House Democrats sent a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, asking him to rescind a recent decision that would slash funding for affordable housing programs.
HUD’s Notice for Funding Opportunity for the Fiscal Year 2025 Continuum of Care Program, issued on Nov. 13, would cut support for permanent supportive housing programs from 86% of Continuum of Care funds to just 30% of its annual budget of roughly $3.5 billion, worsening homelessness, the letter said. The Continuum of Care program is the largest source of federal funding for homelessness assistance.
“We write in response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) reckless and disturbing policy change and funding announcement that could push over 170,000 formerly homeless individuals back on the streets and exacerbate our nation’s homelessness crisis,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California.
More than 770,000 people experience homelessness, and the current notice would worsen the situation, affecting people with disabilities, veterans and domestic violence survivors, the letter said.
The notice would also compress the application timeline to 60 days, and coupled with HUD’s delayed release of the notice due to the government shutdown, create a nearly half-year gap in services with the fiscal year 2024 funds set to expire Dec. 31.
“This reckless timing will put critical homeless services at risk, leave rents unpaid, and put the most vulnerable people back on the streets,” lawmakers wrote.
Under the notice, programs and organizations that align with President Donald Trump’s executive order to end crime and disorder will be prioritized. The executive order calls for different policies and practices to address homelessness, including mandated services, work requirements and camping bans.
The notice also said HUD has the right to “evaluate the eligibility of a project application” if the project utilizes or has utilized in the past harm reduction practices like safe injection sites, promoted racial preferences or “[conducted] activities that rely on or otherwise use a definition of sex other than as binary in humans,” according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Many conservatives have voiced their support of the changes, echoing Trump’s call for more accountability.
“[The program change] restores accountability to homelessness programs and promotes self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans,” HUD said in an earlier press release. “It redirects the majority of funding to transitional housing and supportive services, ending the status quo that perpetuated homelessness through a self-sustaining slush fund.”
Yet, more than 20 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to HUD last month asking for the renewal of the existing grants to avoid disruption caused by significant policy changes this late in the funding award process.
The Democratic lawmakers ended their letter by urging HUD to immediately reverse the notice, renew current grants and ensure evidence-based solutions receive necessary funding.
