By the time Shawn Dunning returned to the U.S. after living abroad for two decades, he was nearly bankrupt. All his family members were dead, and his health was rapidly declining, leaving him unable to work.
Dunning, 54, spent nights on the street, in shelters, in hospitals, on friends’ couches and in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he said he saw neighbors carted out in body bags. Dunning said being homeless broke him, and he contemplated suicide.
“There is nothing possible in this world when you’re homeless,” Dunning said. “It’ll kill you. If it doesn’t take your physical health, it’ll take your mental health, and you’re done.”
But Dunning said his life changed when he got help from the nonprofit Heartland Alliance Health. With their help, he was given a voucher through the Chicago Housing Authority, which has housed him in Rogers Park for three years.
Now the same programs that changed Dunning’s life are in jeopardy, advocates say, and the Chicago area may be hit especially hard with funding cuts.
Local organizations providing support and housing to the city’s homeless population are sounding alarms over potential cuts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There are clear indicators, they say, that HUD intends to defund its permanent housing programs as soon as it’s able, likely during the next grant cycle opening this summer
Permanent housing is an umbrella term that encompasses different types of long-term housing without a designated time of stay, according to HUD. The most common type is permanent supportive housing, in which tenants who have a disability affecting their ability to find housing, such as a mental or physical illness, receive supportive services alongside a rental subsidy.
The looming funding cuts could force people in permanent housing programs across the state back into homelessness. Five regions in Illinois — a state with over 14,000 total permanent supportive housing units — rely on HUD funding for all of their permanent supportive housing programs.
Chicago has over 9,000 permanent supportive housing units, around 60% of which are financed by HUD, according to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Of the combined $120 million in HUD funding that Chicago homelessness organizations are receiving, 80%, or $96 million, goes to permanent housing programs.
In May, the Trump administration proposed cutting half of HUD’s budget, and in July, an executive order directed HUD to “increase requirements” for participation in housing programs.
HUD will instead fund transitional housing programs, which have a maximum subsidy of two years, and has also indicated that it will shift priorities to projects with work, service or treatment requirements.
“HUD is committed to measuring success by self-sufficiency and recovery, not permanent government dependence,” a HUD spokesperson said in an email to the Tribune. The statement said homelessness relief funding “has been on autopilot for years with nothing but record-high levels of homelessness and taxpayer spending to show for it. Americans deserve better.”
HUD signaled changes in the types of programs it wishes to fund. According to a side-by-side comparison of past and recent HUD documents from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the department now wants to reject funding for a project if it involves race or LGBTQ+ communities.
Lawsuit seeks to block changes
In November and December, states, including Illinois, and homelessness organizations sued HUD over cuts proposed in a November notice. The judge issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the sweeping changes to homelessness funding that the notice would have initiated. The case is ongoing in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island.
If the notice had taken effect, 170,000 people nationwide would have lost housing, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
What advocates fear — and what was written into November’s notice — is a cap on permanent housing funding and a competition for funds that are usually guaranteed.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next set of HUD funding … but if last year is any indication of it, we have to be ready,” said Sendy Soto, the city’s first chief homelessness officer.
Nicole Bahena works at All Chicago, the group that coordinates grants for Chicago organizations serving homeless communities. Bahena said she worries these organizations will face greater disadvantages because of recent changes, shuttering key programs that break the cycle of homelessness.
Some people supported by permanent housing will be evicted and thrown back into homelessness without the rent subsidies provided by the government. With an eviction record, Bahena explained, it becomes more difficult to get another place, which contributes to the cycle.
“We’re going back like 30 years in the evolution of how we end homelessness,” Bahena said. “And so agencies are concerned. They know HUD doesn’t want to fund them.”
Housing before treatment, advocates say
Christian Community Health Center, a medical care nonprofit, has provided housing to people facing homelessness for over two decades, CEO Kenneth Burnett said.
The organization provides over 500 permanent supportive housing units for people with medical conditions, Burnett said, all of which are funded by HUD.
“Housing is health care,” Burnett said. “Without that subsidy, that would be a tremendous loss and cause instability for clients who are residing in permanent supportive housing.”
Advocates say permanent housing programs — a type of “housing first” program — provide better solutions for individuals facing homelessness than “treatment first” programs that require an individual to meet criteria to receive housing. Research backs their claims. A 2020 study from the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice found that “housing first” programs, when compared with “treatment first,” decreased homelessness by 88%.
Bob Palmer, the policy director at Housing Action Illinois, said HUD’s actions represent a “drastic, counterproductive” policy shift that he thinks will worsen homelessness.
“Ideally, we wouldn’t spend time arguing about what the best method is of ending homelessness,” Palmer said. “We’d actually be talking about, ‘How do we commit the resources that are needed (for) permanent supportive housing and other evidence-based solutions that are known to work and be the most cost-effective and the most humane?’”
Requiring a tenant’s participation in services and revoking housing if expectations aren’t met, as the Trump administration aims to do, isn’t consistent with past legal interpretations of fair housing laws, said Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County.
“We’re all ready to be in housing, and being in housing gives us a better chance of whatever challenges we might face than trying to overcome those challenges while still experiencing homelessness,” Hill said.
The alliance is the group that coordinates HUD homelessness funding in suburban Cook County. Of the $27.5 million its members received from HUD last year, 86% went toward permanent housing programs, according to Hill.
If permanent housing funding is slashed, the people facing homelessness again as a result would likely wind up making more hospital trips or end up in jail, Burnett said. He added that cutting funding would cost taxpayers more than continuing to fund permanent housing programs.
“We see the favorable outcomes with permanent supportive housing,” Burnett said. “We see the increased engagement for our clients in primary care, behavioral health and preventative services.”
Fear that HUD will penalize blue states
Bahena said she’s also worried about HUD penalizing grant applications from blue states and sanctuary cities during the upcoming grant competition.
On the November funding notice, HUD added questions surrounding “criminalizing homelessness,” Bahena said, like questions about encampment bans and prohibiting drug use. Answers to these questions will be used in determining grant funding.
Bahena expects that the divergence from previous application questions means cities with these types of legislation on the books — likely in red states — will fare better in HUD’s adjudication process, leading to less funding for Democrat-led states.
According to Palmer, Illinois has no state encampment ban. But there are around 30 local encampment bans, still fewer than that of other states, he said.
Palmer said encampment bans are harmful, and most of the people working to end homelessness that he knows are opposed to them. Still, he noted that homelessness organizations aren’t the ones passing legislation.
“It’s not fair to punish service providers and people experiencing homelessness for policies of their state,” Palmer said.
Homelessness organizations have been working with the state and advocacy groups like Housing Action Illinois to voice their concerns and develop contingency plans, Palmer said. Advocates say they expect the lawsuit to go their way after the judge’s preliminary injunction, and were happy to see Congress moderately increased the HUD budget in a Feb. 3 bill from what it was last year.
Dunning said he’s tried to stay away from the news, including that about permanent housing cuts. It’s too dark and doesn’t help his healing, he said.
Instead, he goes for walks, prays and meditates. He hasn’t seen a doctor in three years, and when he’s well enough to start work again, Dunning said he knows doors will open up for him because of his “amazing spirit.”
“At some point, I lost everything — material possessions, and I lost everyone and everything I ever loved or cared about,” Dunning said. “And wow, what a transformation. That’s what housing did for me. It saved my life.”
