Policy Symposium

Striving for Inclusion:
Health Care, Housing and Rights for All

The 2008 Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium includes opportunities to discuss the public policy issues that underlie contemporary mass homelessness and ways in which our organizations can participate in advocacy to assure everyone's right to housing, health care, sustainable incomes, and the good things that life has to offer. All National HCH Conference registrants are invited to attend these events.

Symposium Workshops

Scheduled concurrently with Conference workshops at the Hyatt Regency Hotel-Phoenix, six HCH Policy Symposium workshops will address:

Single Payer Health Care, promoting advocacy for a single payer national health insurance program
Disability Policy Advocacy, exploring strategies to remove obstacles to SSI/ SSDI for disabled homeless people
Integrating Service & Advocacy, providing simple ways to involve HCH staff and Board members in advocacy
Civil Rights, addressing discriminatory laws and efforts to redress them
Undocumented Homelessness, spotlighting immigration issues and policies that are limiting access to services
Affordable Housing, focusing on the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign and State Housing Trust Funds

Schedule of Policy Symposium Events

Thursday, June 12, 2008

8:30-10:00 AM The Susan L. Neibacher Address

susan

The keynote address at the plenary session of the Policy Symposium honors the memory of a committee advocate and service provider who helped to shape the future of Health Care for the Homeless as the founding Executive Director of Care for the Homeless in New York City.

This year's HCH Policy Symposium address will be delivered by Donna Smith, who became homeless as the result of a health care crisis, as chronicled in the opening segment of the 2007 documentary film Sicko. Since this experience, Ms. Smith has become an articulate and forceful consumer voice for universal health care.

2:00-3:30 PM Single Payer: Everybody in, Nobody Out

This workshop will assess the state of health care in the United States, including the rising cost of health insurance and the growing number of uninsured Americans; educate participants about a single payer health care system, H.R. 676 (single payer legislation), and the myths about single payer health care; and motivate participants to advance a single payer national health insurance program in their home communities.

Presenters: Donna Smith, advocate for universal health care; Jonathan B. Weisbuch, MD, MPH, Physicians for a National Health Plan, John Lozier, MSW, National Health Care for the Homeless Council

Friday, June 13, 2008

10:30-12:00 noon Disability Policy Advocacy: Strategic Planning

This workshop will identify current policies that make it difficult for people with disabilities who are homeless to qualify for and obtain SSI/SSDI benefits; specify advocacy priorities of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council to improve access to SSI/SSDI for homeless people with disabilities; and describe legislative and administrative advocacy strategies at the Federal and state levels to remove obstacles to SSI/SSDI benefits for homeless people with severe impairments.

Presenters: Sarah Anderson, Greater Boston Legal Services; Adrienne Breidenstine, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Deborah Dennis, Director SOAR Initiative; Barry Zevin, Tom Waddell Health Center, San Francisco

2:00-3:30 PM Integrating Service and Advocacy at your Organization

service

This workshop will provide participants with a greater understanding of the natural relationship between direct service and advocacy; demystify the concept of "advocacy" and provide simple ways to involve direct service providers, staff and Board members in formalized advocacy work; and provide specific tools for integrating advocacy work into the structure of HCH projects.

Presenter: Kevin Lindamood, Health Care for the Homeless, Inc., Baltimore, MD

4:00-5:30 PM It's Criminal: Contemporary Homelessness & the Erosion of Civil Rights

its criminal

This workshop will evaluate the national trend of "criminalizing" homelessness by reviewing the history of anti-homeless laws and the incarceration of people with mental illness; describe and assess the results of the Without Rights project; and discuss what local communities are doing in response to anti-homeless laws.

Presenters: Paul Boden, Executive Director Western Regional Advocacy Project; Carol Hall, National Consumer Advisory Board member

Saturday, June 14, 2008

8:30-10:30 AM Undocumented Homelessness: Health and Housing on the Border

This workshop will evaluate how the Federal government is addressing immigration issues and how policy changes affect homeless persons' ability to access services; review the requirements in the Real ID Act; and explain how this policy creates barriers to health care, housing, and services for undocumented immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, and other vulnerable populations.

Presenter: Ed Valenzuela, Ph.D, Arizona Fair Housing Center

10:30-12:00 noon Down and Out: The Affordable Housing Crisis in America

lack of housing

This workshop will evaluate the affordable housing crisis in the United States and identify changes in federal housing policy that has lead to the lack of affordable housing. The presenters will identify effective state and local plans that address the lack of affordable housing (i.e. State Trust Fund) and discuss how advocates can build support for the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign and other pieces of legislation that would move the United States toward affirming the right to housing.

Presenter: Adrienne Breidenstine, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Sheila Crowley, National Low Income Housing Coalition

The HCH Policy Symposium is convened by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council in conjunction with the National HCH Conference.