As HUD Grants Expire, Cities Are Set to Lose Billions in Housing Support While Homelessness Is Projected to Surge Again
Tracey Nathaniel, a certified nursing assistant and mother of two, had a decade-plus wait for a housing voucher and faced vulnerability to homelessness despite working arduously. Participating in a Philadelphia-based pilot program was her saving grace, enabling her to avoid the prospect of homelessness and provide her family with a safe, happy home despite the tumultuous rental market.
There are thousands of success stories that sound like Nathaniel’s citywide. Most are made possible through government grants. Of those grants, the CoC program is currently the largest source of federal funding for homelessness prevention and aid. The program is central to permanent supportive housing solutions, representing 87% of housing and services support.
This is a vital lifeline for the millions of Americans who are just one or two paychecks away from becoming homeless. Tragically, under the Trump Administration, it faces drastic cuts.
Between January and June, the City of Brotherly Love is bracing for a deeply unsettling season filled with snow, ice, rain, and skyrocketing rates of unsheltered homelessness.
HUD cuts on the horizon were projected to create at least 1,000 new homeless cases in Philly in January alone. But what will happen by June across the country is even more concerning.
Aid is on the Chopping Block: No Shelter From the Winter Storms This Year
Winter is a hectic season for crisis teams, outreach teams, and emergency responders, but it can also mean getting some people permanently off the streets. These workers often rely on government funding to aid unsheltered homeless individuals and families, attempting to transition them into temporary warming spaces and eventually permanent housing solutions, which are usually more abundant during inclement weather.
The streets of Philly can serve as a starting point, a safe haven from the horrors of living outside. On the coldest nights, when the foot-high snow piles in mounds, social workers huddle into vans to hand out water and hand warmers. The goal isn’t just to create temporary ease, but to provide permanent solutions that help people transition out of homelessness for good. As people’s basic needs are tended to, and the justified fear of frostbite, respiratory illness, and the exacerbation of chronic conditions sets in, sometimes unsheltered individuals open up and become receptive to receiving services. This event can be positively life-changing. In the past, it might even have led to a permanent solution.
“Us first responders know that homeless people are struggling and hurting, but for some, the only time they’ll come out is when that Code Blue alarm goes off, signaling that the wind chills have dropped beneath 20 degrees Fahrenheit,” said emergency responder Richard Rosario in a one-on-one with Invisible People.
More Homeless People and Fewer Resources: Here’s What the Numbers Show
This year is different from previous winters, for many reasons. Funding cuts will mean more homeless people and fewer resources than usual. All of this took place as the country was reeling from a 35-state winter storm that brought widespread ice, heavy snowfall, and dangerous conditions.
Two social workers, wishing to remain anonymous, expressed unease as word spread that Pennsylvania stood to lose an astonishing $75,211,629 in state-level homeless project grants and another $69,045,722 in permanent housing beds between January and June. That’s 3,175 beds lost in half a year, at a time when more resources are needed, not less.
A futile future looms as social workers realize they are merely moving unsheltered people and families through a system with no permanent supports in place and no end in sight.
This isn’t just a Philadelphia problem. Tom Murphy, VP of Communications at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, shared documents with Invisible People reporters illustrating billion-dollar budget cuts nationwide.
What’s on the Line? $1,346,398,680.67 in Permanent Housing Projects
According to documents shared with Invisible People via the NAEH, the state-level summary of grants set to expire in the next six months before any new CoC Program NOFO can be submitted, reviewed, and scored, totals over a billion dollars in funding for permanent housing projects.
At the same time that funding is expected to come to a complete stop, homelessness numbers are expected to go up drastically. The US is projected to gain between 170,000 and 300,000 new homeless cases (depending upon the source). Meanwhile, we are anticipating a loss of 51,083 beds and $1,222,767,696.17 in permanent housing funding. Here’s what that looks like for the states with the highest number of homeless people in the US:
California
- 187,084 homeless people counted
- Funding loss estimate for permanent housing projects: $198,666,513
- Loss of beds — 6,095
New York
- 158,019 homeless people counted
- Funding loss estimate for permanent housing projects: $105,040,810
- Loss of beds — 3,142
Washington
- 31,554 homeless people counted
- Funding loss estimate for permanent housing projects: $32,215,388.00
- Loss of beds — 898
Florida
- 31,000 homeless people counted
- Funding loss estimate for permanent housing projects:$33,367,057
- Loss of beds — 1,206
Massachusetts
- 29,000 homeless people counted
- Funding loss estimate for permanent housing projects: $51,787,724.50
- Loss of beds — 1,257
Talk to Your Representatives about Expiring Grants for Permanent Housing
Permanent affordable housing remains the only statistically-proven strategy to end homelessness. Any six-month plan that effectively creates more homelessness and simultaneously reduces current resources has already failed. Seeing it play out in real life will have dire consequences.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is already pursuing a preliminary injunction to block the Department of Housing and Urban Development from stripping these programs and resources. Please tell your local legislators you stand with NAEH and the entire unhoused community by expressing outrage over these expiring grants.