Kirsten Gillibrand Presses HUD Secretary Turner On 13% Cut To Homeless Assistance In Proposed Budget

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) questioned HUD Secretary Scott Turner about proposed cuts to homeless assistance.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. The other committee that I have a

00:07leadership role on is the Senate Aging Committee. And you know how important housing is to our older

00:15Americans. Seniors are the fastest growing age group among people experiencing homelessness.

00:22Over 41,000 seniors age 65 and older experienced homelessness at the time of the

00:292024 point in time count. And that number could triple by the year 2030. The budget, however,

00:37cuts HUD homeless assistance by 13%. And you propose strict time limits, even for seniors.

00:44These are people with fixed incomes can't work, face very increasing healthcare costs and challenges

00:51and need wrap around services to stay housed. So Mr. Secretary, under your proposal, what happens to

00:57the seniors currently being served in permanent supportive housing? And what's your ambition

01:02with regard to addressing homelessness amongst our older Americans?

01:06Thank you, Senator Gillibrand. I appreciate our conversation yesterday. And as you will note,

01:12in the budget, the language in the budget prioritizes our seniors, our elderly and disabled and our

01:18veterans. And so we are well aware of this. And at HUD, we will continue to prioritize our seniors.

01:24You know, you alluded to the homelessness in our country. And I want to make note for the committee,

01:30you know, with record funding from HUD. HUD's budget over the last eight years went from approximately

01:36$42 billion to $77 billion. And yet homelessness has, is at an all time high, went up 18% last year with

01:44over 770,000 people homeless at one single night in January of 2024. And when I look at this,

01:51obviously with this type of funding and with the role that we do have, that's unacceptable.

01:56As you know, I was just in New York City, visiting New York City and NYCHA, the public housing authority

02:01there, which has many problems as it pertains to stewardship, as it pertains to fraud and abuse

02:07and authorities there, leadership there, being indicted. And, you know, homelessness,

02:13homelessness, we've made it very hard for faith-based institutions to work with the government, to work

02:18with HUD in particular. And when I visit cities around our country and you see the faith-based

02:24institutions that are actually doing the work every day as it pertains to homelessness, we need to

02:29partner with these institutions, partner with the nonprofits that actually have data-driven results

02:34to decrease homelessness, to not only get people off the streets, but also to help people be transformed

02:41when you think about drug addiction, mental health, the restoration of the family, the faith. And so

02:47that's my approach to it, Senator, is to have a holistic approach and better stewardship, if you will,

02:53and to bring in these partnerships so that we can eradicate homelessness on our streets. But the budget

02:58language does prioritize our elderly and our disabled. Thank you. And I would like to work with you on

03:04perhaps new legislative language about increasing the ability to do partnerships, faith-based

03:09partnerships. As I mentioned to you yesterday, there's a not-for-profit in the Bronx called the

03:15Fortune Society. And I would love you to tour that because they deal with formerly incarcerated men,

03:22which is a very critical population that are at risk for homelessness. Not only do they house them,

03:27they give them skills training, they give them mental health support, they give them any substance

03:33use disorder order prevention that's necessary, and they holistically look at these individuals and

03:39say, how do we make sure that you get on your feet, that you have a great job, and you can pay for your

03:44own housing, and what does it take to get you from the day you are released to the day you are

03:49self-sufficient? And I would love to work with you on legislation to accomplish those goals in whatever

03:56ways we can, because again, failure, the failure of this country not to house Americans is painful. And we

04:04have to do a better job, and I'm open to all solutions, and I'd love to work with the chairwoman on that.

04:08The second issue that I raised with you that I wanted to raise for the committee is what do we do with

04:14all the buildings that are empty in cities like New York? There are so many commercial buildings that no one is going to work in anymore,

04:22that are entirely unutilized, and I would like to work on legislation to provide conversions, to be able to

04:29create resources, and also authorities, so that we can make it easier to take empty buildings and transform

04:37them into critical housing needs. Now the type of critical housing needs that I would make this eligible

04:43for is certainly for formerly homeless. I think we have to get out of the model that homeless people are going

04:48to shelters. They should be going to permanent housing with the transitional wraparound services

04:53like the Fortune Society offers for this one group of people, like some of the shelters offer for

04:58battered women and their children. So the kinds of services they get people on their feet so they can

05:04be self-sufficient. And there's going to be a lot of important things we need to look at to make

05:10conversions possible, and I also would like your commitment that you will work with me on that to get

05:14legislation written and supported to get the resources and the authorities to do that kind of work.

05:23Yes, ma'am. I look forward to working with you on these two issues that you raised. Thank you.

05:29Senator Schatz.

05:33Thank you, Chair and Vice Chair, and thank you, Secretary. First of all, appreciate our team's working

05:40relationship as Maui continues.

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