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Boston Globe

Congress must reject cuts that would escalate national homelessness crisis

On the surface, some might celebrate these cuts as cost savings. But in practice, a growing crisis of homelessness - in red and blue states alike - will drive up public health and public safety costs, and cripple state and local communities. Advertisement In Rhode Island, these cuts could end funding for Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up If Congress passes the president's budget and cuts funding for permanent supportive housing, Rhode Island's homelessness crisis will escalate further into a Category Five emergency. Hospitals will become bottlenecks, unable to discharge unhoused patients who have nowhere safe to go. Emergency shelters — already operating at capacity — will be overwhelmed, pushing more people back onto the streets. Police and first responders will be forced to manage health and behavioral crises that stem not from criminal activity, but from untreated illness and housing instability. Advertisement The proposed budget would also cause further harm to the nation's safety nets by putting an arbitrary two-year cap on social services for so-called abled-bodied adults and shifting the financial burden to state and local governments that are already stretched thin. The Big Beautiful Bill would gut Community Development Block Grants, end the HOME Investment Partnership Program, and paralyze dozens of other health and social service grants that protect people from falling into homelessness in the first place. Put most simply, the president's proposed budget will create chaos across the nation's housing systems. It would abandon evidence-based approaches in favor of a fragmented, underfunded system with overcrowded shelters and dwindling options for permanent housing. Permanent supportive housing has proven time and again to be a cost-effective solution to homelessness. It reduces emergency room visits, hospital stays, and shelter use — while restoring dignity, stability, and hope. It is one of the smartest investments we can make. Ending homelessness has never been a partisan endeavor. If we allow it to become one, the devastating fiscal and societal consequences of a prolonged crisis will not discriminate between red and blue states or urban and rural communities. If Congress approves the president's cuts to Michelle Wilcox is president & CEO of Crossroads Rhode Island. Advertisement