In a recent ruling that defies both logic and compassion, a federal judge has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-altering-homelessness-funding-2025-12-19/">blocked</a> the Trump administration’s effort to reform the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Continuum of Care program — the federal government’s primary funding mechanism for homelessness assistance.
The lawsuit — filed by a coalition of 20 mostly Democratic-led states, local governments, and nonprofit organizations and spearheaded by groups such as Democracy Forward — warns of “funding gaps,” winter instability, and the potential displacement of people currently housed. These alarms are sounded even though HUD includes a nearly 12% increase over last year’s funding allocation.
At the core of the complaint is a <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/NAEH-v-HUD-25-cv-636-ECF-5-Motion-for-PI-and-Relief-under-705.pdf*page=74__;Iw!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b0_31aptA$">revealing claim</a>: that reform would “upend longstanding projects that have been thoughtfully developed to comport with evidence-based, best-practices services delivery.”
But HUD’s own data make clear that the evidence on which they have long relied is catastrophically wrong.
Despite a 300% increase in federal spending, homelessness has reached the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b1tF5NG4A$">highest level ever recorded</a> in the nation’s history. Unsheltered homelessness — the most dangerous and lethal form — has surged. 
<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b16yXyxfA$">Mortality</a> among people struggling with homelessness has also peaked. If these outcomes qualify as “evidence-based best practices,” then the phrase has lost all meaning.
The real question is not whether reform is upending but upending to whom.
The organizations positioning themselves as defenders of the homeless are fully aware of the catastrophe that has unfolded on their watch. Yet they are using the courts to block reforms aimed at saving lives, restoring accountability, and reversing a crisis their preferred policies helped entrench.
For more than a decade, Housing First has dominated federal homelessness policy. It prioritizes lifelong subsidized housing — branded as “permanent housing” — while eliminating requirements for sobriety, treatment for mental illness or addiction, or participation in work. Its architects promised stability, lower costs, and an <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/economy/article24585973.html__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b1Wqmbr6A$">end to homelessness in a decade</a>.
Instead, the model guarantees keys to a housing unit while making treatment optional and accountability negligible.
With nearly 80% of the homeless population struggling with mental illness and/or addiction, the result is predictable and deadly: people are placed alone in apartments, isolated from the community and clinical intervention these diseases require. Overdoses go unseen, and help arrives too late.
California — the only state to adopt federally-mandated Housing First with state funding in 2016 — provides a stark case study. Despite an unprecedented <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102-1/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b1UVCip7w$">$24 billion investment</a> from 2019 to 2023, homelessness surged 40%. Encampments have proliferated, public trust has eroded, and taxpayers have seen zero return on their investment.
Yet as desperately needed reform proposals emerge, self-described “homeless advocates” — including several based in California — reflexively resist.
<div id="attachment_1041759" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041759" class="size-large wp-image-1041759" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2260696041-864x576.jpg" alt="San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team vehicle with city department logo parked on urban street, San Francisco, California, February 5, 2026. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2260696041-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2260696041-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2260696041-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2260696041.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team vehicle with city department logo parked on urban street, San Francisco, California, February 5, 2026. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)</div>
Their concern is not instability for the homeless, but instability for themselves: the potential loss of 12-year guaranteed renewals, preferred status, and the comfort of championing a single, simple — demonstrably failed — approach.
<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.discovery.org/m/securepdfs/2025/11/Local-Jurisdictions-Leverage-Homelessness-Reforms.pdf__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xO6geyODkpCcJJLckbboq5Bc5WbRjXwQ1YdJOI3TUHlXy8ViAXC-6FTtOWcF28WV6ZXhtdC73WFG6b1YAAbk9A$">HUD’s proposed reforms</a> would rebalance funding toward transitional housing, mandatory treatment for addiction and mental illness, work and recovery expectations, and measurable outcomes — changes designed to promote self-sufficiency, public safety, and life-saving interventions.
The plaintiffs warn of “chaos” if reform proceeds. But chaos is not hypothetical — it is the present reality. Record homelessness despite unprecedented public spending. Sidewalks surrendered to encampments. Tens of thousands dead from overdoses, exposure, and untreated psychosis, including 18 mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-winter-death-toll-climbs-to-18-as-many-homeless-left-to-freeze-outside?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=NYC+Winter+Death+Toll+Climbs+To+18+As+Many+Homeless+Left+To+Freeze+Outside">died on the streets of New York City</a> in just the past two weeks.
<div id="attachment_1041761" style="width: 869px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041761" class="size-large wp-image-1041761" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258376634-859x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 26: A person sleeps on a sidewalk with their belongings January 26, 2026 in the Manhattan borough of New York City. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to end sweeps of homeless encampments and plans to create a new Department of Community Safety, which will coordinate homeless outreach and respond to mental health crises. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)" width="859" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258376634-859x576.jpg 859w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258376634-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258376634-768x515.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258376634.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 859px) 100vw, 859px" />Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images</div>
This is not a system at risk of failure. It has already failed.
The threat these reforms pose is to institutional comfort. The Housing First industry knows it will lose guaranteed funding renewals, protected status, and a model optimized for compliance rather than outcomes, to which it has become accustomed over the last 12 years.
Where is the outrage for those left lining the streets year after year, promised housing that never materializes?
Where is the outrage for those who died waiting for a system to recognize their worth and deliver the help that could have saved their lives?
By collapsing expectations to the bare minimum, Housing First has reduced capable human beings to permanent dependents — managed rather than restored, housed rather than helped — rather than treating them as people worthy of recovery, accountability, and reintegration into society.
True advocacy requires accountable compassion. It demands intervention when people are too sick to choose safety for themselves, and the moral courage to admit when a policy has become lethal.
The court’s injunction jeopardizes urgently needed funding and reform, but it also exposes a grim truth: those fighting to preserve Housing First are defending a deadly status quo. Every day reform is delayed, more lives unravel, and more people die from fentanyl poisoning, methamphetamine addiction, and untreated mental illness.
Those struggling with homelessness deserve far more than containment. They deserve a real path off the streets. They deserve recovery. They deserve the opportunity to rediscover purpose.
Reform is not disruption. It is a rescue mission.
* * *
Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of “Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,” based on her 13 years as CEO of Northern California’s largest program for homeless women and children. She is a Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative. Follow them on Twitter: @SteebMichele and @ DiscoveryCWP.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Homelessness In New York City

More Spending, More Suffering: The Failure Of America’s Homelessness Policy

Homelessness

Housing and Urban Development

New York City

Trump Administration

More than 400 employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development were issued layoff notices on Friday, primarily targeting an office that pushed left-wing ideology, a department official told The Daily Wire.
The federal government has been shut down for more than two weeks, with only &#8220;essential&#8221; workers reporting for duty, as Democrats refuse to grant a temporary funding extension unless Republicans add in new funding. The Trump administration said in a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.39.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">court filing</a> that some 4,000 workers across seven agencies should be laid off instead.
A HUD official said the largest office targeted by the 442 layoffs at that agency is the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office, which the official said became the tip of the spear for left-wing initiatives under former President Joe Biden.
The office is tasked by law with enforcing the Civil Rights Act and processing complaints from people who say they were discriminated against in housing due to disability, race, sex, national origin, and other characteristics. The office&#8217;s budget was increased by 20% under Biden and employed nearly 600 people, yet was so focused on issues like transgenderism and dubious theories about systemic racism that it failed to process complaints about more straightforward discrimination, the official said.
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For example, the Biden administration became obsessed with the theory that racist home appraisers might be estimating homes owned by blacks at lower values than those owned by whites. The dubious theory is undermined by the fact that appraisers often don&#8217;t know the race of a homeowner, and the process is driven by formulas such as comparisons to similar, recently sold homes.
Meanwhile, when a double-amputee was blocked by his homeowners association from widening his driveway to accommodate his wheelchair, the Biden administration let his complaint about disability discrimination languish for two years, until the Trump administration intervened as an example of the kind of clear-cut discrimination that the office should be laser-focused on stamping out, the official said.
Such complaints are required by law to be processed within 100 days, but the office missed that deadline more than 70% of the time, a <a href="https://www.hudoig.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/2024-bo-0005_508.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 inspector general report</a> found.
In another case, HUD&#8217;s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office conducted an investigation that claimed that the city of Chicago was racist against blacks and foreigners because it helped create a recycling center in the Southeast Side. The suggestion was that it was &#8220;environmental racism&#8221; to put a polluting industry in a neighborhood with many black and brown people. Then-mayor Lori Lightfoot called it &#8220;absurd&#8221; and &#8220;dared the federal government to enforce its ruling that the city&#8217;s planning and zoning laws were discriminatory,&#8221; <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/10/21/after-rejecting-claims-of-environmental-racism-city-now-moves-to-settle-civil-rights-complaint-with-feds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Block Club Chicago</a> reported at the time. Lightfoot folded just before leaving office.
The office was poised to use similar logic to drastically change the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of Americans through a rule that held that minimum lot sizes were also discriminatory planning and zoning. That is, the &#8220;Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing&#8221; rule would effectively <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-repeals-obama-biden-rule-suburbanites-will-no-longer-be-hurt-by-low-income-housing-built-in-neighborhoods" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abolish the suburbs</a>, which are characterized by single-family homes on lots of specific sizes, by withholding huge sums of federal funding unless towns and counties allowed lots to be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stealth-goal-of-infrastructure-plan-could-be-to-abolish-the-suburbs-by-bribing-towns-to-change-zoning-laws" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subdivided without restriction</a>, and for dense housing to be built anywhere.
The logic was that it&#8217;s racist not to have apartments everywhere, because blacks like to live in apartments – even though the majority of Americans of all races live in the suburbs, and presumably choose to do so because they like that level of density, and want to keep it that way. The rule was introduced at the end of Barack Obama&#8217;s presidency and repealed by Trump, then reintroduced by Biden and repealed again by Trump, all before it was able to transform the fabric of America wholesale.
The HUD official said the Trump administration supports the office&#8217;s true mission and wants to re-focus on it, saying the Biden administration had begun focusing on factors that don&#8217;t appear in the Civil Rights Act, including transgenderism and a lack of ability to speak English.
HUD communications will now appear only in English, which does not constitute discrimination based on national origin, the official said.
Affected employees were given notice that layoffs would take effect in 60 days, commencing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-laying-off-dei-employees-could-backfire-thanks-to-bizarre-federal-rules">byzantine process</a>. The official declined to say whether employees would return to work until that time should the government shutdown end, but noted that the agency has been planning the layoffs for months, and that they were not ordered by the White House.
Layoffs elsewhere also focused on offices that the Trump administration believes were not aligned with administration priorities, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/layoffs-hit-irs-amid-shutdown-standoff-and-theyre-bigger-than-anyone-thought" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,400 at the Internal Revenue Service</a>, as well as 466 at the Department of Education and 187 at the Department of Energy.

HUD Secretary Eric Scott Turner

Trump Shutdown Layoffs Target Left-Wing HUD Office That Tried To Abolish The Suburbs

Government Shutdown

Housing

The White House plans deep cuts to “Democrat agencies” as the government shutdown continues, a terrorist attacks an Orthodox synagogue killing two and wounding more, and Leonardo DiCaprio stars in a new political blockbuster.
It’s Friday, October 3, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Shutdown Day 3</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-980289" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Shutdown-Cuts-Inbound.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The government shutdown enters its third day, as the blame game continues and President Donald Trump threatens mass firings of federal employees. 
The GOP strategy: The White House wants to make the shutdown about healthcare funding for illegal immigrants. It says the Democrat proposal would result in $200 billion in subsidies going to non-citizens over the next decade, primarily through Medicaid and mandatory emergency care. The White House argues that the American people elected President Trump to cut those exact policies, and by blocking him from doing so, Democrats are denying the will of the people.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1973753810154889282">said</a>: “Trump ran on the promise to end taxpayer-funded benefits going to illegal aliens, and tens of millions of Americans voted him back to this beautiful White House to implement that promise … and now Democrats want to undo it — and they&#8217;re holding our country hostage.”
The White House says the United States will lose $15 billion in GDP revenue each week the shutdown drags on, and it wants to ensure Democrats bear the blame, posting news clips on social media describing national guardsmen going unpaid, food assistance for low-income single mothers drying up, etc.
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A number of federal websites had new banners on Thursday — the official Justice Department homepage, for example, read “Democrats have shut down the government … websites are not currently updated.” 
Trump’s austerity: The president is targeting “non-essential” federal employees for termination as part of his broader government efficiency efforts. He posted on social media that he “had a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut … I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Yom Kippur Synagogue Attack</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-980287" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Manchester-Synagogue-Attacked.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A knife-wielding man targeted a synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The U.K.’s counterterrorism police have deemed the attack a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/02/world/manchester-synagogue-stabbing-uk">terrorist incident</a>.”
Timeline: Authorities first received calls at around 9:30 a.m. local time about a man driving his vehicle into pedestrians outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue. The suspect, identified as Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen who is of Syrian descent, then got out of his vehicle and began stabbing people around him. Authorities have confirmed that two people have been killed and four others were injured.
The suspect was shot and killed by police about 7-8 minutes after authorities were first called. 
The attack: The terrorist was not able to enter the actual synagogue because the entrance was locked and barricaded. When he exited the vehicle, he immediately encountered synagogue security and other members who stopped him.
Step back: About 30,000 Jewish people reside in Manchester – outside of London, it’s home to the largest Jewish community in the country. Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have hit record levels after the October 7th attack by Hamas in Israel. In the first half of this year alone, there have been more than 1,500 reported incidents.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">“One Battle After Another”</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-980285" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Silver-Screen-Politics.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A new film by celebrated director Paul Thomas Anderson starring Leonardo DiCaprio is earning high praise from critics and solid numbers at the box office – but it’s also stirring up debate about its potentially polarizing political themes.
National Review contributor Giancarlo Sopo joined Morning Wire to discuss the film, “One Battle After Another.”
What is the film about? “I think to understand ‘One Battle After Another,’ you have to understand the book that it&#8217;s based on, and it&#8217;s Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Vineland.’ Essentially, it&#8217;s a story about a bunch of radicals who have gotten burned out, have attempted to attack government installations and institutions using violence. Now they are being hunted. So, it&#8217;s a satire, right? You’ve got radicals on one side, and then on the right, you&#8217;re going to have a bunch of racist, autocratic thugs, essentially, coming after them who are part of this paramilitary organization that is also tied, by the way, to a secret society of races called the Christmas Adventurers Club.”
Is it a political movie? “I think the film&#8217;s political sympathies are obviously with the progressive left. At the same time, though, I wouldn&#8217;t necessarily call it a political movie. I would look at it more as Antifa Star Wars, as a friend told me, where the politics and the radicalism is kind of used as a vehicle to tell a father-daughter story. You have this burned-out dad who spends all day smoking weed and watching ‘The Battle Of Algiers,’ bringing up a young daughter, who&#8217;s a teenager now, entirely by himself. And he&#8217;s having a hard time communicating with her. There are very funny, generational conflicts as tends to happen to those who have kids now are starting to figure that out.”
Is there any sympathy for people considered to be on the right in the film? “The thing with the movie is that no one&#8217;s really in the center, right? Or really the center left or much less the middle. It follows a set of extremists on both sides. And what the story is telling you on the political side is that these ideologies are pulling people away from what matters most to them in life, which should be their own children. There are very clear passages in the film that communicate that. I don&#8217;t think anyone is portrayed here sympathetically in the film, to be candid with you, with the exception of the teenage girl.”
&nbsp;

MRN_251003-Thumbnail-V1

Morning Brief: Shutdown Day 3, Deadly Synagogue Attack, And Leonardo DiCaprio’s New Political Movie

Donald Trump

Karoline Leavitt

Leonardo DiCaprio

Morning Wire

Movies

Terrorism

United Kingdom

White House

Congressman Andy Barr has a plan to fix how the federal government deals with homelessness.
The Kentucky Republican is expected to introduce legislation that would drastically reduce the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s support for so-called Housing First policies to counter homelessness, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Wire. Critics say the approach has exacerbated homelessness while cutting off government aid to groups that prioritize targeting root causes, such as mental illness and drug addiction.
“Housing First policy shuts out providers who offer critical wraparound services that are often essential for helping individuals break the cycle of homelessness,” Barr said in a statement. “We need to abandon HUD’s exclusive reliance on Housing First in favor of an all-hands-on-deck approach to equip the best and most effective providers with the federal funds needed to end homelessness.&#8221;
Barr, who is running to replace outgoing Senator Mitch McConnell, says his Housing Promotes Livelihood and Ultimate Success Act would do just that.
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“The Housing PLUS Act ensures federal funds are reaching providers who are helping people transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency, without unneeded restrictions.”
Barr has introduced similar legislation in the past, but this is the first time he has done so with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development awards grants from its Continuum of Care program to providers seeking to care for the homeless. Those providers include privately-run charities, government agencies, and others. They aid the homeless by offering no-cost housing, but in many cases, they place conditions on housing, such as mandatory job training or addiction treatment.
The Housing First approach has largely frozen out providers that only offer conditional housing, however. The approach prioritizes stability over treatment. HUD effectively bans requirements to maintain housing, such as sobriety or engaging with caseworkers, in order for providers to qualify for federal grant money.
The Housing First model was first introduced in 2008 under the Bush administration, but massively expanded five years later. Under President Barack Obama, Housing First became the federal government’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to the entire United States homeless population, Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Michele Steeb told The Daily Wire.
“Mental illness and addiction are [problems that] about 80% of the overall homeless population struggle with,” Steeb said. “What HUD did [under Obama] was they defunded those services. Those services used to be funded and provided with housing up until 2013, but HUD defunded those services, and they put all of that funding instead into more housing subsidies.”
Critics of the approach argue that it fails to care for the entire person and does little to address the root causes of homelessness. In fact, far too many recipients fall back into homelessness. A 2022 <a href="https://ciceroinstitute.org/research/housing-first-is-a-failure/">report</a> by the Cicero Institute found that homelessness increased by nearly 25% in areas that exclusively rely on the Housing First model.
An earlier version of Barr’s bill sought to allocate no less than 30% of HUD grant awards for Continuum of Care to housing providers that provide or condition their services on “wraparound services,” such as treatment for addiction. The current version has bumped that allocation to no less than 50%.
“By redirecting federal resources toward programs that provide treatment and recovery for those experiencing homelessness — nearly 80% of whom also battle mental illness or addiction — the Housing PLUS Act confronts a humanitarian crisis a decade in the making and ends the cycle of despair and decline of individuals and communities,” Steeb said in a statement.

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The Trump administration is working to prevent illegal aliens from accessing public housing, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) teaming up to end the “wasteful misappropriation” of taxpayer money.
The two federal agencies laid out their plans in a <a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/PA/documents/DHS-HUD-MOU-032425.pdf">memorandum of understanding</a>, stating that they will share data and work together to identify illegal aliens who are currently in public housing.
“We will safeguard precious taxpayer resources, and we will stop the harmful practices of the former Biden administration, which favored and prioritized illegal aliens over American citizens in the expenditure of housing funds and subsidies,” the memo reads, also adding that the measure is intended to “help stem the tide of illegal immigration in the United States and incentivize illegal aliens to voluntarily depart the country.”
“American tax dollars should be used for the benefit of American citizens, especially when it comes to an issue as pressing as our nation’s housing crisis,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner charged. “This new agreement will leverage resources including technology and personnel to ensure American people are the only priority when it comes to public housing.”
“We will continue to work closely with DHS to maximize our resources and put American citizens first,” he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Under <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>, Americans will no longer take a back seat to illegal aliens.
DHS <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sec_Noem</a> and I want to make it clear: No more taxpayer-funded housing for illegals. <a href="https://t.co/DWvYlSHEqg">pic.twitter.com/DWvYlSHEqg</a>
— Scott Turner (@SecretaryTurner) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecretaryTurner/status/1904300037221294080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
“If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. “The gravy train is over.”
“The entire government will work together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally,” the Homeland Security Secretary added.
HUD <a href="https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/hud_no_25_046">cited</a> one <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Camarota-Testimony.pdf">study</a> from the Center for Immigration Studies that found a whopping 59% of illegal alien households receive at least one form of welfare program, costing American taxpayers $42 billion.
The move from the two federal agencies is the latest step that the Trump administration has taken to discourage illegal immigration into the United States, and to encourage those illegally present in the country to return home.
The Trump administration has virtually <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/got-away-traffic-drops-like-a-rock-at-this-notorious-stretch-of-the-border">sealed</a> the southern border, and the DHS <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-transforms-bidens-cbp-one-app-leave-now-and-self-deport">remodeled</a> a controversial program earlier this month that was previously used to expedite the arrival and release of migrants into the country, instead turning it into a platform that illegal aliens can use to declare their intent to return home.

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‘The Gravy Train Is Over’: Trump Admin To Crack Down On Public Housing For Illegal Aliens