For the greater good, federal funding must be restored to permanent supportive housing efforts

For more than 170,000 individuals and families across the country, the fear of becoming unhoused became very real this past November when major changes were announced to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity.

The Continuum of Care was created in 1994 under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to coordinate federal homeless assistance funding and require communities to develop comprehensive, data-driven strategies to end homelessness.

Rather than funding disconnected programs, the Continuum of Care system brings local governments, housing providers, behavioral health agencies, employment services and other community partners together to create a unified response. It ensures that housing resources are aligned with supportive services and directed to where they are most needed. 

While the NOFO touches nearly every part of the Continuum of Care system, the most alarming change is its sharp pivot away from permanent supportive housing and toward transitional housing.

Permanent Supportive Housing is one of the most rigorously studied and consistently effective interventions for addressing chronic homelessness. It is different from other interventions, as it provides long-term housing paired with voluntary services such as mental health care, substance use treatment, healthcare coordination and employment support. 

Unlike transitional housing, which is time-limited and often conditioned on compliance with program rules, permanent supportive housing is grounded in a simple but powerful truth: People cannot meaningfully address mental health, chronic health conditions or unemployment without first having a safe and stable place to live.

I have spent my entire career at the intersection of housing, behavioral health and trauma  – leading community-based organizations across multiple states, implementing evidence-informed models, and conducting direct street outreach to individuals who had experienced homelessness for decades. I have worked alongside clinicians, case managers, peer specialists and housing providers to build systems that recognize housing as the foundation for recovery. I have seen individuals move from crisis to stability not because they were forced into treatment, but because they were offered safe, affordable housing paired with services delivered in a relationship of trust and dignity. 

Based on that experience, and on what both research and practice tell us, I have never been more alarmed about what will happen to our most vulnerable neighbors if we retreat from these proven approaches now.

Let me help paint a picture of what the loss of these funds will mean.

In Pennsylvania, 66% of permanent housing beds are funded through the $102 million Continuum of Care Program, including 68% of Permanent Supportive Housing beds and 63% of Rapid Re-Housing beds. In Philadelphia, early numbers of the impact were shocking: over 1,200 housing units would likely lose funding.

In December, a federal judge temporarily blocked the changes. But an injunction’s terms are not certain until the case proceeds through the courts. 

Many providers have still not received funds from HUD and are scrambling to fill gaps, stabilize budgets, and prepare for potential losses. 

I worry that this threat has been forgotten, yet housing systems cannot be turned on and off overnight. Even the threat of reduced funding sends shockwaves through programs that serve individuals living with serious mental illness and complex health needs. We have already seen hundreds of units lost because of this uncertainty. 

Permanent Supportive Housing works; if this funding disappears, we will see a spike in utilization of various emergency systems, including hospitalization, emergency services and the prison system. Worst of all, we will see our most vulnerable community members lose their lives. Local support systems are prepared to continue this critical work. But we cannot do it without a federal commitment to the evidence-based solutions that communities rely on.

Now is not the time to weaken our response to homelessness. It is time to build on what works and continue to strengthen our response.