Trumps Appointment of Robert Marbut will destroy US Homeless Policies

December 9, 2019 12:31 pm

Madison, WI – Good grief! Our policies around homelessness were already in need of reform, but appointing this man who wants to hide homeless people, ban feeding them and criminalize homelessness to lead the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness is a nightmare. See what you can do ASAP.

NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOSING COALITION ARTICLE

President Trump appointed Robert Marbut as executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) on December 4, following the ousting of former USICH Director Matthew Doherty in November (see Memo, 11/25). Dr. Marbut, a community college professor and consultant to cities on homelessness, is expected to be confirmed to the position by USICH during the agency’s December 10 meeting. NLIHC has serious concerns with the appointment, given Dr. Marbut’s dehumanizing and ineffective methods, all of which are not based on evidence or best practice.

Dr. Marbut rejects “Housing First,” a proven strategy for reducing homelessness that prioritizes finding safe, stable, accessible housing for people experiencing homelessness before addressing other problems, like substance abuse or untreated mental health issues. The efficacy of the Housing First model is supported by two decades of research and has been identified by USICH as a best practice for ending homelessness.

Dr. Marbut describes his approach to combating homelessness as “Housing Fourth,” calling for large-scale shelters with treatment facilities where people experiencing homelessness “earn” their right to beds within the shelter. While he says he does not support large-scale arrests of people experiencing homelessness, Dr. Marbut has called for cities to stop “enabling” homelessness by providing free meals, which he calls “street feeding,” and allowing people to sleep in public spaces. He has also endorsed expanding law enforcement’s authority to arrest people experiencing homelessness for violating minor ordinances.

In addition to drawing criticism from homelessness advocates, the appointment has been met with disapproval from members of Congress. In a press statement, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) stated, “It is a problem that the Trump Administration’s designee to head the Interagency Council on Homelessness may believe that it’s more important to stop churches from providing food to homeless people than it is to find those people homes. If true, this is yet another example of this administration obstructing efforts to end homelessness in this country.”

Representatives Lacy Clay (D-MO), Gwen Moore (D-WI), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) are circulating a congressional letter expressing concern about President Trump’s pick of Dr. Marbut to lead USICH. “We are profoundly disappointed in your decision to fire the head of [USICH], Matthew Doherty, and replace him with Robert Marbut,” the representatives state. “Mr. Marbut is, among our many concerns, unqualified, unprepared, and disdainful of the mission of the critically important federal agency which he has been appointed to lead. . . . Mr. Marbut rejects over a decade of learning, research, practice, and bipartisan agreement that ‘Housing First’ ends homelessness. He ignores ample evidence of the underlying cause of homelessness – our country’s severe shortage of homes affordable to its lowest income renters – and instead blames homelessness on what he perceives as moral failings.”

Read the representatives’ letter at: https://bit.ly/2LDVoOR

Read Senator Brown’s press statement at: https://bit.ly/2riUMqS

Learn more about nominee Dr. Marbut’s approach to addressing homelessness at: https://bit.ly/34QAi7k

HOUSING NOT HANDCUFFS ACTION ALERT

Dear Housing Not Handcuffs Campaign,

As you know, Robert Marbut was nominated earlier this week to be the head of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Reps. Clay (D-MO), Moore (D-WI), and Jayapal (D-WA) are now circulating a letter expressing concern about his appointment to USICH. Please call/email/contact your Representative as soon as possible! The deadline for Representatives to sign on is Monday, December 9 at 12pm ET, because they want to finalize it before the USICH vote on December 10.

You can read a copy of the letter here: https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/USICH.pdf

If you need to find your Representative’s contact info, you can do so here: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/

You can use the following script:

I am a constituent, I am asking the Representative to sign-on to an urgent letter being circulated by Reps. Clay, Moore, and Jaypal to oppose the appointment of Robert Marbut to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Please ask the Representative to contact Rep. Clay’s office by Monday, December 9 at noon ET as his nomination will be confirmed by the Council on Dec. 10.
Since the time of the Bush Administration, the USICH has helped lead federal agencies in implementing the bipartisan consensus on evidenced-based homelessness policy that Housing First works, and criminalizing homelessness does not help end homelessness, but prolongs it.
Robert Marbut’s promotes policies that undermine this consensus and are based on myth and prejudice against homeless people, not on actual data.
He does not run homeless programs, but jail diversion programs that are based on criminalizing innocent, life-sustaining conduct of homeless people.
This will drive expensive and counter-productive over-incarceration rather than cost-effect housing policy.
(Feel free to add your own points about why/how this will affect you/your district/lives of people experiencing homelessness, or draw ones from the letter).
Again, please ask the Representative to contact Rep. Clay’s office to sign on to the letter opposing Robert Marbut’s nomination to the USICH by Monday at noon.
Thank you.
(You may be asked for contact info to verify you are a constituent).

You can also use the above as an email template if you want to contact your Rep over email.

Please distribute the call to action to your networks!

Eric