‘There will be more encampments’: Trump’s HUD guts $91M for supportive housing across Mass., US
SPRINGFIELD — Permanent supportive housing in Hamden County gives 304 people — each homeless for at least a year but likely longer — not just a roof over their head, but a person to talk with.
Aid workers check in at least once a week, offering mental health care, alcohol or drug treatment, and job search help, said Olivia Bernstein, vice president of supportive housing services for the Mental Health Association in Chicopee.
But maybe not for too much longer.
The Trump administration, in a major policy shift in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is capping the money that grant recipients around the country can spend "housing first" programs, like permanent supportive housing, and instead emphasizing shelters. In housing first sites, sobriety is not a prerequisite, as advocates say shelter is needed before recovery, job hunting and mental health treatment.
Here, the shift endangers $9 million in federal funding for the Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care, said Geraldine McCafferty, director of housing for the city of Springfield.
McCafferty administers the grant for the consortium of 10 agencies, including the Mental Health Association.
Two structures can be seen here in this homeless encampment in Springfield on Jan. 29. (Sebastian Restrepo / MassLive.com, File)Sebastian Restrepo
Bernstein said the policy change cuts off the Hampden County consortium in the middle of a two-year grant. The money will run out over the summer, forcing agencies like MHA to scramble for other resources. Resources, she said, that might not be available.
"There will be more encampments," she said.
McCafferty said the local consortium spends 84% of its annual grant money on permanent housing for people who were formerly homeless. HUD's new funding plan limits recipients to spending no more than 30% of the grant for permanent housing.
There are a few different types of housing that are bundled under the label "permanent housing," and they are all subject to the 30% cap, McCafferty said.
In neighboring Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire counties, the Three County Continuum of Care has a total funding amount of $3.75 million and spends more than $1.78 million on permanent supportive housing, said Michele LaFleur, the group's data and evaluation manager .
The Three County program includes 85 people in supportive housing.
In Worcester County, the program funds 445 housing units.
Statewide, HUD provides $136 million in homelessness funding. Of that, $91 million goes to rent and services for people in long-term supportive housing, according to the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
The program houses about 3,800 people statewide.
"We are staring at this potentially devastating policy change by HUD," said Pamela Schwartz, director of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness.
"It's very extreme. It's very consistent with the chaos of the Trump administration," she said.
In a statement, HUD defended the changes, saying: "It restores accountability to homelessness programs and promotes self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans."
All the people in the program have been living outdoors for at least a year, sometimes many years, and have multiple barriers between them and getting rehoused. Some are disabled. Many are elderly.
"The most vulnerable of the vulnerable," Schwartz said.
Earl Miller was homeless, sleeping in Springfield's Forest Park about 18 years ago when he was just 21. There weren't these types of supportive housing programs when he found a way out of homelessness.
Miller is now a peer specialist working with homeless people at the Wildflower Alliance on Magazine Street in Springfield. He said supportive housing is crucial, especially during a housing crisis when very few affordable units are available.
"The reality is, right now there are already too many people in the homeless system as it exists," he said. "People will die in the street in pretty brutal ways. People will die deaths of despair. Suicides. Overdoses."
Schwartz said the policy change was long-rumored, and Democrats in Congress had, for a time, made blocking the redirection of the funds a condition of ending the government shutdown.
But the shutdown ended, and the deal didn't address the issue.
Agencies like hers were notified within days.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was one of 42 Senate Democrats who called last week on HUD Secretary Scott Turner to stop the changes and review future plans.
"There is a better way forward," the members of the Democratic minority wrote. "HUD's current path risks causing a dangerous spike in street homelessness and creating chaos in urban, suburban, and rural communities alike by forcing nearly 200,000 chronically homeless Americans with disabilities and families back onto the streets. We implore you to make the better choice and expeditiously renew current CoC grants for fiscal year 2025 as authorized by Congress to protect communities and avoid displacing thousands of our nation's most vulnerable individuals."
Republicans in the House also are pushing back . A group of GOP representatives led by Long Island Reps. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., called last month for the Trump administration to renew the program.
"This funding directly supports communities with housing needs, rental assistance, and dedicated beds for veterans," their letter reads. "These resources form the backbone of many communities' coordinated efforts to end homelessness and keep families safely housed."
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, has added his name to a forthcoming protest letter from House Democrats, according to his staff.
McCafferty said advocates are pushing at least for the changes to be delayed and grants to be automatically renewed for the coming year. That would mean housing programs can be wound down rather than stopped in their tracks.
"Many of us disagree with the approach that they want to have happen," McCafferty said. "But even if you agreed with the approach, there is not enough time for this to happen in a meaningful way."
Stories by Jim Kinney
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