MSNBC published an op-ed by NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel on December 27 urging Congress to act now to reverse the sharp rise in homelessness seen over the last year. According to a recent report from HUD, the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2023 was the highest number recorded since reporting began in 2007. A full 40% of people experiencing homelessness in 2023 were unsheltered, living in places not meant for human habitation. Even so, there is reason for optimism, according to the op-ed: recent experience has shown that Congress can act promptly and decisively to prevent housing insecurity when it so chooses.
The op-ed recounts how during the pandemic, lawmakers in Congress, as well as at the state and local levels, prevented a massive wave of evictions by providing unprecedented resources and protections to get and keep people housed. These measures included $46.6 billion in emergency rental assistance, a national moratorium on evictions for nonpayment of rent, emergency housing vouchers, and other resources to move people experiencing homelessness to safety.
Yet the pandemic-era measures were never more than a temporary patch for the gaping holes in our country’s social safety net. When pandemic protections expired and emergency resources were depleted, renters re-entered a brutal housing market, where they were faced with skyrocketing rents and soaring inflation. As rents increased, so did homelessness.
But now, with the beginning of the new year, Congress has new opportunities to end homelessness, according to the piece.
“Homelessness is our country’s most urgent, tragic, and solvable crisis, and one that demands immediate action,” writes Diane. “The price of inaction is steep, affecting people from every walk of life, of every political stripe, in every community. During the pandemic, Congress found the will to confront a housing crisis decisively. Now, Congress must follow its own example by acting without delay to ensure housing security for the lowest-income renters and to end homelessness in the U.S. once and for all.”
Read the op-ed.