Philip Mangano, the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) was in Duluth on May 5, 2005,to praise the City’s efforts in ending homelessness.
The City Council voted several days earlier to approve the creation of a $3 million Housing Investment Fund which will use $600,000 of the City’s share of casino revenues over the next five years for the development of affordable and supportive housing and in the revitalization of Duluth’s aging housing stock.
Mayor Herb Bergson has made ending homelessness one of his top priorities and was the first mayor in the country to put forward a plan in 2005; he joined 51 governors of states and territories and 185 mayors or county executives who had done so in previous years.
Mangano visited programs serving people experiencing homelessness, ate a meal prepared by Opportunities Cooking, and met with the business community during his visit.
Prior to his appointment by President Bush to lead the ICH, Mangano was the founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, a statewide coalition of 80 agencies that operate over 200 programs. During the twelve years of his tenure there, he developed statewide strategies to reduce and end homelessness in Massachusetts.
The ICH is a part of the Domestic Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President and is responsible for the coordination of 20 federal agencies in their response to reduce and end homelessness. The Council was established in 1987 as part of the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act but had been relatively dormant until President Bush reactivated it to better coordinate the activities of federal agencies involved in assisting the homeless.
For more information on the work of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, visit www.ich.gov and for more information on Duluth’s efforts to create 1,000 new units by 2010, visit www.housing1000.org.