The Trump administration Thursday announced new priorities to address homelessness that will end funding for many programs that provide permanent housing in favor of funding transitional housing with employment and addiction treatment requirements.
In announcing a move away from the Biden administration’s “Housing First” policy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also said it will remove prohibitions that prevented faith-based groups from applying for $3.9 billion in competitive grant funding.
“Housing First asserts that solving homelessness requires permanent housing with no strings attached and no real accountability,” Housing Secretary Scott Turner said in a HUD-produced video announcing the change. “It ignores the root causes of homelessness, like mental illness and drug addiction. It provides seemingly endless taxpayer dollars to warehouse homeless populations with no way out. That’s why we’re reforming this program.”
HUD’s new funding priorities are aimed at furthering Trump’s July 24 executive order, “Ending crime and disorder on America’s streets.”
The new policy “promotes transitional housing and self-sufficiency among the homeless, and stops the slush fund that enabled 90 percent of projects to be on an auto renewal over the last four years,” Turner said. “We’re ditching that status quo and opening up competition to support real solutions, including from faith based organizations.”
Although the initiative increases funding for homelessness programs by $300 million, it could put 170,000 people at risk of losing their housing as existing HUD programs that provide permanent housing run out of money and are forced to reapply, NPR reported.
“HUD’s new funding priorities slam the door on them, their providers, and their communities,” The National Alliance to End Homelessness said in a statement to NPR. “Make no mistake: homelessness will only increase because of this reckless and irresponsible decision.”
Paula White, a televangelist who serves in the Trump administration as a senior advisor to the White House Faith Office, thanked Turner for “empowering faith groups to take care of the underserved in their communities.”
“Faith-based organizations provide life-transforming care for the whole person and have been serving the most vulnerable Americans long before the Federal government engaged on this issue,” White said in a statement. “They not only take care of the immediate physical needs of homeless Americans, but also support their long-term mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.”
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