Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery strongly condemns the Trump Administration’s decision to end federal support for the SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) program — a proven, cost-effective intervention that helps disabled and unhoused people access critical disability benefits, health services, and housing supports.
This devastating move will make it even harder for people living with serious mental health challenges to access the assistance they need to survive and recover. For nearly two decades, SOAR-trained caseworkers have provided lifelines to thousands of people who otherwise would have been unable to navigate the complex federal benefits system. Ending support for this program will directly result in more people living on the streets, more preventable suffering, and greater strain on already overburdened state and local systems.
This decision comes alongside other alarming federal actions — including efforts to defund “Housing First” programs through HUD and other federal agencies that partner with local community providers. Despite claiming to prioritize getting people off the streets, these policies will do the exact opposite. By restricting access to benefits, cutting funding for effective programs, and undermining evidence-based housing models, the Administration is dismantling the very supports that have been proven to end homelessness and promote stability.
If federal leaders truly want to help people experiencing homelessness, they must reverse course immediately and reinstate funding for SOAR, Housing First, and other evidence-based, person-centered supports that connect people to stable, permanent housing — the only proven solution to homelessness.
The Alliance will continue to work with state and national partners to advocate for the restoration of these critical programs and to ensure that policy decisions reflect compassion, evidence, and human dignity. See below for more information and continue monitoring this Enews for regular updates on federal and state policy.
Trump Administration Abruptly Cut Off Highly Effective Support for Disabled People Experiencing Homelessness
By Kathleen Romig and Devin O’Connor | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | October 6, 2025
The Trump Administration abruptly ended federal support for a highly effective intervention that helps disabled people experiencing or at risk of homelessness access benefits to help them stabilize their lives. Disability benefits help provide not just steady income but an important pathway to health care and other needed supports. But these benefits can be hard to access — particularly for people with severe mental illness and unstable housing.
SOAR — Supplemental Security Income (SSI)/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Outreach, Access, and Recovery — is an effective, time-tested method for aiding children and adults with severe mental illness and other medical conditions whose precarious housing circumstances make it more difficult for them to access the benefits for which they are eligible. SOAR-trained caseworkers help qualifying people, including many veterans, apply for disability benefits (like SSI and SSDI) and access employment and other supports. The Administration’s ending of federal support for SOAR training will mean more people living on the streets, unable to access the housing, health care, and other supports they need.
Before the Administration ended support for it in August, the SOAR Technical Assistance Center provided intensive training on navigating the complex disability application process each year to roughly 3,500 caseworkers at the state and local level and supplied important resources and support to thousands more. Without assistance, SOAR’s target population — unhoused people with serious mental illness — has a very low chance of being approved for benefits because of the obstacles to gathering necessary documentation and maintaining steady contact with the Social Security Administration (SSA). Unhoused people often lack a reliable mailing address, access to a phone or computer, or transportation needed to navigate the time-intensive application process.
Despite these significant barriers, 65 percent of applicants assisted by SOAR-trained caseworkers were approved for benefits (prior to any appeal), more than double the national average for all applicants. The SOAR training was so effective that the Department of Veterans Affairs required all grantees for its program to prevent veteran homelessness to complete it. And other federal agencies strongly encouraged it as part of comprehensive community-based homelessness solutions.
Disability benefits provide steady income and an important pathway to health care and other supports that help people with disabilities meet their basic needs. For example, in most states, a successful SSI application is also a pathway to health care access through Medicaid, which in turn provides essential long-term services and supports that can help people with disabilities live stably in their homes and communities. Qualifying for disability benefits also eases access to other key supports, such as food assistance (which has increasingly strict time limits for individuals who are not receiving disability benefits, even if they are eligible for them).
There is bipartisan agreement that SSA’s disability programs — SSI and SSDI — are too complex and burdensome to access. These shortcomings most harm marginalized adults and children like the ones served by SOAR-trained caseworkers. The Administration’s wrongheaded decision to end support for SOAR will not only make it more challenging for this population to access needed assistance but will also make SSA’s job more difficult.
For decades, SOAR-trained caseworkers have helped unhoused people, often with cognitive disabilities, to navigate the complicated and time-consuming application process for disability benefits. They work with applicants to pull together comprehensive applications, including detailed medical case histories, and provide a reliable, easy-to-reach point of contact. This significantly reduces the burden on SSA by limiting staff time developing cases and costs to obtain medical records, while speeding the decision process, improving accuracy, and decreasing the need for time-consuming and costly appeals. SOAR-assisted applications took over two months less time to process than average in 2024, and appeals took nearly six months less.
Some caseworkers already trained in SOAR will continue their work even after federal support for freely available SOAR training ends nationally. But their numbers will dwindle as trained staff turn over — a particular problem in a profession with high levels of burnout — and assistance in delivering SOAR will diminish. What’s more, as the needs of disabled, unhoused people go unmet it will create additional costs to government programs at all levels. Having fewer eligible residents receive federal disability benefits will worsen already severe budgetary strains on state and local programs and increase costs for homelessness services, emergency health care systems, and correctional facilities.
SOAR has made a large impact with a small federal investment — about $2.6 million in annual funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Its work benefits a marginalized population in need of additional support and provides essential aid to the overburdened Social Security Administration. Reversing the Administration’s decision to cut off support for the SOAR Technical Assistance Center is a common-sense step that would provide a high return on investment. But if the Administration won’t do it on its own, Congress should direct it to do so.