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White House Hopes New Funding Will Deter Clearing Homeless Encampments

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is aiming assistance specifically at people sleeping on the streets. 

A encampment of people without housing on Skid Row on September 23, 2021 in Los Angeles. After HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge recently visited Skid Row, providing more funding to the unsheltered became an even more urgent priority for her. 

A encampment of people without housing on Skid Row on September 23, 2021 in Los Angeles. After HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge recently visited Skid Row, providing more funding to the unsheltered became an even more urgent priority for her. 

Photographer: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times
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As cities and states increasingly respond to unsheltered homelessness with encampment sweeps and laws criminalizing outdoor sleeping, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is pushing communities to invest in other solutions. 

HUD announced a package of funding on Wednesday designed to shrink the unsheltered homelessness population in the US by directing assistance to those who sleep outside, in their cars, or in other places not meant for habitation. It includes $43 million worth of housing choice vouchers, which provide recipients with permanent subsidized housing, and $322 million in Continuum of Care homelessness grants.