The psalmist praises the Lord's "marvelous deeds" this Sunday. Advocates for the homeless are praising one of the least expensive and most unheralded initiatives in last year's stimulus bill, which is quietly saving hundreds of thousands of people from homelessness.

The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program is expected to help 600,000 people by moving some from homeless shelters into their own apartments and by providing rent payments to prevent others from being evicted. Advocates want Congress to boost the program's $1.5 billion funding as the vast need for more assistance becomes evident nationwide.

Because the assistance is temporary—usually three to 18 months—the program tries to target people who are most in need and who can return to self-sufficiency within a few months, advocates say.

The initiative breaks new ground in federal housing policy by focusing more resources on preventing homelessness and getting people back on their feet rather than only feeding and warehousing the destitute.

"When you think about it, it really makes sense to focus on getting people back into housing faster," said Nan Roman, executive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Instead of long stays in some homeless facility with a lot of service delivery, wouldn't a little bit of money help people stay where they are and not end up in the system at all?"

On top of the estimated 672,000 who are already homeless on any given night in the U.S., the alliance expects the recession to push 1.5 million more people into the streets.

Source: An article by Tony Pugh for McClatchy Newspapers