‘Worst nightmares come true.’ Atlanta confronts shift in homelessness funding.

The overhaul upends decades of government policy prioritizing voluntary entry into safe and stable housing over temporary housing, work requirements and mandatory treatment programs, advocates said.

Many of the people in stable housing are chronically homeless, including older adults, veterans and those with disabilities. Nationwide, 170,000 people could be at risk, according to Mary Kenion, chief equity officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

“Many, if not most, of these people already lived on a fixed income with few options and are going to end back up on sidewalks and encampments and in tents,” Kenion said.

Cathryn Vassell, CEO of Partners for HOME, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the changes were “all of our worst nightmares come true,” and she was trying to make sense of the new rules and how to move people into temporary housing. Partners for HOME coordinates the city of Atlanta’s homeless strategy.

Vassell said in fiscal year 2024, the nonprofit, which the city of Atlanta has tasked with getting people off the streets and into housing, received a $14.4 million HUD award that supported about 850 households in permanent housing.

After HUD’s required planning grant, $13.86 million remained available for housing and services programs, Vassell clarified in an email.

She said she was bracing for only $4.1 million in funding for permanent housing programs in the next fiscal year. That means there could be $9.7 million fewer dollars for stable housing.

“We are … looking at the potential of about 600 households that were already designated as permanently disabled, who would never be able to go out to the market and sustain rent and obtain a full-time job on their own, who may be facing homelessness in our community in the next year or so,” Vassell said at an Axios event on affordable housing on Thursday.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Under the changes, Vassell said 70% of the permanent housing programs in the nonprofit’s portfolio would enter a competitive process to assess their effectiveness and shift them to temporary housing or supportive services only.

Kenion said the changes were a dramatic break from decades of homelessness policy, in favor of a heavy-handed approach using law enforcement sweeps that criminalize and displace people.

“This is definitely a retreat from what is proven to work best, but this is also an eviction notice directly from the administration,” Kenion added.

Kenion argued the Trump administration was doing little to address the main drivers of homelessness, which include a dearth of deeply affordable housing and the sky-high price of rent.

Trump administration officials announced the new approach on Nov. 13. HUD Secretary Scott Turner accused the Biden administration of fueling the homelessness crisis and encouraging “never-ending government dependency.”

“These long-overdue reforms will promote independence and ensure we are supporting means-tested approaches to carry out the president’s mandate, connect Americans with the help they need, and make our cities and towns beautiful and safe,” Turner said.

In a statement, Mayor’s Office spokesperson Allison Fouché said it was reviewing the changes but said Mayor Andre Dickens remained committed to a “housing-focused” approach.

HUD suggested the new rules will benefit faith-based providers, which Turner claimed the Biden administration had excluded “simply because of their values.”

Atlanta Mission President and CEO Tensley Almand said he welcomed rules that would create “more pathways out of homelessness.” The faith-based provider, established as a soup kitchen in 1938, offers emergency shelter and voluntary supportive services.

He said the overhaul could create more funding for transitional housing that he said had been successful in “breaking cycles and ending recidivism for people.”

“I think what you’re seeing in some of the shifting from HUD is a recognition of the importance of that work in this space,” Almand said.

Vassell said the city’s homeless population would likely experience worse outcomes because “people who are currently homeless will have fewer resources than they already did.”

Homelessness advocates spend months or even years building trust with people living on the streets in order to persuade them to take up the offer of housing.

“People would ask me all the time: ‘How long is permanent supportive housing?’ And I’d say: ‘Permanent is not a trick word,’” Vassell said. “Now, we’re going back to 70% of those people and saying: ‘Just kidding, you’ve got to figure out how to sustain on your own.’”