Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce bipartisan legislation with my colleagues Senator Portman and Senator Begich that would expand the definition of ``homeless'' used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, to ensure all homeless children and families are eligible for existing Federal homeless assistance programs. According to the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 1.1 million children were homeless during the 2011-2012 school year; this is a 24 percent increase from the 939,903 homeless students enrolled in the 2009-2010 school year. In California, nearly 250,000 children experienced homelessness last year, up from 220,000 in 2010 and nearly four times the 65,000 homeless children in the State in 2003. Unfortunately, the numbers reported by the HUD ``Point-in-Time Count'' fail to reflect these increasing numbers. According to the 2012 HUD ``Point-in-Time Count,'' there were only 247,178 people counted as homeless in households that included children, a fraction of the true number. This is important because only those children counted by HUD are eligible for vital homeless assistance programs. The rest of these children and families are simply out of luck. The Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2014 would expand the homeless definition to allow HUD homeless assistance programs to serve extremely vulnerable children and families, specifically those staying in motels or in doubled up situations because they have nowhere else to go.…”