With the future of Federal homeless services funding and policy in jeopardy, more than 500 providers gathered from across the state for Bringing It Home: Ending Homelessness in NC on May 27-28 in Raleigh. The conference offers training and networking opportunities for attendees to apply best practices, innovative solutions, and cross-organizational collaboration to their programs. This year, the conference was also essential for providers navigating the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle critical funding streams and reverse decades of evidence-based policies for homeless services.
Homelessness Services an Ongoing Target of Trump Administration
The Trump administration rejects evidence-based Housing First policies and has repeatedly targeted homeless services funding despite broad bipartisan support for the programs. In Fall 2025, HUD released two Notices of Funding Opportunity designed to dramatically overhaul Continuums of Care across the country. The changes put more than 170,000 people at risk of homelessness and destabilized CoC networks that were at risk of running out of funds. State and national organizations sued, and in December HUD rescinded one of the CoC NOFOs. In March, a District Court temporarily blocked HUD’s newly imposed, politicized criteria for “Continuum of Care (CoC) Builds” grants, declaring them unconstitutional and unlawful. The court ordered that $75M already appropriated for the grants must remain available. The First Circuit Court of Appeals also temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s request to implement unlawful and unreasonable restrictions that seek to shift funding away from proven solutions to homelessness.
Despite these rulings, the Trump administration and members of Congress continue to look for ways to dismantle Federal programs and funding for homeless services. In recent weeks, the House proposed an 8% funding cut to Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, nearly $6 Billion less in funding for housing and homeless services programs. This followed HUD’s notice of proposed rulemaking that would allow the broad implementation of work requirements and term limits on rental assistance. These efforts continue despite broad bipartisan support for housing and homeless services and calls from national organizations such as the National Association of REALTORS ® to fully fund HUD’s programs.
Homeless Services Protect Possibility
“Homelessness is not inevitable,” said Renee M. Willis, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, during her keynote address. “It is solvable. We know what works…The question is whether we will continue building the will to implement them, whether we will continue investing in what works, and whether we will continue believing that every person deserves the chance to thrive.” Willis focused on how ending and preventing homelessness protects possibility for families and individuals.
“Every time someone moves into stable housing, possibility expands. Every time a family avoids an eviction, possibility expands…Because housing does something profound. Housing allows people to imagine tomorrow. It creates the conditions in which healing can begin. It creates the conditions in which hope can take root. Housing creates the conditions in which people can move beyond survival and begin planning for the future.” –Renee M. Willis, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
Willis also participated in the panel “The Federal Landscape Today: Funding Cliffs, Policy Shifts, and Survival Tactics” with Samuel Gunter, Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition. Together they discussed the seismic shifts in federal homelessness policy over the past year and how to prepare for the upcoming CoC NOFO.
Other sessions included a panel on the state policy and funding landscape, overviews of key federal funding programs, and several sessions on building effective community partnerships. Staff from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development were present to answer attendee questions but recently received a directive from the administration not to speak publicly on behalf of the department.
The new CoC NOFO is expected to drop in a matter of days, with many anticipating it will be similar to the previously rescinded NOFO. The NC Housing Coalition continues to monitor changes to federal homelessness policy and funding sources, and to advocate at the state and federal level for sufficient resources to ensure that homelessness in North Carolina is rare, brief, and one-time only.
