Trump plan would shift billions in homeless funds from housing to requiring work and treatment

Kevin Grosbusch has a good idea where he’d be if it not for the supportive housing he receives at Catholic Charities’ Endeavors Residence in Minneapolis.

“Truth be told, I would probably be behind a dumpster behind Denny’s restaurant,” he said.

But Grosbusch and thousands of others may soon lose the services that keep them housed.

Officials in the Trump administration have announced plans to radically remake federal programs addressing homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plans to slash funding for supportive housing and divert billions to short-term programs requiring homeless people to work and receive treatment for mental health and addiction before getting housing. Money would also be boosted to demolish homeless camps.

HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment.

But in a Nov. 21 post about the funding changes on the HUD webpage, Secretary Scott Turner said the agency’s move to award about $3.9 billion in competitive grant funding will restore accountability and promote self-reliance.

Calling $12 billion awarded during the Biden administration a “self-sustaining slush fund” that failed to reduce homelessness, Turner said the shift ”represents the most significant policy reforms and changes in the program’s history.“

Homelessness advocates and supportive-housing providers said the changes could instead double the number of homeless people while dismantling decades of proven strategies to get people off the street.

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this is the biggest story affecting the housing and homelessness space in the past decade,” said Chris LaTondresse, president and CEO of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. “We see this as a real five alarm fire and a retreat from decades of bipartisan progress on proven solutions to homelessness.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison last week joined with 20 other attorneys general to sue HUD for changes he said are illegal and would harm tens of thousands of Americans.

“If the Trump administration’s attempts to cut this funding go through, tens of thousands of formerly homeless people will end up getting evicted from their homes through no fault of their own,” Ellison said in a statement. “Trump’s actions here are as cruel as they are unlawful.”

For the past 40 years, LaTondresse said, HUD has used what’s called Continuum of Care programs to reduce homelessness. Of $3.6 billion sent to those programs, about 90% went to supportive housing.

HUD plans to flip the script, capping supportive housing at 30% and shifting 70% to other priorities, LaTondresse said. It would reduce funding for housing by more than $2 billion nationally and cut 170,000 units of housing. That could double the chronic homeless population, he said.

Now, 70% of that funding will be directed by political appointees in HUD instead of the current system that allowed local officials to direct funding, he said.

“This is the backbone of the federal response to homelessness. It is the primary federal source of funding on homelessness solutions nationwide,” LaTondresse said. “And requiring residents to participate in services as a condition of maintaining their lease, which not only runs counter to evidence-based housing first principles but is in violation of other federal laws.”

Advocates say supportive housing works and has been working for years.

It combines deeply affordable homes with a number of voluntary services — such as case management, mental health treatment and job training — to help get people off the streets and into their own homes, advocates say. LaTondresse said Minnesota has housed more than 9,500 people since 2020.

Betty Allen came to Minnesota from El Paso, Texas. She became homeless not long after moving here. Working with Carver County Human Services, she was placed in permanent supportive housing and has had her own apartment in Waconia for about three years now.

“The program lets you stay in your housing. You go to counseling. You talk to an advocate maybe twice a month, and they check to make sure you’re good,” Allen said. “They help you to pay your rent. They don’t pay it, but they show me how to budget and how to stay housed.”

And, she said, “I also go through mental health services. By me being able to continue to go to my groups, my therapy, it helps me to stay housed.”

Allison Streich, executive director of the Carver County Community Development Agency, said there are 13 households in permanent supportive housing scattered across the county.

Thirteen now in danger of losing those services.

The idea is to get a roof over people’s heads first, then get services to help them stay there, said Jamie Verbrugge, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Twin Cities.

Catholic Charities gets a little more than $1 million to pay for 1,000 units in permanent supportive housing, he said.

The changes the Trump administration is proposing go the other way, he said. People would have to get treatment and a job before they could get housing. He said the change mystifies him.

“Having a work requirement is for many people not a realistic option,” he said. “They have either a disabling condition — either mental or behavioral health or substance abuse — or they’re older."

He added: “We think a multipronged approach is most successful.”