Opinion | HUD’s sudden policy shift puts Minnesota’s homelessness progress at risk

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We won’t solve homelessness through lethal injection or partisan point-scoring.

Yet in recent weeks we’ve seen both: a nationally broadcast call to kill unhoused people who refuse services (later walked back), and a federal funding notice abruptly reissued with new conditions that sidelined projects local communities nationwide had already vetted. Now, new reports confirm that the Trump administration is preparing even deeper cuts and radical changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homelessness programs — changes that would unravel decades of bipartisan consensus about what works.

Instead of building on what works, these actions divert scarce resources and abandon the compassion that once guided bipartisan housing policy.

At the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Continuum of Care (CoC) program — the backbone of America’s homelessness response for 40 years — is under threat. For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have invested in permanent supportive housing because it works: It reduces homelessness, saves taxpayer dollars and strengthens communities.

The Trump administration is now proposing extreme changes that would upend this model:

Already, HUD has reissued a $75 million CoC Builds notice with radically altered criteria and a compressed one-week turnaround. Projects like Beacon’s Aster Commons in Hennepin County and Gladstone Crossing in Ramsey County — originally selected for $5.2 million to create 78 homes — were effectively disqualified. A federal court has since paused those new conditions, but the larger threat remains.

Permanent supportive housing — deeply affordable homes paired with voluntary services like case management, mental health care, and job training — saves lives and taxpayer dollars by reducing ER visits, jail stays and shelter nights.

This is why, for four decades, administrations from Reagan to Obama to Trump’s first term continued to fund supportive housing. It has been one of the rare areas of durable bipartisan agreement. To retreat now is to reject the evidence and risk a surge in unsheltered homelessness at the very moment when Minnesota and other states are proving progress is possible.

I’ve seen it up close: A mother finally tucks her kids into their own beds instead of a car seat. A young person, once homeless, holds a key and starts planning a future. These aren’t just anecdotes — they’re measurable results that scale when programs are stable, timelines are predictable and the federal government is a reliable partner.

In Minnesota, we’ve housed more than 9,500 people since 2020, reduced unsheltered homelessness in Hennepin County by a third, and reached “functional zero” for veteran homelessness in Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

The choice before us is stark: Do we abandon 40 years of bipartisan progress for short-term politics or double down on proven solutions?

Beacon’s request is simple and compatible with any administration’s goals:

Supportive housing enjoys decades of bipartisan support because it saves lives and taxpayer dollars. These federal dollars exist to accelerate proven solutions. HUD should let them.

Because cruelty isn’t a housing policy. Compassion and evidence are.