Michael E. Roanhouse

Mike Roanhouse spent his 40+ year career working on poverty, community development, housing, and homeless issues. After attending Catholic schools in Burlington, Wisconsin, he graduated from the College (now University) of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a BA in History and Political Science in 1968, and from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1971 with a JD.

After working in a Legal Services Program focusing on housing and community development programs, he attended the University of Minnesota Hubert H. Humphrey (HHH) School of Public Affairs. As part of the HHH program he secured a 6-month internship in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he was offered a permanent position. From 1974 to 1988 he participated in studies on HUD’s major housing, homeless, and community development programs and policies at the direction of the Secretary, Assistant Secretaries, and Congress. In 1989 he helped set up and staff HUD’s Homeless Office, and in 2001 became one of five managers of the Federal Government’s Principal Homeless Program’s planning and funding process.

In addition to helping manage the annual Continuum of Care Competition and the Emergency Solutions Grant Formula Program, he directed the development of the National Point-in-Time Street and Shelter Homeless Count, Local Homeless Management Information Systems, and the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress from these two databases. His work on counting the homeless was recognized at his retirement in 2016 by HUD Secretary Castro before the full US Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Now retired, Mike participates in St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) parish activities, serves as Vice-president of the Baltimore SVDP Council, is a member of the SVDP National Housing Task Force, and is a board member of the Annapolis/Anne Arundel County Continuum of Care Homeless Planning Body. Mike was married to his late wife, Theresa, for 40 years and has three children, two of whom are Notre Dame graduates.