Welcome to the HopePHL Perspective, our Policy Newsletter!
How is the new PA legislative leadership responding to the Children Cannot Wait campaign?
Pennsylvania's new United States Senator and Governor have been on the job for three months. During their campaigns, the Children Cannot Wait campaign asked them to support several issues.

HopePHL met with Senator Fetterman's new Regional Director, Mikecia Witherspoon, and discussed various issues such as homeless education, expanding Head Start and high-quality childcare, improving data on childhood homelessness, and lack of youth-dedicated supportive housing programs. They had a positive first meeting and promised to keep discussing these issues. Later in April, the Children Cannot Wait campaign met with Governor Shapiro's Deputy Secretaries on Policy, Meghna Patel and Orlando Almonte. Even though their backgrounds were not in homelessness or housing, they listened to the issues presented and pledged to respond to the requests.

Overall, these are positive first steps, and the Children Cannot Wait campaign looks forward to engaging with the new leaders in the future. We will provide updates on any progress.
(Pictured: Gwen Bailey, HopePHL VP of Programs and Mikecia Witherspoon,  Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Director for Sen. Fetterman)
HopePHL's BELL Project Releases New Community Report on Young Children Experiencing Homelessness 
HopePHL’s Building Early Links for Learning (BELL) project initiative aims to support child development and promote resilience for families with young children who stay in Philadelphia homeless shelters. Our community report shares our experiences during Covid with family emergency and transitional housing programs.  

The BELL model focuses child- and family-service systems on meeting the developmental needs of young children who experience homelessness and their families. Resilience occurs when systems are successful in helping families meet the universal developmental needs of early childhood and the specific needs of young children in shelter.  

Our recommendations include:  
  1. Shelters and local high-quality early childhood programs should communicate regularly to help families access early childhood programs.  
  2. Shelter agencies, early childhood programs, and the broader shelter and early education systems should continue to prioritize the varied developmental needs of young children experiencing homelessness despite competing demands.  
  3. Shelter staff have the opportunity to reinforce the value of different early childhood programs (e.g., center-based programs, home visiting, family-childcare homes) using a trauma-informed approach and balancing risks to health and safety.  
  4. Leaders in early education can make systemic reforms to increase outreach, education, and enrollment of children in shelter and other homeless contexts by at least 50%.  
  5. Practice and research partnerships should continue to elicit and elevate the voices of families experiencing homelessness as well as the providers who serve them. 
‘Thank you’ Representatives Evans, Scanlon, Wild, and Boyle! 
Local Congressional members recently proposed increasing support for two key programs supporting thousands of Pennsylvania’s children and youth experiencing homelessness.  

We alerted our local delegation that a bipartisan “Dear Colleague” letter was circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives that calls for $800 million for the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program and $300 million for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) program in the FY2024 budget.
   
The EHCY and RHYA programs have been traditionally underfunded prior to the American Rescue plan. Increases delivered to those programs was the result of bi-partisan support that seized on the opportunity to expand services. As a result, Pennsylvania received a one-time allocation of $32 million to serve more than 30,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness when its usual budget was less than $6 million. And this helps Philadelphia’s 8,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness.  We are happy to report that Congresspersons Dwight Evans (Philadelphia), Mary Jo Scanlon (Delaware), Susan Wild (Lehigh), and Brendan Boyle (Philadelphia) signed onto the letter. The next step is that the House Appropriations Committee needs to decide whether or not to support this effort. More than 90 Congress members signed on.

TAKE ACTION 
The next steps include: 
  • Contact Senators Casey and Fetterman and encourage them to include ECHY and RHY in their list of priorities to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
  • Use the links below and copy and paste into the message section: “The Education for Homeless Children and Youth program (EHCY) and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) programs are the only two federal programs specifically targeted to support children and youth experiencing homelessness. Congress is currently considering funding levels for EHCY and RHYA funding in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations cycle. Please support $800 million for the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program and $300 million for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) program in the FY2024 budget.” 
  • Reach out to PA-based Appropriations Committee members Guy Renschenthaler (14th District, SW Pennsylvania) and Matt Cartwright (8th District, NW Pennsylvania). We will ask advocates in those regions to reach out to their representatives. 

HopePHL thanks SchoolHouse Connections for being the source of some of this information.  
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