California is fighting back after President Donald Trump\u2019s administration instigated homeless housing cuts that local service providers said would be \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two recently filed lawsuits accuse the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of illegally going over Congress\u2019 head to make massive changes to the way federal homelessness funds are distributed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHUD\u2019s new grant rules would effectively defund permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs across the nation, eliminating proven tools that help residents exit homelessness sustainably,\u201d Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in a statement. \u201cThis is another instance of the Trump administration prioritizing its political agenda above the needs of our most vulnerable community members.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santa Clara County and San Francisco sued the Trump administration<\/a> this week, in conjunction with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A separate lawsuit<\/a> was filed last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s administration and a handful of other states. It marked the 47th time California sued the Trump administration in 44 weeks.<\/p>\n Now, homeless service providers are waiting anxiously to see how the litigation plays out and wondering if the impending legal battle will further delay the money they desperately need.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just the matter of how long it\u2019s going to take that concerns me,\u201d said Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County\u2019s Housing for Health, which coordinates the county\u2019s homelessness response. \u201cBecause while we\u2019re waiting for these issues to get resolved, we have programs that are going to run out of money to support people.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n In a statement last month, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the changes are aimed at \u201cstopping the Biden-era slush fund that fueled the homelessness crisis, shut out faith-based providers simply because of their values, and incentivized never-ending government dependency.\u201d<\/p>\n At issue are changes<\/a> the Trump administration made to its funding policy last month. Jurisdictions applying for a piece of about $4 billion in federal homelessness funds now can\u2019t spend more than 30% of that money on permanent housing \u2014 a significant decrease. Los Angeles County, for example, currently spends more than 80% on permanent housing. Instead, the federal government wants localities to prioritize emergency shelter and temporary housing programs that require participants to be sober or participate in treatment.<\/p>\n While shelters offer a temporary respite from the streets, permanent housing can end someone\u2019s homelessness. For years, the federal government has prioritized funding permanent housing using the \u201chousing first\u201d method \u2014 a strategy that moves people into housing as quickly as possible, without requiring them to first get sober or agree to addiction treatment. Veering away from both of those principles marks a major policy shift.<\/p>\n Last year, California communities won more than $683 million in federal homelessness funds through what is called the Continuum of Care program. About 90% of that went to permanent housing projects, which currently house tens of thousands of Californians, according to Newsom. The new rule threatens to put those people back out onto the street, he said in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new policy also prohibits the use of federal funds for diversity and inclusion efforts, support of transgender clients, and use of \u201charm reduction\u201d strategies that seek to reduce overdose deaths by helping people in active addiction use drugs more safely. And it gives preference for projects in cities, counties and states that ban homeless encampments.<\/p>\n Both lawsuits allege that the Trump administration\u2019s funding changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution by defying the rules Congress set out for distributing the funds. Congress authorized a two-year grant cycle in 2024, meaning local jurisdictions wouldn\u2019t have to reapply for funds in 2025. The Trump administration flouted that decision when it suddenly forced jurisdictions to reapply, the lawsuits allege.<\/p>\n The lawsuits also claim the administration didn\u2019t go through proper protocol before enacting the changes to its funding strategy, which would have included giving cities and counties more time to comply with the new rules, and allowing stakeholders to comment on the changes.<\/p>\n In Santa Cruz County, Ratner is of two minds about the lawsuits. On one hand, he believes the abrupt way the Trump administration rolled out the funding changes was \u201cvery inappropriate.\u201d But he worries a lengthy court battle could tie up funds his county needs to pay people\u2019s rents.<\/p>\n The National Alliance to End Homelessness sued the Trump administration<\/a> over similar allegations tied to a smaller, $75 million pot of homelessness funding in September. A judge sided with the Alliance<\/a>, and temporarily barred the federal government from distributing those funds. But now that money is frozen, unable to help unhoused residents as the case moves forward.<\/p>\n Ratner worries that could happen again in this case. Santa Cruz County is set to start hitting serious financial problems as soon as February, Ratner said. That\u2019s when a $1.2 million supportive housing grant, which currently houses about 50 people in different apartments around the county, is set to expire.<\/p>\n The Trump administration doesn\u2019t expect to start awarding Continuum of Care money until May. It\u2019s unclear how the lawsuits will affect that timeline.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Ratner and other homeless service providers are trying to remain optimistic.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, we don\u2019t know how long the litigation process will take, but we\u2019re hopeful it leads to a more workable path forward,\u201d Sacramento Steps Forward CEO Lisa Bates said in a statement. \u201cOf course, any delay in federal funding would have real impacts on communities across the country, including ours, to operate shelters, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and essential system coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n Marisa Kendall is a reporter with CalMatters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is fighting back after President Donald Trump\u2019s administration instigated homeless housing cuts that local service providers said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[8295,5037,1493,2803,101,88,90,89,198],"class_list":["post-80119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-federal-funds","tag-gov-gavin-newsom","tag-homelessness","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80119","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=80119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}