A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Marisa Kendall, CalMatters
Thousands of Californians could return to homelessness as the feds reportedly plan to disinvest from permanent housing.
The latest blow in a seemingly endless barrage of bad news for the California agencies tasked with fighting homelessness looms: President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to deeply cut federal funding for permanent housing.
The news has sent counties throughout California into a panic.
by Lupe Velez
The Trump Administration, during its short time in power, has waged strategic attacks on nearly every marginalized group in the country. It has slashed funds for health care, education, environmental protections and more. President Trump’s direct attack on the homeless population began in August of 2025, when he deployed the National Guard to clear homeless encampments in Washington, D.C. This followed his executive order on July 24, when he outlined his plan in a press conference to increase sweeps,
by Cathleen Williams and Sandy Perry
Washington DC, August 12, 2025: “Yesterday, I walked from the White House through the National Mall… The streets are eerily empty for an August afternoon near the storied monuments. In some places, there are more ICE, DEA, ARNG, and FBI personnel than there are regular people. There are fire trucks blocking lanes of traffic for no reason. There are Humvees sitting outside of Union Station for no reason other than to terrorize people–to let *us know that we are being watched…” Facebook post,
by Apple Cronk
Last month, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14321—“Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” By criminalizing homelessness, addiction and mental health crises, the order strips federal support from lifesaving public health solutions like Housing First and harm reduction—the very policies that saved my life and my daughter’s, and made my nearly three years of recovery possible.
I spent over a decade unhoused in San Francisco.
by Paul Boden
Let’s be real about what’s happening. The U.S. Government is endeavoring to solidify its long time quest of a fascist dictatorship rule. It’s moving incredibly fast because the structures needed to pull this off have been getting implemented piecemeal and with purpose since the Reagan Revolution in 1980. So now they are ready to rock and roll.
Dictatorships always rely on a militarized police force to rain hell on a scapegoated minority that are “blamed” as the cause of whatever the authorities decide is going to put fear into their base and use that fear to stoke division and prejudice amongst people.
by Tatiana Lyulkin
I became “vulnerable” very late in life, after my parents died in 2014 and in 2016, and I lost what was basically “their” apartment in Daly City in 2017. I’m not spoiled or lazy, just disabled. So with my parents gone, my Social Supplemental Income check is my only source of income. But last month I got a letter from the SSI telling me I was overpaid and I owe them $10,000 because my studio has a kitchen.
By Marisa Kendall/CalMatters
President Donald Trump’s new law-and-order approach to homelessness bears several striking resemblances to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s.
Trump wants cities to enforce laws that make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside. So does Newsom.
Trump threatened to withhold funding from places that don’t. So did Newsom.
And the president wants to make it easier to force homeless people living with serious mental illness or addiction into treatment.
On Friday July 24, Trump signed an Executive Order to make it easier to remove people from the streets. This executive order follows a trend of draconian measures enacted by the Trump administration that targets the country’s most vulnerable communities. This Executive Order doesn’t solve homelessness, it criminalizes it. It scapegoats people in crisis, ignores decades of data, and wastes taxpayer dollars on failed, punitive approaches.
Through this plan the Trump administration seeks to criminalize homelessness through increased encampment sweeps,
by Jack Bragen
Donald Trump just signed his big bill. It isn’t a “beautiful bill.” It is a crime against the American middle class and poor. And we are in a war of misinformation—but that’s beside the point. This will impact me as a disabled writer, and it won’t be “beautiful” at all.
I am at the bottom, and I can attest from that perspective to all of the power-hungry politicians who want in on the political and monetary pie.
by Jordan Wasilewski
Ever since Donald Trump was re-elected, I have been thinking about what led to this morass. As somebody who grew up in a working class Democratic household with one parent as a member of a union, I recently changed my voter registration to “no party preference” because the Democrats have been defecating the bed on economic justice issues. After the federal government drastically reduced social safety-net programs in the 1980s,
