The Trump administration could enact significant changes to a government program that provides long-term housing support to formerly homeless people, a senior official tells Scripps News, as homelessness advocates and unhoused individuals brace for the impact of the impending cuts to housing assistance.
In an interview with Scripps News on Thursday, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner suggested there could be changes to HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program — which shares resources and funding with local organizations providing housing and other benefits to formerly homeless people as a means of ensuring accountability in the program.
As we watch the film of how the Continuum of Care Program has been initiated and how its been distributed, you know, prior to us getting here in the Biden administration, there were no strings attached to almost $4 billion of taxpayer funding, Turner said. There was no accountability, and so we have to change that.
How can we do this, where we have accountability, where we know where the money is going, where the people who actually need the money are being helped in a supportive way? Turner continued. Thats our intention and thats our focus.
The New York Times reported in recent days the changes would entail a significant shift away from long-term housing support, limiting spending on long-term housing to 30 percent of the programs roughly $3.5 billion budget. In 2025, conversely, upwards of 90 percent of the budget could go towards long-term assistance, the Times reported.
The secretary declined to delve further into specifics of the potential changes or when they might be announced, saying only that his agency was working on it right now.
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Homelessness advocates have warned such a change could leave the more than 170,000 program recipients many of whom are children, elderly or people with disabilities at risk of losing housing and support services.
People all over this nation have overcome homelessness and stabilized in HUDs permanent housing programs. Many are just beginning that process and getting a shot at a new life, Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement when reports of the changes first came to light. HUDs new funding priorities slam the door on them, their providers, and their communities. Make no mistake: homelessness will only increase because of this reckless and irresponsible decision.
Pressed on such concerns, Turner mostly brushed them aside.
The narrative out there is, Oh, if you pull funding then there’s going to be more elderly people on the streets. There’s going to be more disabled people on the streets. And my answer to that is, Well, how do you know? Because there was no accountability to where the money was going, he said. I don’t think people need to be worried. I think the only ones that need to be worried are the ones who have not stewarded taxpayer money properly.
But Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress have pushed back on the reported changes.
A group of 42 Senate Democrats sent a letter Thursday to Turner calling on his agency to immediately reconsider these harmful and potentially illegal changes. The lawmakers also called out delays in the agency releasing guidance documents about funding applications for the program for 2026, suggesting that thousands of CoC project grants that expire between January and June 2026 will be at risk of funding disruptions or shuttering operations.
And a group of 20 House Republicans similarly wrote to Turner last month calling on him to renew all existing grants set to expire next year for another 12 months, and urging him to pursue any changes to the program in a way that avoids funding gaps and protects ongoing housing and supportive service operations.
[S]ubstantial changes to the NOFO process or funding priorities should be implemented carefully to avoid destabilizing programs that serve individuals with severe disabilities related to mental illness, chronic health conditions, or substance use disorders, as well as seniors with disabilities, the Republican lawmakers wrote.
Scripps News has reached out to HUD for comment on the letters and for more information on the changes to the program.