Advocates of homeless vets fear Trump budget could hurt them

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The push to end homelessness among veterans would suffer without the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which is up for elimination under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, nonprofits and local officials say.

The council coordinates the efforts of 19 federal agencies that play a role in preventing and ending homelessness among all Americans. But the strides made with veterans – for whom homelessness has been effectively ended in three states and dozens of communities amid a concerted effort – make the proposed cuts particularly upsetting to advocates.

Homeless advocates in any given state consult the council, whose annual budget is about $3.5 million, on which strategies are working elsewhere as they seek to house veterans. They worry momentum will slow.

“We’ve learned how to end homelessness,” said Nonie Brennan, chief executive of the nonprofit All Chicago. “It would be a tremendous shame if we were not able to continue to implement these strategies in our communities across the country.”

Adding to the ire and confusion, the budget proposal also says the Trump administration will support Department of Veterans Affairs programs for homeless and at-risk veterans and their families, but doesn’t elaborate. Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to support veterans, wants to give the VA a 6 percent increase.

Still, the federal government needs someone to make sure housing resources are well spent and to look across agencies for solutions instead of just down at their own, advocates say.

“Without coordination and oversight and giving some thought to how the money should best be spent, the money may not go to the people who need it most,” said Hank Hughes, of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.