the House Financial Services Committee
On 29th March 2019, the House Financial Services Committee marked up the HR 1856, the Ending Homelessness Act, which would eventually address the issue of homelessness in the United States. Section 2 (2) of this Act elucidates that in 2018, “…there were 552,830 people experiencing homelessness in the United States on any given night, including nearly 160,000 children and youth” (“Text – H.R.1856 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Ending Homelessness Act of 2019”). These figures show that every night, 0.2% of the U.S.’s population sleep in the cold. In the U.S., some states have exceeded the point of declaring homelessness as a state of emergency. In addressing the issue of homelessness, the United States Interagency Council on Homeless in coordination with the secretary of the committee are supposed to come up with a formula of highlighting individuals who deserve the funds within the country.
The bill indicates that there should be direct appropriations of $13,000,000,000, which was to be appropriated to every fiscal year between 2020 and 2024. This funding was to be used in major projects such as building affordable housing, new vouches, and in the management of the cases as well as in the provision of technical assistance (Ramírez). On issues to deal with homelessness, the main players are the committee members. This shows that although authorizing the money for mandatory spending in the five fiscal years, this will not end homelessness in the U.S. in the prescribed time. Just like many bills that have been assented to law before, many of them have been faced with corruption cases during their implementation. The issue of homelessness may, therefore, be faced with the same problem of corruption. Nevertheless, one of the benefits will be a reduction of street families; it directly increases the economy of the country.
However, I’d recommend the introduction of stringent measures on the committee members and other stakeholders who have access to the funds. This will be to ensure that the money is only used for its intended purpose. This is evidenced by the fact that the United States Department of Justice has listed down some of the sections that prohibit theft of public funds (“1661. Protection of government property — Embezzlement of public funds”). It elucidates that the embezzlement of public funds is already in existence, thus the need for laws to curb the problem.