Renzi introduces administration bill to consolidate grants for homeless.(Rick Renzi)

At the Bush administration's request, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) has introduced legislation to consolidate and strengthen homeless assistance grant programs.

The bill would combine three programs-Supportive Housing, Section 8 Single Room Occupancy and Shelter Plus Care-into one competitive grant program. This would "streamline the application process for more than 3,700 communities across our country and speed the delivery of resources to those persons and families most in need," said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

The legislation would create a single set of eligibility requirements and offer incentives to communities that carried out permanent housing activities with supportive services for the homeless, Renzi said.

"Consolidation of these programs would provide more flexibility to localities, fund prevention of homelessness and dramatically reduce the time required to distribute grant funds to groups combating homelessness," he said.

The bill would reauthorize and overhaul the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Programs. It is aimed at encouraging collaboration to get the public and private sectors working on preventing and ending homelessness, while assisting those already in homelessness, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Turning current practice into law, the measure would set aside 30 percent of funding for creating permanent housing. That provision has been part of HUD appropriations bills for the past eight years, NLIHC said.

The bill also would make law the Continuum of Care process, mandating that communities create a CoC board to design collaborate ways to apply for grants and require accountability measures of grantees. The board would have to provide an independent outcome-based evaluation, measuring the progress it is making toward ending chronic homelessness.