Local officials and advocates for the homeless rallied Tuesday in front of the downtown Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building, demanding a halt to proposed cuts that could thrust hundreds of Monroe County residents into homelessness.
More than half of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s continuum of care funding for permanent housing placement is expected to be cut in 2026. That funding supports the housing for about 170,000 people nationwide. In total, about $320 million annually is earmarked toward supporting housing in New York. Most, or 94%, is meant to support permanent housing.
The funding proposal instead aims to focus on transitional housing. HUD Secretary Scott Turner has promoted the plan as a means to address the root causes of homelessness, bolster wraparound services for treatment and increase self-sufficiency. He calls the continuum of care “a Biden-era slush fund” that warehoused people as homelessness increased.
The continuum of care model was first adopted by HUD in 1994.
Locally, Tree Clemonds of Partners Ending Homeless estimated the cuts could lead to “the potential eviction of over 440 households.”
The proposal from HUD marks major changes to how continuums of care, or the collection of nonprofits and state and local governments, receive housing support. For example, the biggest change is how participating organizations are “scored.” Previously, 90% of those seeking HUD funds to support housing just needed to meet the threshold of qualifications to provide the service.
But the new proposal drops that to 30% and adds myriad ways a project can lose funding. Among those possible disqualifying factors to funding are showing a racial preference, using a definition of sex other than “binary,” using the term “harm reduction,” and local laws in the continuum of care not being harsh enough on illicit drug use and street homelessness, according to an analysis from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“It's not only a civil rights violation, but it will also cause hundreds of thousands of people to be kicked out of their permanent supportive housing apartments, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people who are trans,” said Mickey DiPerna of the Rochester Grants Pass Resistance, a homelessness advocacy group. “Anybody that is in the most vulnerable communities are going to be targeted by this.”
Advocates rallied for the proposal to either be halted, or for a lawsuit to be filed. By Tuesday afternoon, the latter happened. New York Attorney General Letitia James joined 18 other state attorneys general seeking to stop the funding proposal.
The complaint states the federal government’s plan is “arbitrary and capricious,” as it makes no effort to explain why it’s implementing these major changes. And, they argued, it illegally targets transgender individuals.
“HUD has adopted new policies, without any meaningful public input, that reverse the agency’s longstanding support for Housing First policies and fundamentally undermine the goal of providing dependable housing,” the complaint reads. “A Housing First model provides stable housing to individuals without preconditions like sobriety or minimum income. It is a model that Congress, experts, and, until recently, HUD itself, have agreed improves housing stability and health while reducing costs.”
The complaint argues that if these proposals go through, it will decimate housing support infrastructure nationwide.
“Individually, these conditions are unlawful and harmful,” the complaint reads. “Together, they are a virtual death blow to the CoC Program as it has operated for decades and will lead to predictably disastrous results.”
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, is seeking a judge’s order finding the funding proposal unconstitutional and restraining its implementation, among other things.
Assemblymember Harry Bronson, D-Rochester, described the proposal as using federal funds as leverage to enforce a socio-political agenda.
“This move doesn’t just threaten rights, it holds $14 million in annual Monroe County funding hostage unless we strip gender-inclusive language form our policies, mandate sex-segregated shelters, criminalize homelessness, and abandon the proven Housing First model,” Bronson said in a statement. “This is a false choice designed to harm our most vulnerable community members.”
The proposal also caps continuum of care spending on permanent housing at 30% of spending. Any other spending would have to go to transitional housing or other services.
The original funding proposal went through in2024 and was supposed to last two years. Advocates and elected officials are calling for, at the least, a halt to the changes for at least another 12 months. If the proposal goes through, it will take effect in January.
Angela Meins is a chronically homeless transgender woman who is currently in permanent housing placement. She said she believes the proposals are a violation of human rights.
“It's supposed to be liberty and justice for all,” Meins said. “Where's liberty and justice for kicking people out on the street because they're low income? It's time for the people to stand up and fight back and say this is wrong, including our politicians or senators. They need to get their butts up and do their job.”
