Homelessness: Federal Programs and Policy Responses

Homelessness became a recognized national crisis in the 1980s, driven by deinstitutionalization of mental health patients, reductions in affordable housing stock, and economic recession. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 (now the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as amended by the HEARTH Act of 2009) established the primary federal framework for addressing homelessness, creating grant programs for emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and supportive services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development administers the largest federal homelessness programs through its Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) coordinates the federal response across 19 member agencies and supports implementation of the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. The current strategy emphasizes evidence-based approaches including Housing First, coordinated entry systems, and rapid rehousing, while recognizing that homelessness is driven by a complex intersection of housing affordability, income inadequacy, behavioral health challenges, and system failures in healthcare, criminal justice, child welfare, and other domains.

The Continuum of Care program provides approximately $3 billion annually through formula and competitive grants to local communities for permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, transitional housing, and supportive services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Emergency Solutions Grants provide approximately $290 million annually for street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, and rapid rehousing. The CoC program requires communities to establish coordinated entry systems, conduct annual point-in-time counts, and participate in the Homeless Management Information System for data collection.

The Department of Veterans Affairs operates the HUD-VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) program, combining HUD housing vouchers with VA case management and supportive services. The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program provides rapid rehousing and prevention assistance. The Education for Homeless Children and Youth program under the McKinney-Vento Act ensures educational rights and stability for students experiencing homelessness through local educational agency liaisons.

Congress may consider increasing funding for CoC and ESG programs to expand capacity for permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing, creating new programs targeting unsheltered homelessness, expanding Medicaid coverage for housing-related services and supports, and establishing a universal right to housing vouchers for extremely low-income households. The significant gap between the number of eligible households and available housing assistance suggests that addressing homelessness at scale will require both increased assistance funding and expansion of the affordable housing supply.

Prevention-focused approaches include expanding emergency rental assistance, strengthening tenant protections, increasing discharge planning from institutions (hospitals, jails, foster care), and investing in behavioral health crisis infrastructure. Community-level approaches include addressing encampments through outreach-based models, expanding low-barrier shelter options, and developing interim housing solutions that bridge individuals to permanent housing. The role of the criminal justice system in responding to unsheltered homelessness, particularly following the Supreme Court's decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), remains a significant policy issue.

The Supreme Court's decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024) held that enforcement of public camping ordinances against homeless individuals does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, reversing the Ninth Circuit's Martin v. Boise framework and giving local governments greater authority to enforce anti-camping laws. The decision has prompted significant debate about the appropriate balance between enforcement and service-based approaches. Federal funding for homelessness has increased through both regular appropriations and COVID-era emergency funding, though the expiration of pandemic resources has created fiscal challenges for many communities. Rising housing costs, particularly rent increases, continue to drive new entries into homelessness and make exits more difficult.