Advocacy Projects

NPIHN promotes the well being of the community and the interests of homeless families through two advocacy programs Interfaith Advocates and Just Neighbors.
 
Interfaith Advocates is a coalition of congregants, clergy, formerly homeless and homesless families working together to advocate for policies that challenge the systemic causes of homelessness and poverty. Based on an orgainizing structure that involves congregational coordinators and membership, Interfaith Advocates volunteer for 12 hours a year of non-partisan advocacy on the local, state and federal level. Specific efforts in the past year have included organizing support for raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania, opposing cuts to the federal budget for much needed social services, creating a housing trust fund in Philadelphia and working with families to testify at several public hearings on these issues.
 
Just Neighbors is an engaging nine-part interactive educational series on poverty and homelessness in the United States. Each session, which can be held as a stand-alone workshop or combined in a series, opens with a teaching on poverty from Scripture and is ideal for congregational study groups, as well as high school and university students to gain better understanding about the root causes of poverty and homelessness. The program serves as a springboard to social advocacy activities and additional types of volunteer service programs.
 


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       Action Alert: Encourage Support for HR 32 -Homeless Children and Youth Act    

 

On February 7 House Financial Services Committee's Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee passed HR 32, the Homeless Children and Youth Act, by a voice vote. 

 

HR 32 is bi-partisan legislation that amends the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition of homelessness to include children, youth, and their families who are verified as homeless by four federal programs: school district liaisons, Head Start programs, Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs, and early intervention programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C. Current HUD regulations preclude many homeless children and youth from qualifying for critical HUD services. If enacted into law, HR 32 would eliminate HUD's regulatory obstacles to homeless children and youth qualifying for essential HUD services and would facilitate referrals of homeless children and youth for these services. HR 32 also would assure that homeless children, youth, and their families are counted as homeless. 

 

HR 32 is supported by The National Center on Family Homelessness and a broad coalition of homeless, education, and child and youth organizations. View the supporting organizations. 

 

As a nation, we can no longer ignore the fact that 1.6 million children go without homes, food, access to health care, and educational opportunities each year. The cost of doing nothing is far too great to our children, families, and communities. For the latest data on child and family homelessness read the groundbreaking America's Youngest Outcasts 2010 from the Campaign to End Child Homelessness at The National Center on Family Homelessness.

Next Steps:  

HR 32 now moves on for consideration by the full Financial Services Committee. 

 

Action Needed: 

1. If your U.S. Representative sits on the Financial Services Committee, please urge him or her to vote yes on HR 32 and to co-sponsor the bill. See a list of full committee members.  

 

2. Regardless of whether your U.S. Representative is on the full committee, please urge him or her to sign on to HR 32 as a co-sponsor. Find contact information for U.S. Representatives.  

 

Materials and Information: 

1. A basic fact sheet on HR 32 

2. A fact sheet responding, point-by-point, to misinformation about and arguments against HR 32 

3. A sample letter requesting co-sponsorship from your U.S. Representative