Last fall, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nearly triggered a homelessness disaster of its own making. A rush of policy changes that were rolled out with almost no warning and even less guidance threatened to push up to 170,000 formerly unhoused Americans out of stable housing. The strangest part? Much of this upheaval traces back to a little-known think tank that was…
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Democratic lawmakers and advocates are voicing grave warnings after the Trump administration on Thursday unveiled its plan to slash funding for long-term housing programs, cuts that could leave nearly 200,000 people at risk of becoming homeless. The New York Times reported that the administration’s new proposal for Continuum of Care (CoC) funding “shifts billions to short-term programs that…
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Baby formula linked to a nationwide outbreak of infant botulism was distributed to programs serving homeless mothers and other struggling families in multiple states, but it’s unclear what actions are being taken to alert those families to the recall. Formula maker ByHeart Inc., operates a formula donation program in partnership with Baby2Baby, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that counts high…
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From the Trump administration to Democrats in California, responses to the homeless crisis in the U.S. continue to ignore the main drivers of the problem and aim to make the unhoused magically disappear. Like so many of the faux social policies in the U.S., this one increasingly looks designed for big private players to profit off the disappearing. Let’s first look at the main tenets of the U.
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The new short film Criminal highlights the injustices of the criminal legal system with a look at how for-profit bail preys on the poor and mentally ill. We’re joined by three contributors to the film, musician Stew Stewart and bail reform advocates Krish Gundu and Alec Karakatsanis, to discuss how what Karakatsanis calls the “unconstitutional” system of cash bail leads to “millions of coerced…
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When 28-year-old Brianna Beadle finally secured an Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) in 2022, the single mother of five exhaled for the first time in years. After she’d been bouncing between a domestic violence shelter, short-term hotels, and her car, the voucher made a four-bedroom home in Pompano Beach, Florida, possible — a place where her kids could sleep, study, and heal. But now…
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