President to Seek Record $1.15 Billion for Homeless

WASHINGTON — In a Christmas Eve message, President Clinton said he will ask Congress for a record $1.15 billion in next year’s budget to help homeless people move off the streets and into self-sufficient lives, a 40% increase over current spending for such efforts.

“As long as there are children waking up in America on Christmas morning without the comfort of a warm home, we have more work to do,” Clinton said. “Religious and community organizations are doing their part to help alleviate homelessness. The federal government must do its share too.”

The federal budget request for the administration’s “Continuum of Care” program represents a $327-million increase over current spending of $823 million--a figure that has remained unchanged for the last three years--and must be approved by the Republican-controlled Congress.

But Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, whose department operates the program, predicted lawmakers will support the budget request, insisting that “this issue and our approach to it transcends politics.”

Clinton said: “These funds will help create safer places for our children to grow up, more stable families and a stronger American community.”

Congressional leaders could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The “Continuum of Care” program provides emergency shelter for the homeless and then tries to move them to transitional and permanent housing.

In an interview, Cuomo said the program’s approach to assisting the homeless goes beyond simply providing a bed; rather, it involves a partnership with community-based organizations, such as health clinics and neighborhood volunteer groups that “understand the homeless problem in a way that we don’t.”

Funds are used to aid localities with their own homeless-assistance programs, he said.

“In the past, homelessness was all about housing,” he said. “Since then, we have learned that this is as much a health problem, a mental health problem, a domestic violence problem as it is anything else.

“The other mistake we made was thinking that the federal government could solve it--that doesn’t work. We have to get the local community involved, but we also have to get the federal government involved. That marriage is the one that works best.”

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Cuomo described the funding increase as a “presidential priority,” noting that the request comes at a time when we have “a very tight budget.”

Most of the $1.15 billion--about $958 million--would be used for grants to communities to fund programs providing the homeless with job training, child care, substance abuse treatment and mental health services. The remaining $192 million would pay for rental-assistance vouchers to make 34,000 apartments available to homeless people.

Clinton’s announcement on Wednesday represented the second major plan unveiled by the administration this week to help the homeless. On Monday, Cuomo and Vice President Al Gore announced that HUD was dispatching $865 million in aid to the homeless. That included $700 million in grants to community programs and $165 million for emergency shelters.

The grants will go to 1,396 programs across the country.