Barr leads Republican bill to reform HUD’s Housing First policy

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) on May 17 sponsored legislation to reform the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing First policy, a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness.

The Housing Promotes Livelihood and Ultimate Success (Housing PLUS) Act of 2023, H.R. 3405, is intended to end HUD’s exclusive reliance on the Housing First methodology, which recent U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness data demonstrated is a failed experiment, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Barr’s staff. 

“We need to abandon HUD’s exclusive reliance on Housing First in favor of an all-hands-on-deck approach to end homelessness in the United States,” Rep. Barr said during a press conference held Wednesday at the House Triangle on Capitol Hill. “The Housing PLUS Act will ensure that HUD grant funding is reaching providers who are helping people transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency, without unneeded restrictions.”

Specifically, H.R. 3405 would prohibit the HUD Secretary from prohibiting, limiting, or otherwise restricting award of Continuum of Care (CoC) funds to providers because they require wraparound services, such as job training and addiction treatment, or because they are faith-based organizations, the summary says. 

“Housing First prevents providers who require wraparound services from receiving federal funds to curb homelessness in our communities,” Rep. Barr said. “These wraparound services are oftentimes necessary to ensuring a person can safely and fully attain permanent housing on their own.”

Additionally, the bill would direct the HUD Secretary to allocate no less than 30 percent of CoC funding to recipients that provide, or facilitate access to, wraparound services outside of Housing First; to annually certify to Congress that HUD allocated CoC funds as directed by the bill; and to report to Congress about how its allocation of funds met the bill’s requirements, according to the summary.

H.R. 3405 has 20 GOP original cosponsors, including U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), and has been referred to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee for consideration. 

Dr. Robert Marbut, Discovery Institute senior fellow; Michele Steeb, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation; Joe Lonsdale, chairman of the Cicero Institute; and Ted McCann, vice president of policy and programs at the American Idea Foundation, support the measure.