The Alliance for Rights and Recovery has joined national disability rights and housing advocates, led by the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD) Rights and Housing Task Forces, in signing the attached comments urging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reverse course on proposed changes to federal homelessness funding that would move resources away from permanent supportive housing and Housing First approaches.
HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program provides critical funding for supportive housing programs across New York and the nation, helping people with mental health and substance use challenges obtain and maintain stable housing. The proposed shift toward temporary housing, treatment requirements and greater law enforcement involvement threatens to undermine decades of progress. These changes could prevent thousands of people from accessing permanent housing and put people who are already successfully living in supportive housing at risk of losing their homes and returning to homelessness.
The Alliance strongly believes that housing is a foundation for recovery, not a reward for participating in treatment. Decades of research demonstrate that providing people with permanent housing alongside voluntary, individualized services is effective in helping them remain housed, improve their health and avoid hospitalization and incarceration. We should be expanding these opportunities, not replacing them with approaches that require people to prove they are ready for housing.
Alliance staff will be in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with national housing, mental health, substance use and disability rights advocates to develop a coordinated federal housing agenda. Together, we will work to protect existing supportive housing, oppose harmful changes to federal funding priorities, and push for greater investments in the housing and community services our communities urgently need.
As federal housing policies continue to shift, the Alliance will remain actively engaged with our national partners to protect the housing people already have, expand access for those still waiting, and ensure that federal investments advance recovery, choice and full community inclusion.
We encourage members and partners to review the attached comments, which outline the evidence supporting Housing First and permanent supportive housing and the serious concerns raised by HUD’s proposed changes. See attached for more information.