CRITICAL SERVICES FOR AMERICANS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS
Signed into law in 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act remains the only major federal legislation to address homelessness in America.
Title V of the Act offers significant federal support to efforts to combat homelessness by providing homeless service providers with an effective “right of first refusal” for federal property deemed to be excess, surplus, unutilized, or underutilized, and that might be suitable for use by homeless assistance organizations. Each year, more than 2 million Americans receive assistance through Title V.
While the Act has been enhanced significantly over the past 30 years, many longer-term, broader measures to reduce homelessness were never enacted. As a result, homelessness remains a crisis in the United States and has worsened in recent years. Despite the success of the Title V program—just one component of the McKinney-Vento Act—and recent enhancements under the 2016 Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act (“FASTA”), a number of policy challenges continue to impede the program from reaching its full potential.