HUD Secretary Scott Turner Leads Monumental Reforms to Homelessness Program, Ending Biden-Era Slush Fund
HUD, HHS, and White House Faith Office Execute on President Trump’s Executive Order “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets”
WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced $3.9 billion in competitive grant funding through HUD’s FY 2025 Continuum of Care (CoC) Competition Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). This announcement, with support from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Pastor Paula White, Senior Advisor of the White House Faith Office, represents the most significant policy reforms and changes in the program’s history.
In accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” this NOFO restores accountability to homelessness programs and promotes self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans. It redirects the majority of funding to transitional housing and supportive services, ending the status quo that perpetuated homelessness through a self-sustaining slush fund.
Roughly 90% of the last four year’s CoC awards funneled funding to support the failed “Housing First” ideology, which encourages dependence on endless government handouts while neglecting to address the root causes of homelessness, including illicit drugs and mental illness. The CoC Program was intended to be a national competition to select the most effective and innovative programs, however the Biden administration only competed about 10% of projects over four years. During that same time period, transitional housing, which has been proven to encourage self-sufficiency, never received more than 2% of CoC funding.
As part of this announcement, Secretary Turner is requiring that 70% of projects be competed to determine the best programs, ending the status quo that automatically renewed funding without measuring success.
“Our philosophy for addressing the homelessness crisis will now define success not by dollars spent or housing units filled, but by how many people achieve long-term self-sufficiency and recovery,” said HUD Secretary Scott Turner. “We are stopping the Biden-era slush fund that fueled the homelessness crisis, shut out faith-based providers simply because of their values, and incentivized never-ending government dependency. These long-overdue reforms will promote independence and ensure we are supporting means-tested approaches to carry out the President’s mandate, connect Americans with the help they need, and make our cities and towns beautiful and safe.”
This announcement underscores the Trump administration’s focus on promoting treatment and recovery, which aligns HUD’s approach to addressing our nation’s homelessness crisis with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approach to wholistic care solutions including for substance use disorders and mental health.
“HHS proudly partners with Secretary Turner and HUD to chart a bold new course that directly tackles our nation’s homelessness crisis,” said Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “This transformative policy reform will break cycles of addiction, empower self-sufficiency, and drive lasting recovery.”
This NOFO also ensures faith-based providers will no longer be penalized just because they are faith-based organizations. It encourages expansion of the pool of providers, including high-performing faith-based organizations, who can deliver outcomes in line with the priorities of this NOFO.
“Faith-based organizations provide life-transforming care for the whole person and have been serving the most vulnerable Americans long before the Federal government engaged on this issue,” said Pastor Paula White, Senior Advisor of the White House Faith Office. “They not only take care of the immediate physical needs of homeless Americans, but also support their long-term mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. I am thankful that Secretary Turner is empowering faith groups to take care of the underserved in their communities.”
Among other measures, this NOFO:
- Increases competition for grants to improve system efficiencies and spur innovation.
- Advances public safety through thoughtful partnerships with law enforcement.
- Focuses on self-sufficiency and not on the expansion of government subsidies and perpetuation of slush funds.
- Encourages personal accountability through enhanced treatment requirements to combat the Fentanyl crisis.
- Cracks down on DEI, gender ideology extremism, and the misuse and abuse of taxpayer dollars on illegal aliens.
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