The National Coalition for the Homeless stands in firm opposition to the Trump Administration’s FY27 budget proposal. A 44% cut to HUD is not just a policy decision—it is a moral failure. The President’s proposed cuts represent one of the most dangerous threats to housing stability in modern history, placing millions of our neighbors at risk of losing the very foundation of their lives, their homes.
We must be clear about what this means. Nearly $27 billion would be stripped from life-saving programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, Public Housing, and Emergency Housing Vouchers. These are not abstract federal programs; they are the difference between stability and survival for over 4.4 million households. As is so often the case, these cuts will fall hardest on communities of color—individuals, families, and neighborhoods that have already endured generations of systemic inequity and discrimination.
We know what works. We know that housing with strong supportive services works. Permanent Supportive Housing works. Targeted, well-funded interventions work. What does not work is pulling the rug out from under people and then blaming them for falling. Proposals such as those in President Trump’s cruel budget to impose time limits on assistance ignore the reality that poverty is not a timed condition; it is a systemic one. Another approach that does not work is arresting and imprisoning people for having nowhere to sleep—an approach embraced by this administration.
These policies don’t solve homelessness; they deepen it.
This budget doesn’t just cut funding, it dismantles systems of care. It threatens programs that support people living with HIV/AIDS, weakens Permanent Supportive Housing, and reinforces the dangerous narrative that people experiencing homelessness are the problem, rather than the systems that have failed them.
At NCH, we reject that narrative. We reject the idea that people should be punished for being poor. And we reject any policy that continues the cycle of criminalization instead of investing in real solutions.
We are calling on Congress to do what is right, reject these harmful cuts, and instead invest in a future where housing is treated as the fundamental human right that it is. Ending homelessness cannot be achieved by slashing programs, but only by choosing people first. Ending homelessness is about addressing the root causes of inequality and making the level of investment that meets the scale of the crisis.
We cannot manage our way out of homelessness with fewer resources. We must methodically and compassionately build our way out with courage, compassion, and a commitment to justice.
