President Signs Aid-to-Homeless Measure
President Reagan on Wednesday signed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, authorizing a federal board to oversee expenditures on emergency food and shelter programs.
The legislation directs the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish the board, and also authorizes local governments to set up their own boards to decide how program funds should be distributed.
The bill, given final congressional approval June 30, allows $443 million for aid to the homeless in the current fiscal year, and an additional $616 million in fiscal 1988, which starts Oct. 1.
A subsequent supplemental spending bill, however, provided just $355 million of the amount authorized for this year.
Among the new law’s major provisions for the current fiscal year are $240 million for housing assistance, $105 million for medical programs, $40 million for community services and $30 million for veterans’ job training. It also allots $15 million to emergency food and shelter.
McKinney, the late Connecticut Republican for whom the legislation was named, was a long-time advocate of housing programs.
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