Abe-Koga: Trump’s homeless funding cuts are a public safety crisis

The Trump administration’s proposed changes to federal homelessness funding announced Nov. 13 represent a public safety emergency for Santa Clara County. Plans to slash Continuum of Care funding by two-thirds could push 1,800 stably housed vulnerable residents back onto our streets.

The proposed cuts threaten to carelessly and cruelly discard years of progress and taxpayer investment, creating a crisis that will overwhelm our community.

When we talk about homelessness, we must confront the public safety implications head on. Our law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and hospital systems are already stretched dangerously thin. A sudden influx of 1,800 people returning to homelessness would massively strain those who keep our communities safe.

The evidence is clear: Housed individuals are far less likely to cycle through our jails and emergency rooms. Permanent supportive housing reduces crime like substance use, decreases emergency service calls and allows our public safety personnel to focus on critical incidents rather than managing predictable crises that come directly from an unstable condition of living on the streets.

When someone has a stable address, they can maintain medical appointments, comply with court requirements and access lifesaving treatment. Without housing, we see increased law enforcement interactions and a tragic revolving door from jail to street and back again that ties up our law enforcement and punishes the individual without providing a way out of homelessness.

The administration’s shift toward short-term programs might sound fiscally responsible, but it’s a costly illusion. Study after study confirms that funding permanent supportive housing is cheaper in the long run than allowing people to cycle through jails and hospitals. A study of Los Angeles’ supportive housing program found associated costs for public services declined by about 60%.

Federal Continuum of Care dollars currently house 2,500 formerly homeless people in Santa Clara County. The Housing First model has guided federal policy since 2009 because it works. You cannot successfully treat someone’s mental health or addiction when they’re sleeping in a doorway or in a tent on the sidewalk. Stability enables recovery. Housing provides the foundation for everything else.

If these cuts take effect in January, elderly and disabled individuals who have been housed for years will be forced back onto the streets. Our neighborhoods will become less safe. And the human and financial cost will be incalculable.

To be clear, permanent supportive housing is not the only solution. It is one of many tools in the toolbox, and to meet this moment, we need to utilize the full spectrum of effective homeless services, including transitional housing.

We must leverage all available options to keep 1,800 extremely vulnerable individuals stably housed. We must fight these cuts, urge our state partners to explore emergency funding and identify local solutions.

Permanent supportive housing makes our communities safer just as much as it provides a compassionate pathway to recovery for our community’s most vulnerable. We have built something that works. Now is not the time to roll back the progress we have made.