President Donald Trump’s latest attack on housing comes as he proposes major overhauls to rental assistance programs meant to help people from falling into homelessness.
In an outline of the Trump administration’s budget request released Friday, the president wants to slash the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by 44%, or $33.5 billion. The most significant cuts include reducing funding for federal housing voucher programs by more than $26 billion. In addition, Trump wants to impose a two-year cap on rental assistance for people who don’t have a disability, and let states design their own programs.
“The reduction in funds is problematic,” Sandy Perry, board vice president of South Bay Community Land Trust, told San José Spotlight. “There’s a lot of these states (where) I don’t trust them to have effective programs. A lot of (them) are controlled by legislators and legislatures who literally don’t care if people live or die.”
Trump’s proposals provide a guide for congressional negotiations on what policies to implement when the new federal fiscal year starts Oct. 1. During Trump’s previous term, he also proposed major cuts to the housing voucher program, but lawmakers didn’t go through with it.
“We are shocked and angered, and currently evaluating the devastating impact this will have on our community if Congress passes such a draconian budget that includes a significant reduction in funding to (HUD) for rental assistance programs,” Preston Prince, executive director of Santa Clara County Housing Authority, which administers Section-8 housing vouchers, told San José Spotlight.
The agency has 20,000 households enrolled in its housing voucher programs, investing $45 million each month to keep families and individuals housed. These Section-8 vouchers are vital for low-income families, as they allow them to only pay 30% of their income for rent while the federal government subsidizes the rest.
“Furthermore, cuts to the (housing voucher) program hurt landlords, property owners and the larger economy by reducing reliable income, increasing vacancy risks, reducing property values and undermining the financial stability of properties that rely on predictable housing payments to meet mortgage and maintenance obligations,” Preston said. “Families, property owners and neighborhoods would suffer without these vital rental payments.”
It’s unclear what budget changes will happen at HUD, but advocates said Trump’s policies mirror an attack on the Housing First model. The philosophy behind this model is housing should be offered to homeless people without strings attached to provide immediate stability, whereas previous models like Treatment First required sobriety or employment before obtaining permanent housing. The idea is that once people are stably housed, they can then have the capacity to address other issues.
In March, Trump ordered the dismantling of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates policies and federal agencies to end homelessness largely through a housing first approach. The 20 staff members were put on administrative leave last month, according to NPR.
Gutting the Interagency Council on Homelessness provides one less way for local governments to receive information from the federal government, Ray Bramson, chief operating officer of Destination: Home and San José Spotlight columnist, said.
“They’ve always provided good connectivity to what’s going on in the federal landscape,” Bramson told San José Spotlight. “It’ll just be one less touch point that we have in terms of connecting what we’re doing here locally with the federal strategy.”
During Trump’s campaign, he called for treatment facilities to be built on federal land, and for homeless people to get involuntary treatment. Studies have shown getting people into permanent housing decreased homelessness by 88%, and allows more people to remain housed than the treatment first model.
“There is an assault on housing first,” Tristia Bauman, directing attorney of housing at Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, told San José Spotlight. “What that assault seems to look like is … not only has housing first failed and we should use our resources otherwise, but (Trump’s policies) also include a really strong criminalization component and divestment of housing solutions.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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