Hundreds of people in San Diego County rely on federal money to stay in homes and avoid homelessness. That could look different for different people, but some of the critical programs include permanent supportive housing vouchers and rapid rehousing rental assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how I got back on my feet, was rapid rehousing,\u201d John Brady told NBC 7. \u201cI got 24 months of rental support, first and last paid for. Without that, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be having this conversation with you today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brady was homeless and is now the executive director of Lived Experience Advisers, an organization that advocates for those experiencing homelessness by those who have been there themselves. Now, Brady said, there is a new battle in front of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d he said when asked about looming concerns that money coming to San Diego from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may be diminished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be quite devastating for our population,\u201d said Deacon Jim Vargas, the president and CEO of Father Joe\u2019s Villages.<\/p>\n
We have not heard directly from HUD,\u201d Tamera Kohler, the CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, added. \u201cOur intent is not to cause anyone to lose their housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Vargas and Kohler said they have been hearing for months that changes may be coming to the amount of money providers in the region will get from the federal government as the Trump administration continues to reevaluate budgets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much of our funding is permanent supportive housing, and how much is rapid rehousing? So, rapid rehousing is up to two years of rental assistance, not a permanent voucher. That would be the first thing that we most likely eliminate,\u201d Kohler said.<\/p>\n
She added that would save about $13 million, then they would have to look into how much is spent on rent, operations, etc. and continue to whittle it down, as needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Vargas, he is concerned about upcoming affordable housing projects that they intended to also use for homeless individuals to get off the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have five buildings that are in the pipeline right now, and it’s looking as if we won\u2019t be able to have a PSH (permanent supportive housing) component in any of these buildings, and what that means is, yes, it will be affordable housing, and it will absolutely help,\u201d he said, “but, that just means that those who really need support in the absence of these new vouchers, they won\u2019t be able to be helped off of the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Vargas, they have around 500 people currently being supported by federal funding. It is a similar amount to the 482 households that the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) said they are providing case management and rental assistance to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott Marshall, a spokesperson for SDHC, shared a statement with NBC 7 that read:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC)\u00a0is committed to ensuring that unhoused San Diegans can continue to receive assistance from programs supported by limited federal Continuum of Care funds that we administer in the City of San Diego. In Fiscal Year 2026, SDHC is receiving $11.7 million in federal Continuum of Care funds for permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs, which provide rental assistance and housing stabilization case management services for 481 households. Whether the federal government will implement a significant reduction in these funds and, if so, the specific parameters for potentially transitioning households to other programs are unclear at this point. A dramatic reduction in these federal resources would adversely affect the housing stability of the hundreds of households currently assisted by Continuum of Care funds and likely result in a return to homelessness for many of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kohler, Vargas and Brady are among those who continue to await updates from the government on when, or if, any changes may be coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMessaging is going to be important. Connecting one level of funding to another will be really important. The intentionality of it going together with the city and county when they are seeing similar cuts. The state is seeing it as well,\u201d Kohler said. \u201cIt’s just a real time of disruption, and what we\u2019re trying to do is make as much sense, prepare as confidently as we can, for the people who need these services and depend on it. That\u2019s our job.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people in San Diego County rely on federal money to stay in homes and avoid homelessness.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1493,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-11039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-homelessness","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-county","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}