Trump admin to rethink $3 billion homelessness grant program after lawsuits

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday withdrew for now sweeping changes it recently announced to a $3 billion grant program providing services for homeless people, in response to lawsuits by states, cities and nonprofit groups.

The administration, in a filing in Rhode Island federal court, said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pulled back changes to its Continuum of Care grant program, including a cap on the amount of funding that can be used for permanent housing and a ban on grants for groups that focus on transgender communities, to assess issues raised in the lawsuits. HUD plans to issue a revised policy ahead of January application deadlines, according to the filing.

The change was announced about an hour before U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy held a hearing to consider blocking the changes unveiled last month from being implemented while the lawsuits proceed.

JUDGE CHIDES ADMINISTRATION

McElroy declined to rule immediately and scheduled another hearing for December 19. But she chided the Trump administration for the abrupt change, saying it had wasted court resources and clouded the grant program with uncertainty.

“It feels like intentional chaos,” said McElroy. “You can change the policy all you want (but) there’s a mechanism for doing so.”

The lawsuits allege that the changes conflict with the law that created the program and are illegally targeted at LGBTQ people and other communities that are not aligned with the Trump administration's policy priorities.

The governments and groups that sued said the changes, if implemented, would force them to scramble to reshape their programs or risk losing funding and could cause more than 170,000 people to lose their housing.

Congress created the Continuum of Care program in 1987 to provide resources for states, local governments and nonprofits to deliver support services to homeless people, with a focus on veterans, families, and people with disabilities.

The program has long been based on the "housing first" approach to combating homelessness, which prioritizes placing people into permanent housing without preconditions such as sobriety and employment. Along with housing, the grants fund childcare, job training, mental health counseling and transportation services.

The Trump administration has criticized the housing-first approach, and HUD last month said it was overhauling the grant program to focus on transitional housing initiatives with work requirements and other conditions. HUD has also barred grant recipients from using the funding for activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, elective abortions, or "gender ideology," or interfere with the administration's immigration enforcement agenda.

Trump, a Republican, has also urged states and cities to clear out homeless encampments and direct people to substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities.

Daniel Wiessner/Reuters