But it’s also time for state and local leaders to start thinking about how to mitigate harm so that no one loses their housing and ends up caught cycling in and out of shelters, street corners, jails, and emergency rooms

State and local policymakers need to act swiftly to demand that Congress put a stop to this rushed, illogical, and inhumane policy shift, and fully fund the housing resources their communities need.

The effects in states will be far-reaching. Thousands of supportive and affordable housing developments, very often financed with state and local investments alongside federal CoC dollars, could be at risk of shuttering if their operating budgets are ripped out from under them.

People currently stably housed who would struggle to pay market rents - seniors on fixed incomes, people w disabilities, families w kids, people working low-paying jobs – could be left without the support they need and end up back sleeping on the streets, in cars, in shelters.

State and local policymakers should instead look to real solutions: endhomelessness.org/wp-content/u...

Attacking people for being unable to afford the rent or for experiencing a mental health condition is the wrong approach. Fines, tickets, detention centers do a lot of harm to people, and do not solve their housing crisis.

We also see a lot of states rejecting the failed policy of ticketing and arresting unhoused people. Analysis of state-level bills criminalizing homelessness this past year by @homeless-law.bsky.social found that nearly 80% were voted down or tabled. housingnothandcuffs.org/wp-content/u...

We do see that as the fed gov’t moves to strip people of housing and healthcare, some states are stepping up to help people with the lowest incomes afford the rent, which we know works to solve homelessness: www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

Housing and healthcare are what we all need to be safe. Here’s what elected officials should be doing that could actually make our communities safer and address the urgent needs of unhoused people:

Trump’s overreach in DC builds on his recent Executive Order which would call for state and local governments to engage in similar tactics of punishing and banishing our neighbors because they can’t afford housing: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

The average rent for a one-bedroom in DC is over $2,300. That is why folks live outside. But Trump and the billionares are so out of touch that they don't see what most ppl do: housing costs too much, and when rents go up, so does homelessness.

We also provide insights for policymakers about how to design state rental assistance programs for maximal impact and to get us closer to a world where everyone can access an affordable home. www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

But states can fund rental assistance, too. We find that while state programs are smaller and more limited in scope, they play a key role in making more housing deeply affordable for people with the lowest incomes that would otherwise be left behind by other policies: www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

Federal rental assistance programs like vouchers are incredibly impactful – for those who are actually able to access them. But because of severe federal underfunding, most people who need help affording housing can’t get it, and that could get worse with proposed cuts.