The Trump administration is moving away from a model for addressing homelessness long favored by most social service providers, saying it promotes reliance on government assistance.
But some local service providers say HUD's new emphasis on addiction and mental illness don't match the needs here.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development released its Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) Monday. The document details big shifts in the way HUD will consider funding requests for its Continuum of Care program, requiring treatment for addiction and mental health issues and funding short-term measures like street outreach over housing as first priority.
Previously, HUD funded measures using what social service providers often call the "housing first" model. The idea is that safe, stable housing is a needed foundation from which a person can start their recovery from whatever issues caused their homelessness.
Strategies to End Homelessness provides help for people without housing in Hamilton County. Executive Director Kevin Finn says the housing first model is an accepted best practice for organizations like STEH.
"Housing is absolutely critical to people being able to appropriately address whatever the issues were that led to them becoming homeless," he says. "Whether that be mental health and substance abuse or whether it be underemployment or something like that."
The Trump administration has said the funding criteria changes are meant to discourage people from becoming dependent on government aid for long periods of time.
“The ‘housing first’ experiment failed Americans by warehousing the vulnerable without results. This ideology promised to end homelessness. Instead, billions of taxpayer dollars were spent while homelessness increased to record levels," HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a news release. "Housing alone will not solve a crisis driven by addiction and mental illness. Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD is making necessary reforms to put recovery first."
HUD released its Point in Time count May 29, months behind its usual schedule. The count estimates the number of people across the country sleeping on the streets, in encampments or in shelters during a single night in winter and is used to gauge levels of homelessness both locally and nationally.
HUD used the data to suggest housing first policies have actually increased the number of people experiencing homelessness by pointing to increases in homelessness since 2013, the year the department fully embraced housing first methods.
But advocates like the National Low Income Housing Coalition have taken issue with the report and its conclusions, pointing to rapid increases in housing costs, lagging wage growth, decreases in housing aid and other factors as well as a 3.4% decrease in homelessness from the previous Point in Time count covering 2024-2025.
Finn says he's not at all against encouraging independence. But he notes more than half the people STEH serves do not have addiction issues or mental illness.
"I don't completely disagree with the emphasis on making housing programs as short as necessary for people to be successful," he says. "But most of our homeless folks are not substance users, are not mentally ill or that sort of thing."
The controversial new rules are likely to spark court challenges. The Trump administration previously indicated it would make the shifts to HUD's Continuum of Care funding in October last year, seeking to cut funding for long term housing initiatives from 90% of the program's budget to just 30%. That move led to a lawsuit from elected officials in 20 states and Washington, D.C.
HUD withdrew the rule changes in December last year prior to a court hearing on the lawsuit. The department said it would make "appropriate revisions" to the funding rules.
Finn foresees similar legal challenges to the new funding criteria released Monday — and resulting confusion. One area that could be especially contentious is the effect the new rules would have on housing aid from HUD for people with disabilities, Finn says.
"Unfortunately, we are likely going to spend the better part of the year watching court cases," he says. "Some of these changes likely will be implemented, and some likely will not."
Finn says social service organizations in Hamilton County are working together to assess how to adapt to the new rules.
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