Inhabitants of this Raleigh encampment were forced to move in 2024. (Photo: Greg Childress/NC Newsline)
Jeffrey Rawlings (Photo: NC Coalition to End Homelessness)Jeffrey Rawlings had prepared a “cute speech” for Tuesday’s “Be a Light Gala,” the annual fundraiser for the N.C. Coalition to End Homelessness.
But Rawlings, a senior analyst for homeless services for the City of Durham and a coalition board member, said the times called for something different, so he scrapped the “cute speech” in favor of a more direct message.
“We are under attack. The people that we serve are under attack,” said Rawlings, referring to Trump administration policies that he and other advocates for people experiencing homelessness believe are harmful.
Rawlings, who has twice experienced homelessness, said the Trump administration is attempting to “criminalize what we do and to make us do it a different way.”
“I will say this with absolute honesty: Housing First is not perfect, but it’s the best thing out there,” Rawlings said. “There’s not anything better.”
Rawlings was referring to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) dramatic shift away from the Housing First model, which prioritizes immediate access to permanent housing without preconditions such as sobriety or enrollment in drug treatment.
The Trump administration is making deep cuts to funding for long-term housing and redirecting it to transitional housing with mandatory work requirements and treatment for addiction.
HUD announced last month that it would change its focus, shifting two thirds of the $3.9 billion Continuum of Care (CoC) grants program to transitional housing and other short-term interventions for people experiencing homelessness. The program is the largest federal grant program specifically for assisting people experiencing homelessness. Much of that money has been used for years for permanent housing or subsidized rents for formerly homeless people.
Advocacy groups claim the policy change will push more than 170,000 people into homelessness, some 3,000 of them in North Carolina. On Monday, they sued the Trump administration over the move, asking a federal judge to block it.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. It names the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and HUD Secretary Scott Turner as defendants.
Rev. Dr. Latonya L. Agard, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness. (Photo: Greg Childress/NC Newsline)Latonya Agard, executive director of the NC Coalition to End Homelessness, shared news about the legal efforts to “stop the madness” with those attending the coalition’s “Be a Light Gala,” which was held virtually this year on Giving Tuesday.
“The NCCEH and so many of our partners are part of the fight to resist that,” Agard said.
The coalition receives state and federal dollars but can only use private donations for advocacy work, Agard told those attending the fundraiser.
She cited the coalition’s success this year in helping to stop bills supported by Republicans in the General Assembly that advocates for people experiencing homelessness contend would have been “disastrous.” The coalition and its partners testified against the bills in legislative committees in both chambers.
One of them, House Bill 437, would have made homeless shelters operators responsible if drugs were sold or delivered outside of their facilities. It passed the state House, but stalled in the state Senate.
Rep. Heather Rhyne (R-Lincoln) said at the time that such a law is needed because the state’s homeless population is under regular threat from dealers seeking to sell them controlled substances.
“By making homeless shelters drug-free zones, we reduce the opportunity for these criminal elements to further victimize the homeless while holding operators of these facilities accountable,” said Rhyne, a bill cosponsor.
But Agard said it could have forced shelters to close.
“They [service providers] would have been fined, they faced potential felony charges because they couldn’t control what people were doing outside of their premises,” Agard said.
Another example, Agard said, was a controversial bill to ban public camping that would have criminalized people experiencing homelessness “for simply not having a home.” House Bill 781 would have prohibited unauthorized camping on public property. It also stalled in the Senate.
A bill co-sponsor, Rep. Brian Biggs (R-Randolph), said leaders of local municipalities came to him looking for guidance in handling homelessness. Biggs insisted the bill doesn’t criminalize homelessness as some critics contend.
“It addresses the use of public property for camping and sleeping without prohibiting homelessness,” Biggs said in April. “It does create clear guidance. We need guidance.”
H781 also passed the House but stalled in the Senate – in part, Agard said, due to the coalition’s testimony about it.
“Those were two huge wins, and this organization was part of the effort to bring people together, to craft a narrative that was compelling, and to use evidence, to use facts to show that these things are wrong,” Agard said.
“We can’t do that kind of work without funding that is not tied to federal policies or state policies, or any of those restrictions,” Agard said. “We need funds that will allow us to continue to do the hard work of standing in solidarity with people experiencing homelessness, speaking truth to power and ensuring that we are a voice for equity.”
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