The federal government has given preference to long-term housing programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development for decades. In the Notice of Funding Opportunities — which lays out how HUD intends to award almost $4 billion in Continuum of Care grants — the Trump administration is telling local agencies that such programs can only make up 30% of their grant request.
Gov. Andy Beshear joined Democratic state leaders to challenge the new policies, calling them “illegal and cruel.” According to Beshear, the cap puts at risk the more than $15 million that currently pays for permanent supportive housing programs in almost every Kentucky county. He said that endangers the housing of 1,200 Kentuckians.
“We should be helping people get back on their feet through a safe place to call home, not barring them from any chance of success,” Beshear said in a statement. “These policy changes are wrong and dangerous, and they will set our commonwealth and country back.”
A HUD spokesperson said the organization stands by the reforms and called the lawsuit meritless and a “delaying tactic.”
In the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the coalition alleges the new application threw the Continuum of Care programs that were designed to provide stability “into chaos.”
“HUD has adopted new policies that threaten to cancel thousands of existing projects, require providers to fundamentally reshape their programs on an impossible timeline, and essentially guarantee that tens of thousands of formerly homeless individuals and families will be evicted back into homelessness,” the lawsuit states.
The coalition of states is requesting a preliminary injunction and have asked for a hearing before Dec. 8, and to reinstate the previous year’s funding process.
Beshear has frequently joined other Democratic state leaders to challenge the administration over food assistance, public health cuts and more. Beshear is joining the lawsuit in his capacity as governor, instead of Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman who has denounced several Democrat-led lawsuits over Trump administration policies.
A spokesperson for the Coalition for the Homeless in Louisville previously told Kentucky Public Radio that the shifts in HUD funding leaves many of their programs in limbo, with about 1,000 Louisvillians currently in a long-term housing program at risk of ending up back on the streets due to the changes. It also endangers rental assistance for thousands of formerly homeless Kentuckians with disabilities, per the Kentucky Housing Corporation.
Amanda Couch, CEO of Welcome House Inc., an organization that helps with housing services across Northern Kentucky, said in a statement that 122 adults and 69 children have received help through their two Rapid Re-Housing grants and six Permanent Supportive Housing programs this year.
“Behind every number is a real family — parents trying to keep their children safe, individuals living with chronic health conditions, and people who simply need a stable home to begin rebuilding,” Couch said. “If this funding disappears, these households will be pushed back into homelessness, and communities will lose the very programs proven to reduce crisis system costs and improve long-term outcomes.”
LPM's Roberto Roldan contributed to this story.
