New York housing advocates want Congress to save the Continuum of Care program.
It is designed to help end homelessness and fund housing support programs nationwide but the Trump Administration wants to dramatically reshape the program while ending support for evidence-based models like permanent supportive housing. Advocates want lawmakers to include a no-cost provision in either a continuing resolution or a formal budget, ensuring existing grants will be renewed.
Pascale Leone, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York, said without this money, the ripple effects could be catastrophic.
“The potential of these programs going under, closing their doors,” Leone explained. “Folks who have years, if not decades, of housing stability are now at risk of returning to homelessness. Folks losing their jobs, families having to make hard decisions between paying rent, putting food on the table, school supplies, diapers.”
More than 8,700 households statewide could face homelessness if permanent supportive housing funded by the Continuum of Care program ends. It comes as New York State has seen a 53% increase in homelessness in the last year, with at least 158,000 people experiencing homelessness. Federal lawmakers have until midnight on Tuesday to make a deal to save the program and avert a government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has been slow to issue a proper notice of funding for the Continuum of Care Builds program, which helps construct housing for the homeless. The department retracted its first two notices and issued a third.
Rebecca Zangen, chief policy officer for the network, said the funding has strings attached.
“The nonprofits responding would really not have any control, like whether or not the jurisdiction they were operating in would collaborate with ICE,” Zangen pointed out. “So, really, in effect, the COC Builds NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity) was designed so that Democratic-led communities would not be eligible for the funding.”
Other requirements for the funding center around issues involving gender and harm reduction. A lawsuit has been filed disputing the requirements but it would not remove them.
The changes come after President Donald Trump issued an executive order making it easier to remove homeless encampments. Critics argued the order criminalizes homelessness and goes against decades of beneficial practices to reduce homelessness.
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