With cuts to federal staff and uncertainty over the federal budget looming, Santa Clara County agencies tasked with housing thousands of people are worried lifesaving services will be curtailed and homelessness will rise.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will fire about half of its 9,600 workers over the next three months, according to a budget document obtained by The San Francisco Standard. This could create delays in dispersing grants, reviewing proposals and even making payments to landlords through Section 8 housing vouchers, Santa Clara County Housing Authority Executive Director Preston Prince said.
“I think that it’s pretty alarming,” Prince told San José Spotlight. “The HUD staff do really important things throughout our communities and throughout all of these programs that are operated in Santa Clara County and the United States.”
In January, Santa Clara County was awarded nearly $48 million in Continuum of Care (COC) grants that provide rental subsidies and supportive services to vulnerable populations, including people fleeing domestic violence and youth transitioning out of foster care. These grants are the county’s largest source of federal funding to address homelessness, ensuring people are housed and have necessary supportive services. It also helps fund the system that tracks homelessness data.
With the slashing of HUD staff and potential budget cuts, the future of these grants could also be on the line. Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, said the first of its COC grants are scheduled to be renewed May 1, totaling $4.5 million. Kaminski said she hasn’t received any notice from HUD that the money won’t be released. Still, her office is analyzing potential impacts.
“(Continuum of Care grants) are a key funding source for our efforts to end homelessness,” Kaminski told San José Spotlight. “Our safety net system is designed to support the most vulnerable folks in the community, and housing is a part of that. Cuts to those programs could make more people at risk of becoming unhoused.”
Nearly 10,000 people are homeless in the county, and for every household that finds a home, nearly two fall into homelessness. San Jose has the fourth highest number of homeless people per capita in the U.S., with 6,340 unhoused residents. That number could drastically increase, without systems in place to support new families becoming homeless.
Uncertainty looms
Last year, House Republicans put out a version of a spending bill where thousands of individuals would have lost their Section 8 housing vouchers. If Congress applies this plan to the current year, the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates 283,000 fewer households across the U.S. would receive a voucher.
In this worst case scenario, Prince said the housing authority would have to scale back 20% of its housing vouchers in the county, and up to 4,000 families could lose funding. The agency has 20,000 households enrolled in the program, investing $45 million each month to keep families and individuals housed.
“Our Section 8 program is overwhelmingly serving people below 30% of area median income,” Prince said. “So if they don’t have rental assistance, I think that they are going to be in danger of not being able to cover their rents. And they’re going to end up back out on the street.”
Prince said the agency is preparing for all possible scenarios and he’s confident rents can be paid through April. Depending on what happens at the federal level, the agency may consider cutting 1% from its budget. Some of it would be cuts to administration, and some would be cuts to rental payments, though the agency has some money in its reserves to temporarily cover the shortfall. After that, the agency may pull back Section 8 vouchers awarded but not used yet, and go to landlords to ask them to shoulder some cuts.
Either way, the agency is bracing for the worst and anticipating the best outcome.
“This is a program that shouldn’t be cut,” Prince said. “It just makes my head spin thinking about what would have happened to people if they hadn’t gotten housing assistance. Whether that’s saving lives, to allowing children to excel and be able to go to school and grow healthy, there’s just amazing outcomes as a result of what happens when we invest in people.”
Nonprofits also share concerns about what federal budget cuts mean for their organizations.
Thirty percent of YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley’s budget comes from federal funding, or $5.6 million. The nonprofit provides rental subsidies, case management, support groups, therapy, legal services and more to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Without YWCA’s help, people fleeing violent situations could end up on the streets.
“I think this is perhaps the first time in my experience that these dollars are even at risk of going away,” YWCA Chief Program Officer Melissa Luke told San José Spotlight. “I think these are really difficult conversations and decisions to have when your budget is 30% funded by the federal government. And it’s not just about numbers, it’s about on the ground services that you are providing when you know those populations are already so vulnerable.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or joyce_speaks on X.
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