The National Alliance to End Homelessness did a study that shows that if the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stops helping people pay their rent, up to 9 million people could lose their homes.
“Managed by HUD, these programmes provide federal rental assistance to millions of households—and yet, funding only reaches 1 in 4 households that are eligible for this assistance,” the study said. “Even though HUD doesn’t get enough money overall, communities use the little they do get to help seniors, disabled people, and people who work hard but make very little money.” Any cuts will make things less stable for the people and families who get this help, and it will also hurt the places where they live. This risk should be taken seriously by policymakers, and they should provide the money needed to keep programmes going and make them available to more people in need.
Not expecting the worst-case scenario
The Alliance said they don’t think the worst will happen with the cuts, but they said the cuts could be painful. The analysis says that “the Homelessness Research Institute looked at data from HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research.” The people in this data set get rental help from the federal government through Public Housing, Section 8, Section 202, Section 811, and Housing Choice vouchers. People who get permanent supportive housing, other permanent housing, or rapid re-housing are not included unless they get their home paid for by one of the programmes above. It also doesn’t include people who live in Section 236 or moderate rehabilitation units, which get government money to keep their prices low.
Impact shown on an interactive map
The Alliance shared an animated map that shows how the cuts might affect each state. The map shows that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development runs funding programmes that help more than 9 million people pay for their homes. “A new report from the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute looks at what might happen if these important programmes were cut. Even though the Alliance doesn’t think these drastic cuts will happen, the analysis is clear: if these important programmes are cut, people will lose their homes and be at risk of being homeless.
The study says, “Being homeless is scary, dangerous, and expensive. Keeping people in their current housing is much more effective (and much cheaper) than the cycle of shelters, trips to the emergency room, and service interactions that communities may experience when someone becomes homeless.”
