Even as many volunteers are taking to the cold streets to try to find and quantify the number of homeless Americans living there now, two lawsuits filed late last year in a federal District Court are blocking millions of dollars from reaching the neediest people. The first lawsuit was filed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), and the second by a coalition led by Washington State’s Attorney General Nick Brown.
The lawsuits seek to stop the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from redirecting a larger share of public dollars to treatment-based homeless programs. Both suits seek to force the continued pretense that permanent subsidized housing projects will end homelessness.
These efforts fail the smell test.
First, nothing says ‘We don’t ever expect to end homelessness!’ quite like the fear expressed by NAEH leaders that new federal reforms will imperil “the stability of a funding stream that communities have relied on for years.” They note that “the abrupt departure from permanent housing impacts Plaintiffs’ current and future investment in property and housing projects.”
Those investments are significant, as are the salaries of many nonprofit homeless housing advocates (more on that in a minute).
Second, elections obviously have consequences. But NAEH executives and other housing advocates continue to feign shock at the idea of President Donald Trump’s administration reversing Obama-era “Housing First” policies that were formally implemented in 2013 through similar HUD action. Since then, permanent subsidized housing without conditions has aggressively defined the nation’s approach to homelessness, with roughly 90% of HUD’s competitive “continuum of care” funding awarded through automatic renewals of such projects.
Meanwhile, homelessness across all categories has increased 34%, while street homelessness has jumped nearly 60%.
A Jan. 18 Seattle Times story by Greg Kim shows the importance of the federal reforms. Mr. Kim profiled two Seattle residents:
David McCallion found life-transforming help at the Bread of Life Mission shelter in Pioneer Square and overcame his addiction to fentanyl. He now works full-time and plans to move into his own apartment.
Tina Telles has permanent supportive housing at the Morrison Hotel on Third Avenue, where staff help her manage medication for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and assist her with other important tasks.
Both stories are encouraging, and together illustrate a simple fact: While some people need lifelong care and housing, many others need clinical treatment that restores their self-sufficiency. In fact, “optimizing self-sufficiency” is a Congressional mandate for homeless policy, as stated in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This particular pillar of the law has long been ignored by those who even now claim that HUD’s new direction is a “violation of congressional intent.”
What Kim’s article got wrong was the idea that President Trump’s administration wants “to replace one [approach] with the other.” Actually, HUD’s aim is to restore balance to homeless services, leaving 30% of funds available for housing and redirecting the rest to competitive treatment programs, including those of faith-based organizations.
In spite of the many claims that housing is the “data-driven” and “evidence-based” solution to homelessness, it is obvious to most that the real roots of street-level homelessness are untreated mental illness, deep addiction, and the dysfunctional behaviors that result from or feed those conditions.
Why claim otherwise? Money, maybe.
In addition to real estate investments, many homeless housing executives are highly paid. For example, the top seven employees at NAEH took home $1.4 million in salary and benefits in 2024, while the top seven employees at Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Services Center collected $1.7 million. At Seattle’s Plymouth Housing, the top eight employees shared $2.3 million in 2024, with CEO Karen Lee’s salary rivaling that of the U.S. president.
In eastern Washington, Catholic Charities owns and manages a slew of low-income and homeless housing projects. In 2023, the organization’s eastern Washington CEO Rob McCann took home two full-time salary packages from two affiliated nonprofits, totaling more than $600,000.
It seems some people are getting rich helping poor people (with your money).
Meanwhile, the Bread of Life Mission, where David McCallion found help to turn his life around, lists one paid employee, CEO Kim Cook, who received a salary and benefits package of less than $75,000 in 2024. Her work is surely worth more, but it’s hard to doubt her organization (funded by private donations) exists to sacrificially help people do hard things.
The federal reforms will make it possible for more Kim Cooks to help more David McCallions, while those who suffer from permanent disability will still receive housing support. The NAEH and AG Brown’s lawsuits are stopping both. Shame on them.
Marsha Michaelis is a research fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty. She can be reached at mmichaelis@discovery.org.
