Program gives $2B in grants for assistance to homeless

President Donald Trump’s administration announced $2 billion in grants Thursday for local agencies trying to help the homeless even as the government proposes deep cuts to federal housing programs.

The total of awards in the Continuum of Care program is the most ever, though only slightly above collective grants of more than $1.9 billion in the past few years. About 7,300 programs are being funded.

Across the country, homelessness has been on a downward trend for years, according to government counts. But there’s been a spike in numbers, particularly among homeless living on the streets along the West Coast, where rents have been rising fast, The Associated Press has reported.

In counts conducted in early 2017, the West Coast increase was so high that it raised the overall homelessness figure for the first time since 2010, to nearly 554,000 people.

The grants announced Thursday would send $383 million to California, up from $354 million last year. Oregon would get $36.3 million and Washington state would get $59.6 million, both increases of less than $1 million from last year.

The awards consider the cost of funding current programs, how well projects perform and housing costs. Changes in homelessness counts are not a major factor.

Under Trump and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, the federal government has largely maintained the approach to homelessness taken by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. That includes a focus on Housing First, which moves people quickly from homelessness into permanent housing, rather than using transitional housing.