Congressman Eric Sorensen is urging the Trump Administration to reverse recent changes to the Continuum of Care program, which distributes housing grants to nonprofits. The new policy would cut funding for permanent supportive housing programs from 86% to just 30% of the program’s total, potentially sending 170,000 formerly homeless people across the country back to the streets, including many in Illinois’ 17th District. Sorensen is also championing bipartisan legislation—the Revitalize Our Neighborhoods Act, the RESIDE Act, and the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act—to rapidly increase the supply of affordable housing and transform vacant properties into homes, aiming to address homelessness at its root.
“Communities across Central and Northwestern Illinois are sounding the alarm that a lack of affordable housing and rule changes to federal homelessness prevention programs are placing more pressure on overcrowded homeless shelters and sending people back onto the streets,” said Congressman Sorensen. “The Trump Administration needs to reverse their changes to the Continuum of Care program before thousands of people experiencing homelessness find themselves outside in brutally cold weather this winter. We must also urgently take up legislation I’m supporting that will help families in Illinois by rapidly growing our supply of affordable and attainable housing.”
In addition, the Congressman is addressing one of the root causes of homelessness in Illinois’17th District and around the country: a lack of affordable housing. He helped introduce the Revitalize Our Neighborhoods Act, which would create a competitive HUD grant program to help communities rehabilitate vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties and promote the development of more affordable housing. He is supporting the bipartisan Revitalizing Empty Structures Into Desirable Environments (RESIDE) Act, which would allow HUD HOME Investment Partnership Program funds to be used to convert abandoned warehouses, factories, malls, and hotels into new affordable housing units. He is also a supporter of the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which would create tax incentives for the preservation and rehabilitation of homes in under-resourced communities.