The National Health Care for the Homeless Council strongly opposes the new funding restrictions outlined in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fiscal Year 2025 Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity (CoC NOFO) released late last week because the proposed changes will increase homelessness. Most significantly, these restrictions will end funding for more than 170,000 people who currently live in permanent supportive housing so they can manage their health, stay connected to care, and remain safe.
The individuals at risk include people living with disabilities and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, behavioral health conditions, cancer, and other chronic illnesses. Their health depends on the stability and safety that housing provides. When housing is taken away, medications go missing or are stolen, treatment plans collapse, and people become disconnected from providers who oversee lifesaving care. Having stable housing is truly the best prescription we can write to solve both poor health and homelessness.
Unfortunately, the proposed HUD CoC NOFO changes will force stably housed people back into homelessness, cut off access to the health services they depend on, and remove the supports that allow people to stay alive. Permanent supportive housing is an evidence-based health intervention. It keeps people connected to primary care, behavioral health treatment, recovery supports, and case management. It provides a safe place to store medications, recover from illness, and maintain long-term treatment. Stable housing is a prerequisite for good health, and any policy that undermines housing will deepen suffering, worsen health outcomes, and endanger thousands of lives.
Take Action: Our partners at the National Alliance to End Homelessness are calling on the homelessness advocacy community to advance a no-cost extension of current CoC funding:
- Contact your Congressional representative: Ask them to directly communicate with the White House and HUD to maintain the two-year CoC funding cycle as approved by Congress in 2024. Members of Congress should remind the Administration that changes to program priorities normally requiring legislative approval should be routed through the appropriate authorizing committees.
- Support a no-cost extension of current funding: Urge Members of Congress to support and prioritize budget language that ensures the renewal of existing programs for 12 months, essentially preserving the two-year funding cycle for the CoC Program from last year.
- Describe the positive impact that permanent housing makes for your community: Indicate how pulling away from permanent housing will impact the lawmaker’s jurisdiction and point out other sectors in the community which are concerned about the NOFO, including businesses, landlords, hospitals, and houses of worship.
No one benefits from homelessness. Stable housing is vital for everyone in our communities to be safe, healthy, and thriving.
Check out NAEH’s Advocacy Guide on FY2025 CoC Program Funding for:
