Reducing Chronic Homelessness, and More from CRS
The number of chronically homeless persons in the U.S. dropped from more than 120,000 in 2008 to around 84,000 in 2014, a new report from the Congressional Research Service notes. The federal government has undertaken to end chronic homelessness by 2017.
“One of the reasons that federal programs have devoted resources to ending chronic homelessness is studies finding that individuals who experience it, particularly those with serious mental illness, use many expensive services often paid through public sources, including emergency room visits, inpatient hospitalizations, and law enforcement and jail time,” the CRS report said. “Even emergency shelter resources can be costly. In addition to potential ethical reasons for ending chronic homelessness, doing so could reduce costs in providing assistance to this population.”
See Chronic Homelessness: Background, Research, and Outcomes, December 8, 2015.
Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following.
Genetically Engineered Salmon, updated December 8, 2015
Legislative Actions to Repeal, Defund, or Delay the Affordable Care Act, updated December 9, 2015
Potential Policy Implications of the House Reconciliation Bill (H.R. 3762), December 9, 2015
Provisions of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3762, December 9, 2015
Unemployment Insurance: Programs and Benefits, updated December 9, 2015
Crime Victims’ Rights Act: A Summary and Legal Analysis of 18 U.S.C. 3771, updated December 9, 2015
Crime Victims’ Rights Act: A Sketch of 18 U.S.C. 3771, December 9, 2015
Military Retirement: Background and Recent Developments, updated December 10, 2015
Immigration: Noncitizen Eligibility for Needs-Based Housing Programs, updated December 8, 2015
The Islamic State and U.S. Policy, updated December 8, 2015
To tackle AI risks in grant spending, grant-making agencies should adopt trustworthy AI practices in their grant competitions and start enforcing them against reckless grantees.
Adoption of best practices across the ecosystem will help to improve hiring outcomes, reduce process delays, and enhance the overall hiring experience for all parties involved.
As long as nuclear weapons exist, nuclear war remains possible. The Nuclear Information Project provides transparency of global nuclear arsenals through open source analysis. It is through this data that policy makers can call for informed policy change.
The emphasis on interagency consensus, while well-intentioned, has become a structural impediment to bold or innovative policy options. When every agency effectively holds veto power over proposals, the path of least resistance becomes maintaining existing approaches with minor modifications.