UPDATE 12/9/2025: Following lawsuits from states and organizations that serve the homeless, Trump administration officials wrote in a court filing and on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development website Monday, they were withdrawing the new funding guidance for those organizations.
In the court filing, lawyers for HUD wrote they were assessing “the issues raised by plaintiffs.” The plaintiffs had argued that the administration gave them too little time to write applications and that HUD’s plan “shifts funding to disruptive and punitive models that are contrary to well-established and proven strategies that reduce homelessness.”
In withdrawing the new funding guidance, HUD did not state which “issues raised by plaintiffs” it was reviewing. But in a statement to Scripps News, a spokesperson said the agency “fully stands by the fundamental reforms” it was making to the program and will “reissue [the guidance document] as quickly as possible with technical corrections.”
Robert Stewart used to live in Charleston. But, homeless since he was 16, he was always looking over his shoulder. Always in survival mode.
Then, he got help finding a place that gave him a roof over his head, outside the capital city in small-town Belle. There, he finally feels at home, feels like he can take his pit bull Bruce for peaceful walks. Everyone knows everyone there.
About three years ago, a local group finally helped him find a home.
Workers from the Kanawha Valley Collective found him in an emotional crisis, about to divorce, worried about how much he’d see his son.
“They had faith in me whenever I didn’t,” said Stewart, now 50.
The collective gave Stewart U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rental assistance to get a roof over his head first. Then, they gave him a case manager to offer additional services, like help finding churches to pay for high utility bills, enrolling in health insurance and driving him to the grocery store.
For example, his case worker, Morgan Cottrell, drives him for visits with his 12-year-old child.
But now, West Virginians like Stewart could see the help that they need disappear, thanks to budget cuts and policy changes from the Trump administration.
Last month, HUD announced it was cutting funding for this kind of housing aid by 70%. About 850 West Virginians statewide will return to homelessness, according to the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.
Traci Strickland, who oversees the Kanawha Valley Collective, which is part of the coalition, said the region’s shelters are already full.
“You’re going to have more people on the streets,” she said. “You’re going to have more people in emergency rooms, potentially more people in jail, likely in institutions.”
Stewart worked on and off at restaurants, but hearing loss, vision problems and mental illness eventually made that impossible.
He gets a small disability check but wouldn’t be able to afford his apartment on his own.
“It is the only housing model that works”
The Trump administration wants to change the conditions for people like Stewart to get federal housing aid.
Instead of getting a roof over their heads first, and then offering other assistance, HUD wants to make people agree to enter other assistance programs before they are approved for housing. The agency would also limit that housing help to two years, instead of making it more permanent.
“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, in a news release.
“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.”
But experts say this approach is less likely to keep people stably housed.
The type of housing funding the Trump administration is cutting is exclusively for people like Stewart who’ve experienced long bouts of homelessness or multiple episodes of homelessness, and so they’re the most likely to become homeless again.
“These aren’t folks who just were just down on their luck for a couple paychecks,” said Susan E. Collins, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“It is the only housing model that works for this population,” she said. “This isn’t a group of folks who will just be able to turn it around tomorrow, get a job and get an apartment.”
HUD officials denied an interview request, and in an emailed response, they disputed, without evidence, researchers’ finding that the policy change will cause a rise in homelessness. They did not address a question about housing affordability being the cause of the crisis. But they said the elderly and disabled would still have help.
Strickland, of the Kanawha Valley Collective, said that people experiencing homelessness are uneasy about agreeing to strict requirements to address problems, such as mental illness or addiction, that may have developed or been made worse while living outdoors.
She said that once they had roofs over their heads, they developed the desire to make changes in other areas of their lives.
“It’s change they’re invested in,” she said. “It’s not hoops they’re jumping through in order to get housing.”
Under the policy shift, Stewart wouldn’t have been able to rely on a small amount of rental assistance and long-term help from his case manager.
“If you’ve been homeless for a year, two years, 10 years, you don’t know what you need to do to maintain housing,” Cottrell said.
And while he’s housed, he’s still disabled. He still has mental illness.
Cottrell takes his calls when he can’t reach his therapist. She’s driven him to doctor’s appointments. She’s talked him out of suicide.
Stewart said he has anger episodes and would have probably experienced one if a worker forced him into mental health treatment.
He also said the interaction would have made him feel vulnerable.
“I’d have stayed in the woods.”