Media Resources

Executive Actions threaten the safety and fair treatment of people at risk of and currently experiencing homelessness. A recent order directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to conduct rulemaking to rescind the “Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual’s Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs” rule (Equal Access Rule) will make it harder for people to access shelter and housing, forcing them to live outside. 

The Equal Access Rule remains critical in ensuring that access to HUD resources remains universal, whether to ensure a family with a teenage son is not separated at a shelter or protecting the access of a non-binary person seeking life-saving resources. 

For more information, please visit: Defending the Equal Access Rule 

The Alliance remains deeply concerned about the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to terminate at least half of all employees at HUD, including a projected 84% of staff working in the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), the office responsible for funding housing and services for people experiencing homelessness across the country. Further, there have been reports of planned closures of as many as 34 field offices across the country. 

If carried out at the scale reported, proposed reductions will have a major impact on our collective work to solve homelessness, including through: 

1. Causing significant delays in core activities, such as grant administration, and slowing down vital resources from entering communities.
2. Curtailing the amount of technical assistance provided to support communities administer programs and address challenges.  
3. Reducing oversight over programs and the ability for HUD to track and leverage data to achieve better outcomes. 

HUD has already struggled with a severe staffing shortage for many years. Yet now, an already understaffed and overworked workforce will be asked to do even more to evolving challenges, such as the historic 18% increase in homelessness in 2024.

Staff cuts across the Department, and especially in the CPD office, will further burden communities, and ultimately, increase homelessness. 

While it is unclear how Medicaid programs will be cut, it is clear that cutting Medicaid funding by up to $880 billion will cause millions of Americans to lose access to medical and long-term care, as well as specialized benefits like housing support.  

There are many reasons why Medicaid is an essential public assistance program for people experiencing homelessness:  

1. Most Permanent Supportive Housing residents rely on Medicaid.
2. Medicaid expansion improved access to health coverage for people experiencing homelessness.
3. Medicaid plays a critical role in addressing housing insecurity and homelessness through a variety of authorities such as 1115 waivers, 1915i waivers, and in lieu of services, which can cover services, such tenancy, housing navigation, and limited rental assistance.
4. In rural communities, many clinics and other medical programs rely on funding by federal resources, including Medicaid, to operate. Medicaid cuts are most harmful to rural communities because of these factors.
5. Cutting coverage for these essential services would lead to increases in housing instability and homelessness. 

For more information please visit: Cutting Funding for Medicaid Will Increase Homelessness 

Threats continue to emerge and evolve, especially policies which seek to impose unfunded mandates, strip communities of local control, and punish an overworked and understaffed services workforce. For example:

1. Several states are considering legislation to create “Homeless Drug Free Zones” to create criminal penalties for both providers and persons when we know the dangers of permanent punishments in creating barriers to solving homelessness. 
2. Several states have enabled individuals to sue localities over encampments, creating financial burdens on already cash-strapped communities and forcing more cities to enact harsh and counter-productive camping bans. 
3. The National Homelessness Law Center estimates that at least 150 communities in the wake of the Grants Pass decision have adopted camping bans or new ordinances which seek to cite, fine, arrest, and jail people for experiencing unsheltered homelessness.  

Despite the long-standing yet rapidly evolving attempts to criminalize homelessness across the country, a recent Alliance analysis of nearly 100 reports on the subject reinforces the fact that these laws do not reduce homelessness. Instead, they worsen the crisis by increasing arrests, creating barriers to housing and services, and causing lasting harm to the people they target. 

For more information, please visit the Alliance’s Criminalization Resources Landing page.