HOUSING

 Slate - The question of how to house the homeless, and in particular those who live on the street, has become a top issue in local politics just about everywhere. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s point-in-time count recorded an unprecedented second-straight double-digit increase in homelessness last year, taking the U.S. homeless population up 18 percent to an all-time high. At a time of low trust in institutions, this pervasive public suffering suggests a deep failure of government—and, especially, Democratic-run cities and states—to respond to society’s most pressing problems.

Well before Donald Trump took office, the country was pivoting to a more punitive approach. A COVID-era wave of federal funding is drying up. The Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass has paved the way for fines and jail time for people who sleep on the street. Liberal cities like New York and San Francisco are increasingly supportive of forced medical treatment as a response to public displays of mental illness. The consensus around Housing First strategies—which elevate proper housing as the precursor to other behavioral changes—is fraying as liberals grow desperate and conservatives draft their own policy responses to a problem that hasn’t traditionally concerned them. Politicians of all persuasions are trying to remove homeless encampments from public spaces, despite the concerns that “sweeps” without alternative solutions are dangerous and disruptive to those trying to rebuild their lives. Meanwhile, the root cause of homelessness, the lack of affordable housing, remains stubbornly difficult to fix.

“There was growing bipartisan consensus that supportive housing and Housing First were strategies that reduced the human costs and fiscal costs,” said Shaun Donovan, the former HUD secretary and the head of the affordable-housing group Enterprise Community Partners. “I’m deeply concerned that alignment is fracturing. Grants Pass is a symbol of that, and an accelerant. … What you’re seeing is that mayors and others are losing patience and looking for solutions that are faster, like temporary housing and tiny homes, but also camping bans and criminalization, even if they are not solutions but actually make the problem worse.”

It’s not hard to see why, he admits: We have spent years putting money and effort into solving this issue, and it can seem as if we have nothing to show for it. But that, many advocates say, would be a devastating misinterpretation. On the contrary: An enormous outlay of money during the pandemic did make a difference, and many who are homeless still find housing every year. But a new, larger wave of homeless people is taking their place in the shelters and on the streets.

Take Atlanta: In 2021 federal stimulus money helped reduce homelessness by 40 percent. Since then, the number has crept back up each year, and a series of fires started by people living under bridges has prompted the city to take a more aggressive approach to those sleeping in public. Critics are right that the encampments are dangerous, mostly for those who live in them. But when they are bulldozed, their inhabitants lose touch with friends, documents, caseworkers, and public services.

The most important factor driving this historic homelessness spike, experts say, is that the high cost of housing is no longer being abated by pandemic-era relief.

Houston has seen a decrease in homelessness of 60 percent since 2011 and 17 percent since 2020, making it a national model. But local advocates are sounding the alarm that progress could quickly be reversed without more federal aid. Kelly Young, the president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, said in an email that the region needs a permanent revenue stream: “Without secure, long-term funding, there is a real risk of backsliding and increased pressure on shelters and services.”

It’s not the only jurisdiction that has been flush with federal dollars to fight homelessness. Springfield, Missouri, is using American Rescue Plan money to build homeless shelters. Baltimore is building supportive housing. Massachusetts is fighting veteran homelessness. The result has been a supercharged version of the Community Development Block Grant program, the usual way HUD distributes money to cities for such projects.

Even more significant, though, was the $46 billion federal rental-relief program, which kept vulnerable tenants in place during the pandemic. After that money was spent, housing insecurity came roaring back. The migrant surge of 2022–23 also affected the increase in certain cities, but experts say the problem ultimately ties back to housing-market fundamentals.