With its latest funding proposal, the Trump Administration is doubling down on a harmful agenda that threatens to rip our most vulnerable neighbors from their homes while further eroding access to affordable, safe, stable housing.
On June 1, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the federal Continuum of Care Program Fiscal Year 2026 Notice of Funding Opportunity, which outlines funding priorities for nonprofit providers, states, local governments and other local administering agencies seeking funding to rehouse homeless individuals in their communities.
We anticipate these policy decisions and programmatic changes will result in a total of $33 million in cuts to Maryland’s funding allocation to support permanent housing, renewal transitional housing and supportive services projects – causing 1,400 disabled and elderly households to lose their homes, including 2,400 people and 1,000 children.
HUD’s new application guidelines and program methodology encourage communities to increase barriers for homeless individuals to receive housing assistance, deprioritize the use of evidence-based practices like Housing First and enact sweeping cuts of permanent supportive housing.
The consequences are clear: The Trump Administration’s decision to cut millions of dollars in housing supports will destabilize hundreds of vulnerable Maryland households and directly result in a 34 percent spike in homelessness across the state.
These cuts won’t just hurt people experiencing homelessness. They will also have drastic economic effects on local communities and Maryland taxpayers. Increased burdens on hospital emergency departments, Medicaid, fire, police, EMS, and shelters are projected to cost $120 million. An estimated 1,400 additional eviction cases will hit the dockets, inundating legal aid services, courts, and sheriffs.
Experts and bipartisan officials agree: permanent supportive housing is the evidence-based practice that most effectively and most affordably solves homelessness. Utilizing Housing First practices, Maryland has cut unsheltered homelessness by 52% and overall homelessness by 15% since 2015.
We’re not interested in wasting time and money on failed strategies when we already know what works. The State of Maryland remains committed to evidence-based approaches to solving homelessness and will not sacrifice stability and success for counterproductive approaches that will cost more, achieve less and set our communities back.
Secretary Jake Day
Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development
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