First things first: shelter the homeless

Most people seeing a stranger collapsed in a field or injured in a car wreck would help, and we’d stop the bleeding before we tried to treat a cardiac issue. But detached from a sense of some emergencies, a lot of us shrug, avert our eyes and move on.

Homelessness is an unpleasant but real emergency, and it could worsen in proposed federal cuts.

There were more than 600 homeless people in metro Peoria last year, according to the count from the Home for All Continuum of Care for Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties, and it’s estimated the number is now about 800.

Despite the problem, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) wants to shift from its “Housing First” model.

“A shift to ‘Treatment First’ policies could result in a major reprioritization of who gets funding and for what purpose,” explained Robbie Sequeura for Stateline.

Announced on Nov. 13, HUD’s overhaul would rescind existing plans just as previous fundings is exhausted and future funding is in the balance. Treatment First requires attention to issues like mental or substance-abuse disorders, before someone becomes eligible for independent housing. This approach was common among homeless service providers and federal policymakers decades ago.

The scheme would cut billions from homeless assistance.

“More than half of the 2026 funding for HUD’s Continuum of Care program, which partners with local organizations to connect people experiencing homelessness to housing and resources, will be cut for permanent housing assistance and moved to temporary transitional housing assistance with some work or service requirements,” reported Politico’s Katherine Hapgood.

The shift seems ideological or a new opinion of homelessness from the Trump administration, expressed by HUD Secretary Scott Turner. He told Fox Business Network, "What is the root cause of homelessness? Mental illness, drug addiction, drug abuse.”

In reality, developmental disabilities and drug use are less frequent causes than joblessness, poverty and a lack of affordable housing, plus effects from domestic violence, bankruptcy, and divorce, so veterans and seniors can become unhoused, too.

The good news, if just temporary: On Dec. 19 the proposal was blocked by federal Judge Mary McElroy, who granted a preliminary injunction to a coalition of states objecting to the change for ignoring congressional mandates and other reasons.

“Continuity of housing and stability for vulnerable populations is clearly in the public interest," said McElroy, based in Rhode Island.

Originally used in New York City in 1992, Housing First more than 20 years ago became preferred by advocacy groups such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), and HUD endorsed it in Republican George W. Bush’s administration. By 2023, a HUD report said Housing First worked best to lower the risk of chronic homelessness among participants, compared with Treatment First and other models. It contrasted that with Treatment First, which requires individuals to access treatment in “highly regulated, congregate facilities,” and show improvement before being eligible for independent housing.

According to a 2020 review of dozens of studies (“Permanent Supportive Housing with Housing First to Reduce Homelessness and Promote Health Among Homeless Populations With Disability”), “Housing First programs offer permanent housing with accompanying health and social services, and their clients are able to maintain a home without first being substance-free or in treatment. Clients in stable housing experienced better quality of life and generally showed reduced hospitalization and emergency-department use.”

Housing First is more sustainable, said HUD’s 2023 report, which stated, “Overwhelming evidence from several rigorous studies indicates that Housing First programs increase housing stability and decrease rates of homelessness.”

There’s no one approach to effectively address homelessness. Responses to the crisis have varied widely, from “bus therapy” (sending people away) and death (Brian Kilmeader from TV’s “Fox & Friends” in September said mentally ill unhoused people who decline treatment should get "involuntary lethal injection," adding, "just kill them") to converting vacant office buildings to apartments (like Chicago and other cities are starting) and constructing “tiny homes” of 400 square feet.

“While building more housing alone will not end homelessness, it is an essential component of effective local homelessness policy, both for preventing homelessness and to successfully, permanently house people actively experiencing homelessness,” said Katherine Einstein, a Boston University political science professor who co-authored the 2024 study “Planning for Homelessness: Land Use Policy, Housing Markets, and Cities’ Homelessness Responses.”

Einstein, who surveyed the 100 largest U.S. cities, added. “Cities really aren’t thinking about their broader housing supply when they’re constructing their homelessness policies.”

Locally, the City of Peoria and maybe Peoria County are trying to help shelter about 80 homeless people at  New Hope Apartments on Fayette Street and Jefferson Avenue. The City’s short-term funding of $200,000 comes from its remaining American Rescue Funds. The City/County Board of Health is considering assistance, too.

Again, HUD’s dramatic cuts are temporarily blocked by the lawsuit bought by Illinois and 16 states (plus governors from Kentucky and Pennsylvania, cities such as Boston and San Francisco, and advocacy groups including NAEH and the National Low Income Housing Coalition). However, even paused for the moment, the proposal still lurks, threatening stable housing for some 170,000 people, including many in central Illinois.