was renamed the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 2000, after the death of one of its key Democratic champions, Congressman Bruce Vento of Minnesota.

III. The Original Act

The Act originally consisted of fifteen new programs providing a range of services to homeless people, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, job training, primary health care, education, and some permanent housing. In addition, it amended existing programs to include, improve, or expedite access for homeless people. As Omnibus legislation, the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act established or affected programs within eight different federal agencies. It contained nine titles:

• Title I of the included a statement of congressional findings and defined homelessness. The purpose of the Act was to “Establish an Interagency Council on the Homeless” and to “use public resources and programs in a more coordinated manner to meet the critically urgent needs of the homeless of the Nation.”
• Title II established and described the functions of the Interagency Council on the Homeless, an independent entity within the Executive Branch composed of the heads of 15 federal agencies.
• Title III of the McKinney Act authorized the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, to be administered by FEMA.
• Title IV authorized the emergency shelter and transitional housing programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, including the Emergency Shelter Grant program, the Supportive Housing Demonstration Program, Supplemental Assistance for Facilities to Assist the Homeless, and Section 8 Single Room Occupancy Moderate Rehabilitation.
• Title V of the McKinney Act required federal agencies to identify and make available surplus federal property for use by states, local governments, and nonprofit agencies to assist homeless people. Those entities received the federal property at no cost, either by long-term lease or deed.
• Title VI authorized several programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide health care services to homeless persons. The programs included a grant program that funded primary care and substance abuse for homeless individuals, a block grant program for chronically mentally ill homeless people, and demonstration programs for homeless people who chronically are mentally ill or substance abusers.
• Title VII of the McKinney Act created programs for the education of homeless adults and children, job training, and community services. It originally authorized four programs: the Adult Education for the Homeless Program and the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program, both administered by the Department of Education; the Job Training for the Homeless Demonstration Program, and the Emergency Community Services Homeless Grant Program.
• Title VIII amended the Food Stamp program to increase participation in the program by homeless persons, granting them expedited eligibility determinations, and expanded the Department of Agriculture’s temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program.
• Title IX of the McKinney Act extended the Veterans Job Training Act. Companion legislation required the Veterans Administration to fund the conversion of surplus space in VA hospitals and health facilities to provide beds for homeless veterans. See Pub. L. 100-322, 102 Stat. 487 (1988).

IV. Evolution of the Act

Amendments to the Act over the last 15 years have, for the most part, expanded the scope and strengthened the provisions of the original legislation. The 1988 amendments were relatively minor, although noteworthy in the respect that they allowed Emergency Shelter grants and Emergency Community Services Homeless grants to be used to prevent homelessness by providing financial services to families facing eviction or termination of utility services. Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1988, Pub. L. 100-628, 102 Stat. 3224 (1988).

The 1990 amendments, in contrast, altered the majority of programs authorized by the original act. Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-645, 104 Stat. 4673 (1990). The amendments expanded eligible activities for several McKinney Act programs, including increasing the percentage of funds that could go to essential services under the Emergency Shelter Grants Program from 15 to 30%. Essential services include employment, health, drug abuse, and education services. The amendments also created a few new programs, including the Shelter Plus Care program, which provides housing assistance to homeless individuals with disabilities, mental illness, AIDS, and drug or alcohol addiction, and the Projects in Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH). The PATH program funds community-based outreach, mental health, substance abuse, case management, and other support services, as well as limited housing services. The 1990 amendments also specified in greater detail the obligations of states and local educational agencies to ensure that homeless children and youth have access to public education. The amendments increased the Education of Homeless Children and Youth program’s authorization and required states to make grants to local educational agencies for the purpose of implementing the law.

The 1992 amendments modified and expanded Title IV of the McKinney Act, the shelter and housing provisions. Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Housing Assistance Amendments Act of 1992, Pub. L. 102-550 (1992). These amendments created “safe havens,” or very low-cost shelter for persons unwilling or unable to participate in supportive services and a Rural Homeless Housing Assistance grant program. HHS consolidated the mental health services demonstration program and the alcohol and drug abuse treatment demonstration program into the Access to Community Care and Effective Services and Support (ACCESS) program. The ACCESS demonstration program was designed to fund projects that integrate services for severely mentally ill people.

In 1994, the Education of Homeless Children and Youth amendments provided local educational authorities with greater flexibility in using funds, specified the rights of homeless preschoolers to a free and appropriate public preschool education, gave parents of homeless children and youth a voice regarding their children’s school placement, and required educational authorities to coordinate with housing authorities. Pub. L. 103-382, 108 Stat. 3957 (1994). Congress also enacted the Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act of 1994, Pub. L. 103-421, 108 Stat. 4346 (1994), which removed from Title V coverage property that became available because of base closures. It also provided, however, that any plans for developing the property needed to account for the needs of homeless people. See 10 U.S.C. 2905(b)(7)(F).

The Clinton Administration, endorsing the need for longer-term solutions, also put in place programmatic changes through the administrative process. Beginning in 1994, HUD initiated a new process for distributing much of the funding for the McKinney shelter and housing programs. This “Continuum of Care” process brings together local government and non-profit providers to identify gaps in services for homeless people and devise a plan to bridge those gaps as part of the application process for McKinney shelter and housing funds. In addition to encouraging planning and coordination, this process also awards extra points for applications that include efforts to incorporate access to “mainstream” programs. During this time, funding for the McKinney Act housing programs alone peaked at over $1.4 billion in Fiscal Year 1995.

In Fiscal Year 1995, Congress terminated funding for the Job Training for the Homeless program. In Fiscal Year 1996, funding for McKinney programs was cut by a total of 27%. Several McKinney programs saw their funding eliminated entirely, including the Adult Education for the Homeless program and the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project. Over the past few years, funding has been partly restored to some programs, although few have surpassed their 1995 funding levels.

More recently, a few McKinney Act programs have been repealed and some faced dramatic restructuring. In 1998, consolidation legislation repealed the Job Training for the Homeless program and the Adult Education for the Homeless program, as well as the emergency community services homeless grant program. Pub. L. 105-220 (1998).

HUD McKinney funding also shifted away from emergency aid and toward more permanent solutions. For Fiscal Year 2000, through the appropriations bill, Congress required that 30% of McKinney shelter and housing funds be used to provide permanent supportive housing for homeless persons. Pub. L. 106-74, 113 Stat. 1047 (1999). For Fiscal Year 2001, Congress required grantees, again through appropriations, to use at least 30% of funds for permanent housing and to coordinate and integrate their programs with “mainstream” programs, thus seeking to connect assistance to homeless people to the much greater resources provided by the “mainstream” anti-poverty programs. Pub. L. 106-377, 114 Stat. 1441 (2000).

The 2002 amendments to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act guaranteed additional rights to students who are homeless, ensuring as a general rule that homeless students may stay in their schools of origin and that if they move to a new school, they may enroll immediately. Pub. L. 100-628, 115 Stat. 1990.

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V. The Current Form of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

A. General Provisions – Title I

Title I of the Act, now codified at 42 U.S.C. 11301-11304, includes the congressional findings and purposes, and has not changed significantly since enactment.

1. Interagency Council on the Homeless – Title II

Title II of the Act, now codified at 42 U.S.C. 11311-11320, established the Interagency Council on the Homeless. The Council is comprised of the heads of the federal agencies whose mission touches on homelessness, including the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Labor. Although the Council lost its funding in 1994 and became part of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Clinton Administration, its funding has been restored and the Council is set to remain in existence until October 1, 2005. 42 U.S.C. 11319.

1. Federal Emergency Management Food and Shelter Program – Title III

Title III of the original act also has remained largely intact, and is now codified at 42 U.S.C. 11331-11352. Title III authorizes and defines the emergency food and grants program within FEMA. It requires FEMA to establish a national board to administer the program, and specifies as members of the board the director and members nominated by six private charitable organizations. 42 U.S.C. 11331. The national board creates local boards, whose membership consists of representatives of the same six organizations, as well as the members of the local government, such as the mayor. Local boards must determine which local government or nonprofit entities will receive grants to provide services under the program.

The statute sets a short timetable for distributing the funds. Within 30 days after Congress appropriates funds under this program, FEMA’s director must award the full amount to the national board. 42 U.S.C. 11341. The national board then must distribute the funds to the local board within three months after that. 42 U.S.C. 11345. The statute limits the administrative costs of the program to 5% of the yearly appropriation. 42 U.S.C. 11344.

The national board must establish written program guidelines, including methods for determining localities with the highest need for emergency food and shelter assistance and methods of allocating the funds to the localities. The national board distributes the congressional funding to the local boards for three purposes: to supplement and expand efforts to provide shelter, food, and supportive services to homeless people; to fund innovative and effective local programs; and to rehabilitate mass shelter or mass feeding facilities to the extent needed to make them safe, clean, and in compliance with local building codes. 42 U.S.C. 11343(a). Overall, the statute provides the national board significant discretion in administering the program.

1. HUD Housing Assistance Programs – Title IV

Title IV of the Act provides for emergency shelter, supportive housing, a small program for single-room occupancy housing, a shelter plus care program, a safe havens demonstration program and a rural housing assistance program. HUD has consolidated the latter two programs as part of the supportive housing program. HUD administers each program and distributes funds to states, local governments, and private nonprofit entities. To receive assistance under any of the subtitles of Title IV, jurisdictions eligible for assistance over a certain minimum (defined by formula) must submit a comprehensive homeless assistance plan for HUD approval. 42 U.S.C. 11361. Essentially, this requires all states, as well as larger cities and counties, to have approved plans as a condition of HUD’s distribution of Title IV funds to any provider in the jurisdiction. Plans must describe the needs of the homeless population, existing resources, and strategies for using federal funds to meet those needs. Under a 2000 amendment to the Act, grants to government entities now also are conditioned on the applicant’s agreement to develop and implement policies for “the discharge of persons from publicly funded institutions or systems of care (such as health care facilities, foster care or other youth facilities, or correction programs and institutions) in order to prevent such discharge from immediately resulting in homelessness for such persons.” 42 U.S.C. 11362.

One Title IV HUD program is the Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) program, which offers block grants to cities, counties, and states according to a formula based on population and poverty. Local governments receiving ESG funds may distribute those funds to private nonprofit organizations assisting homeless people. Funds may be used for three shelter-related purposes (1) to renovate or convert buildings for emergency shelters, (2) to provide “essential services,” including employment, health, drug abuse, or education services, and (3) to maintain and operate shelter facilities. Not more than 10% of the amount received may be used for staff. 42 U.S.C. 11374(a)(3). Recipients of ESG funds must meet a 70-percent matching requirement. 42 U.S.C. 11374(a)(4).

The Supportive Housing Program provides funds for homeless individuals, families with children, and people with disabilities. 42 U.S.C. 11384. Supportive housing is defined as housing with “supportive services” that address the special needs of homeless persons to be served by the project. Supportive housing includes three parts. The first, transitional housing, is defined as housing primarilyto benefit homeless individuals and families with children and to ease them toward “permanent housing” within “24 months or such longer period as the Secretary [of HUD] deems necessary.” 42 U.S.C. 11384(b). The second subpart, “permanent housing for homeless persons with disabilities,” is defined as community-based long-term housing with supportive services. 42 U.S.C. 11384(c). Third, the program funds supportive services in single room occupancy dwellings. 42 U.S.C. 11384(d). As noted above, the Safe Havens for Homeless Individuals Demonstration Program and Rural Homeless Housing Assistance under Title IV are now considered part of the supportive housing program.

A section of Title IV entitled “Miscellaneous provisions” offers assistance for moderate rehabilitation of single room-occupancy dwellings. The amount of assistance available for each unit is $14,000, excluding costs for fire and safety improvements. 42 U.S.C. 11401, 11401(d), 11401(e). Under a 1996 amendment, Congress required HUD to ensure, by regulation, that applicants for grants under for single room occupancy facilities that were not public housing agencies had at least one homeless or formerly homeless person serving on their board or other policy-making entity. 42 U.S.C. 11401(h).