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The administration of Donald Trump approved a reform in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that drastically cuts funding for permanent supportive housing, a measure that could leave thousands of people with disabilities homeless across the country, including over 4,000 in Miami-Dade County.
The overall HUD budget will increase by 11% compared to the previous year, but that money will not go to the same programs. The federal government will redistribute the funds, cutting more than half of the funding for permanent housing and allocating the new resources to temporary shelters and short-term assistance.
In practice, programs that have proven effective in stabilizing the homeless population will lose the bulk of their funding, while temporary solutions are prioritized.
The new policy also limits the percentage of funds that local programs can allocate to permanent housing to only 30%, when until now they represented nearly 90% of their spending.
In Miami-Dade, the Homeless Trust —responsible for assisting homeless individuals— allocates 86% of its federal resources to maintain supported housing, putting it in a critical position.
A local study showed that permanent housing saves more than $10,000 a year per person by reducing medical and emergency expenses, and that these savings triple after two years.
El Nuevo Herald quoted statements from the president of Homeless Trust, Ron Book, who assured that “they will not leave anyone without housing” and that they will seek to compensate for cuts with local taxes and philanthropic support, although activists warn that thousands of disabled individuals could end up back on the streets amid the rising cost of living in Miami.
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