From Dave McNaughton:

The annual National Assembly for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA will be held in Louisville at the end of August.

I am not able to attend, but was wondering who would be speaking.

One of the keynote speakers is Gregg Colburn, an academic who studies and writes on homelessness. Colburn’s research reveals the rate of homelessness is driven by the lack of deeply affordable housing, and not by other factors so often attributed. He advocates for more evidenced based intervention, and cites the example of the Federal government’s effective efforts to address homelessness amongst veterans.

The reason efforts to curb homelessness fail is not that we don’t know what works, but we are not providing according to the scale of the problem.

I am grateful our National Assembly has invited this speaker, but also wonder why? We had an executive order issued by President Trump on July 24 and yesterday he held a press event in regard to policing in the District of Columbia.

The EO and the press event not only criminalizes homelessness, but dehumanizes people who are homeless, and tosses aside any discussion on what works. In fact the administration’s proposed solution to addressing homelessness and ending encampments is placement in facilities and programs that don’t exist in any way near to the scale of the problem, and shelters and treatment centers will soon be affected by the Big Beautiful Bill.

In the face of these attacks on our most vulnerable and the passing of this abhorrent legislation our National Voice of the Poor has not issued any statements nor has the new office for advocacy in Washington DC been proactive in addressing these issues.

Please, somebody correct me if I am wrong.

In the meantime our conference will continue to seek out and support those in need. In regards to homelessness we just provided rent for a Friend in Need who received a 30 day notice, we provided a new bed to a person who lost their housing and most of their furniture when an entire apartment complex went to market rate, she was one of the lucky few who was able to find another apartment.

And we will continue to provide for the necessities of people who are on the street that includes food, clothing, mail drop and if necessary temporary shelter.