Update, Dec. 8, 2025 at 12:50 p.m. PT
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has withdrawn guidance for homeless services grants announced last month, which local officials and service providers feared could reduce funding for housing support. In a brief update to the Continuum of Care website, HUD officials said they planned to issue another update to funding guidance but did not specify when.
The full text of the update is below:
“The Department has withdrawn a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) with respect to the Continuum of Care (CoC) grant program. This withdrawal will allow the Department to make appropriate revisions to the NOFO, and the Department intends to do so. In the previous FY 24-25 NOFO, the Department reserved the right to make changes to the NOFO instead of processing renewals for a variety of reasons, including to accommodate a new CoC or Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) priority or new funding source. The Department still intends to exercise this discretion and make changes to the previously issued CoC NOFO to account for new priorities. HUD anticipates reissuing a modified NOFO well in advance of the deadline for obligation of available Fiscal Year 2025 funds.”
Original story, published Dec. 8, 2025 at 12:04 p.m. PT
Dean Herman is a resident at Hope Springs, a transitional living facility on the border between Reno and Sparks. He was first connected to Hope Springs at Community Court, where he was sent after being cited for camping and having an open container.
Herman has since been able to stay sober and work on getting ready to find permanent housing. He credits the now-defunct specialty court — created to guide unhoused people away from jail and into services — for that progress.
“That’s what the people need. They need a roof over their head. They need, you know, a place to lay down,” he said. “And then you can change your mindset.”
For almost five years, court officials held hearings for low-level offenses in the downtown Reno library. Outside the hearing room, government agencies and nonprofits gathered to help unhoused defendants with services and support.
But in October, court officials told KUNR they were closing the program, because it struggled to divert unhoused people from the criminal justice system, and service providers were dropping out.
Then, in mid-November, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced new guidance for its homeless services grant program. The Trump Administration is framing the new policy as a way to address what it calls the root causes of homelessness: severe mental illness and substance abuse.
But advocates and local officials say the change could undo the progress that has been made, even as the trends driving more and more Americans into the streets continue.
“We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress here locally,” said Catrina Peters, Washoe County’s homeless services provider. “One of the ways we’ve been able to make that progress is through these HUD programs.”
Peters estimated the county could lose up to $1.9 million in support for permanent supportive housing, which offers long-term assistance for people with disabilities, and rapid rehousing, which provides temporary rental assistance and services for unhoused people.
That support has enabled local officials and their nonprofit partners to get people into housing. But it’s an uphill battle. According to county data, more people are falling into homelessness than leaving it. The number of people newly identified as homeless — those who have never sought services through the county or its nonprofit partners — has consistently outpaced the number of people successfully placed in housing for more than two years.
Meanwhile, the number of people who engaged with services and those who have left services for at least 90 days has remained largely consistent, while following a seasonal pattern: More people seek shelter and support during colder months.
Peters blamed that churn on Northern Nevada’s high housing costs, which have been consistently rising for the last decade. For example, Reno-based real estate appraisers Johnson Perkins Griffin, LLC found the average rent in the Reno-Sparks metro area reached an all-time high of $1,753 in the second quarter of 2025.
Peters isn’t satisfied with the status quo, but she said the new HUD priorities threaten to erode even that progress. That’s because they direct funding away from permanent housing support to short-term housing and street outreach.
“Money that was previously used for housing, going to street outreach, reduces those dollars that we have to provide folks with rental assistance to keep them stably housed,” she said.
But in a written statement, a HUD spokesperson told KUNR the new guidelines are designed to help people with disabilities who live in permanent supportive housing achieve “self-sufficiency and dignity.” The official also sought to blame the previous administration for rising homelessness, even though national numbers started to tick up in 2016.
“The Biden administration’s failed ‘Housing First’ model chains homeless Americans to a never-ending cycle of government handouts while turning a blind eye to the root causes of homelessness, including illicit drugs and mental illness,” the statement read in part.
Housing first refers to a philosophy that prioritizes permanent housing as a solution for homelessness, as opposed to approaches requiring unhoused people to seek treatment for mental illness or substance use disorder before they’re placed in housing.
The new HUD guidelines follow an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump in July, which directed staff to “increase accountability in their provision of, and grants awarded for, homelessness assistance and transitional living programs. These actions shall include, to the extent permitted by law, ending support for ‘housing first’ policies…”
That directive echoed language from Project 2025, which the Heritage Foundation developed during the last presidential campaign to set the agenda for Trump’s second term.
But according to HUD’s own analysis, housing first policies increase housing stability and decrease rates of homelessness.
“Housing First programs appear to reduce the use of hard drugs, improve the health status of people living with HIV/AIDS, and reduce the use of costly emergency services, all of which are indicators of improved health,” the agency concluded.
Ben Iness with the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance said it’s a mistake to focus on individual behavior instead of national trends. He predicted the shift away from a housing first approach is bound to fail.
“I don’t know how folks can be ready to work, or work towards becoming sober or clean, what have you, when they’re still living outside,” he said.
Iness pointed to rising housing costs as the primary driver of homelessness. In the last decade, rents have risen dramatically across Nevada. Meanwhile, the state’s summary eviction process allows landlords to remove a tenant in as little as a week, without court approval. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has twice vetoed reforms passed by state lawmakers seeking to give renters better protections.
“Any accident, any crisis — car, medical, school, bills, high cost of food, the obvious list goes on and on — really just puts people on that really precarious line where it’s very easy to fall over,” Iness said.
Back at Hope Springs, Dean Herman worries the loss of resources and support will only make it harder for people like him to get back on their feet
“A lot of those people aren't going to go to the real court,” he said. “They're going to still be out on the streets, and [police are] going to start scooping people up and throwing them in jail.”
