NAEH conference is back in D.C. as fight to end homelessness intensifies

Women speaking at a podium in front of blue curtains.

Ann Oliva, chief operating officer of the National Alliance to End Homelessness delivering opening remarks beside ASL interpreter. Photo by Donte Kirby

In the backdrop of the Supreme Court decision that gives states free rein to criminalize homelessness, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) held its annual conference and reasserted its stance to organize and build more coalitions in the fight to end homelessness. 

The conference was back to its pre-COVID numbers as over 2,200 advocates, homeless service providers, officials, and people with lived experiences of homelessness gathered from across the nation in D.C. from July 8-10, according to the numbers Ann Oliva, CEO of NAEH, noted in her opening speech on day one. Oliva also announced the organization’s new strategic priorities of lived experience and equity; organizational culture and capacity; policy, practice, and research; and community and movement building. 

Minnesota Senator Tina Smith announced her new legislation called the Housing for All Veterans Act, which would provide housing vouchers to all low-income veteran households and exclude veteran disability benefits from income eligibility calculations. The bill also would seek to make sure the availability of these vouchers would not be limited by annual discretionary funding levels. 

“Housing for low-income veterans shouldn’t be determined by the whims of the federal appropriations process,” Smith said during the closing speeches of the conference on July 10. “It should be a promise fulfilled for every veteran, to bring them home.” 

At least 35,000 veterans were experiencing homelessness in 2023, 6.6% of the total population experiencing homelessness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual Point-in-Time Count

Smith said everyone deserves housing, but her legislation prioritizes housing for veterans because of what the country owes to those who served in the military. 

“Housing is a human right in this country and everybody deserves a safe, dignified, decent space to stay,” Smith said as she closed her speech. 

As the annual conference closed, hundreds of attendees participated in NAEH’s Capitol Hill Day, during which they met with 220 representatives and senators and demanded they support more funding for homeless services programs and oppose legislation that criminalizes homelessness.


Issues |Housing|Housing Vouchers|Veterans


Region |Washington DC

Advertisement

email updates

We believe ending homelessness begins with listening to the stories of those who have experienced it.

Subscribe

RELATED CONTENT