United States Interagency 
 Council on Homelessness          
September 13, 2017
Racial Equity: An Essential Component of Our Nation's Homelessness Response              
   
Our national conversation about homelessness has been missing a critical piece: an honest, open conversation about the racial dimensions of homelessness.  
 
Jeff Olivet and Marc Dones at the Center for Social Innovation kick off a series of commentaries we will be publishing on issues of equity with some initial reflections from their Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities (SPARC) Initiative.  
 
 
Building Momentum in Our Drive to End Family Homelessness
 
Last month, USICH brought together 17 thought leaders on family homelessness to share their best practices, strategize around each other's challenges, and commit to supporting other communities as we build momentum behind national efforts to end family homelessness.
 
Disaster Planning and Recovery Resources for Homelessness Services Systems        
 
Our team at USICH has been inspired by the resilience of the communities affected by the recent hurricanes -- and we stand ready to provide whatever support we can as recovery gets underway.   
 
In the meantime, we've pulled together a few resources that can help communities plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters. 
 
 
Affected by the hurricanes? Access disaster recovery information from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor.   
 
VA Homeless Office Deploys Encrypted Email To Exchange Information with Community Providers         
   
Using an Outlook add-in called Virtru Pro, the VA will be able to send protected health information to community partners more quickly over secure email to support the development and management of by-name lists.   
 
The system should be fully deployed by September 22, 2017.  
 
  Download the provider guide. 
 
 
 
We're gathering stakeholder input to revise and strengthen the federal strategic plan. 
 
 
40 of 87 Counties in Minnesota  
Have Ended Veteran Homelessness!   
  
Congratulations to the Northwest and West Central Continuums of Care for joining their Southwest CoC colleagues in building systems that have effectively ended Veteran homelessness!