Rhode Island judge halts agency policy to decrease homelessness.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has appealed a preliminary injunction from a Federal District Court of Rhode Island judge against the federal agency’s policy on homelessness. The injunction halts HUD’s ability to award homelessness grants under a policy that seeks to protect unhoused individuals from “dangerous encampments, illicit drugs, and sex offenders.”
HUD Deputy Secretary Andrew Hughes said, “President Trump and Secretary Turner vowed a drastic paradigm shift in how America addresses homelessness. The homeless industrial complex promulgated Housing First, which has repeatedly failed vulnerable Americans. It has by every objective measure turned America’s streets into a petri dish of disease, drugs, and despair.“
He continued, “HUD is doubling down for real solutions to this catastrophe and will continue to pursue every legal avenue to reform the homelessness system within the bounds of the law.”
At the end of last year, the department announced its intention to promote self-sufficiency for homeless individuals, instead of dependence on government support. Opponents of the policy claim the agency would spend billions on “warehousing people.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Deputy Secretary Hughes as he fulfills his role in the federal housing department.
- For Secretary Scott Turner as he heads HUD and seeks to implement policies to decrease homelessness.
- For officials in the DOJ as they support HUD in efforts to apply reforms to support homeless Americans.
Sources: Department of Housing and Urban Development,
