Nan Roman is a leading national voice on the issue of homelessness and affordable housing. She served most recently as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The Alliance is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the sole mission of which is to prevent and end homelessness by ensuring that all Americans have safe, decent, and affordable housing, and access to services. Under Ms. Roman's direction, the Alliance became the nation's leading organization on the issue of homelessness, seeking to achieve its goal through research, federal policy, and capacity building. To accomplish this, the organization worked/s with partner organizations and agencies across the nation, as well as with Federal, state, and local government.
Ms. Roman has been an active and influential participant in the national debate on solutions to homelessness, with a special focus on housing. She is the author of numerous articles on homelessness and has designed and conducted research on the issue. She has testified before Congress and speaks regularly at conferences across the US. She is frequently interviewed by the press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, PBS, NPR, and many others. Under her leadership, the Alliance has held numerous national conferences and training institutes.
Ms. Roman has worked closely with local and state governments and nonprofit service, health care, and housing organizations across the nation, helping them design and implement systems to end, not simply manage, homelessness, and to ensure that all Americans have safe, stable, and affordable housing. She has developed training programs, written handbooks, delivered technical assistance, and helped communities structure plans to end homelessness.
In the nation's capital, she has worked with members of Congress and their staffs, as well as senior members of the Administration, on a variety of issues affecting people experiencing homelessness. This work has resulted in solid federal policy and resources such as:
funding for permanent supportive housing for homeless people who need both housing and services (the supply of such housing has gone from a few hundred units in the late 1990s to 377,000 units in 2021);
the creation of Rapid Re-Housing subsidies (first implemented in 2014, Rapid Re-Housing funds now house 137,000 households);
COVID-related housing funding targeted to people experiencing homelessness ($4 billion for Emergency Solutions Grants, $5 billion for Emergency Housing Choice Vouchers, and $5 billion for the Homeless Assistance and Supportive Services Program [HOME-CV]): and
funding for population-based housing assistance for homeless youth, older adults, families, unsheltered people, and others.
Ms. Roman is also involved in the international discussion on homelessness and housing affordability. She has spoken and consulted on the issue in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia. She was an official delegate of the United States to Habitat II and III, the United Nations conferences on cities. She has worked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on homelessness strategies and data and served on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Global Homelessness. With partners from around the globe, the Alliance has sponsored and participated in homelessness-focused convenings in Europe, Canada, and the US.
Ms. Roman is a Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Low Income Housing Coalition; Secretary of the Board of Pathways to Housing DC; on the Executive Committee of the Board of Friendship Place; and is a member of the Board of REINSTITUTE. She has been appointed to numerous public and private sector advisory bodies. She is the recipient of awards, recently including the Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the J. Washington Award from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, and the Carl Cohen Award from the National Housing Conference.
Ms. Roman received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Illinois. She recently retired from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. She, her husband, and her daughter are long-time residents of Washington, DC.