Transitional Housing for Recovery in Viable Environments Demonstration Program Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. EMMER. Mr. Chairman, when we talk about the opiate crisis, we talk often of its victims, but there is an important group that we are leaving out: survivors.

Individuals who complete inpatient rehabilitation and other treatment programs have been forgotten and left behind without a way to begin a new life. In particular, finding a suitable place to call home can be especially challenging.

Research has proven the connection between substance use and homelessness. It is time that Congress take a closer look.

Today, nearly 110,000 Americans are homeless, with approximately half suffering chronic addictions to drugs, alcohol, or both. Approximately 70 percent of homeless veterans are estimated to suffer from substance use disorder.

We continue to focus on treatment and prevention, but unless we simultaneously look toward assisting those who need support after treatment, this terrible crisis will continue. That is why I rise today in support of H.R. 5735 introduced by my colleague, Andy Barr, whose home State of Kentucky is no stranger to the opiate crisis.

Called the THRIVE Act, or the Transitional Housing for Recovery in Viable Environments Demonstration Program Act, this program will kick off a 5-year demonstration program to support transitional housing. Specifically, 10,000 Section 8 housing vouchers will be set aside specifically for people with an opiate use disorder.

Transitional housing takes a wraparound approach by providing its residents with a stable, supportive environment to address their addiction, mental health, and/or homelessness. Required participation in recovery classes, life skills education classes, mandatory savings plans, and full-time or part-time employment work together to support residents as they continue to improve their lives.

Homelessness and addiction create a vicious cycle, and these Americans need help to break it. With this bill, Congress can step in and provide some assistance for their next step of recovery.

Mr. Chair, I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 5735.

Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, it is interesting that my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle can come into this Chamber and talk about homelessness and talk about rehabilitation and talk about the need for housing.

I am the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee with every wish and every hope to be able to have this committee take up a bill on homelessness. I have not been able to get that done. We have taken up over 100 bills on the Financial Services Committee, but not once have we dealt with the issue of homelessness.

The gentleman from Minnesota who talked about homelessness and the fact that veterans are homeless is absolutely correct, but what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to come to the floor to try and convince the Members of this House that somehow a demonstration project where you take 10,000 vouchers from the existing vouchers that people are standing in line for is going to make a dent in this problem? I don't think so.

This problem has been around for a long time, and I really do want the Members on the opposite side of the aisle to understand what has not been done to help those people who have needed a lot of assistance and a lot of help.

I can recall, God bless her soul, when Nancy Reagan said to drug abusers, ``Just Say No.'' This is another piece of legislation that falls in that category: 10,000 vouchers in a demonstration project.

You have been hearing how huge this problem is. We don't need a demonstration project for a few people taking 10,000 vouchers from those who have been standing in line. We need to appropriate the dollars that are necessary, number one, to help fund those organizations that have been working on this problem for years that need more money, that need more beds, that need more resources.

We need more money not only to deal with the housing issue that is attempting to be addressed in this demonstration project, but whether it is helping to equip police departments with the necessary equipment to save lives of the people on the street who are overdosed that they encounter in their daily work. Some communities have that, a few communities have that, but every community experiencing this problem needs to have that.

In addition to that, we need more beds for rehabilitation. You can't get to supportive housing until you deal with the addiction so that when people are ready to go into transitional housing, they get the support that goes along with that. That is not just a bed and a roof, but it is the social services that go along with it.

It will cost money, and unless you are willing to put up the dollars, unless you are willing to work with our appropriators to do what is necessary to honestly and forcefully deal with this issue, we are just talking about it. We are just pontificating. We are just saying things that we don't even understand.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source