Policy Document Series · Issue 41 · April 2026
Housing First, Excuses Never
It costs $35,578 per person per year to leave someone homeless — cycling through emergency rooms, jails, and shelters. It costs $12,800 to give them a home. Finland used Housing First to cut homelessness by 40%. The United States just gave cities permission to arrest people for sleeping outside. This is not a math problem. It is a political choice.
The Common Good Party's homelessness policy rests on a non-negotiable commitment: no American sleeps outside because there is nowhere to go. The goal is not managing homelessness. It is ending it.
The policy includes: Housing First as the federal standard for all homelessness programs; federal legislation ending the criminalization of homelessness; 100,000 permanent supportive housing units per year; functional zero veteran homelessness within 5 years; dedicated youth and family rapid rehousing with education stability; co-located mental health and substance use services; engagement teams replacing encampment sweeps; and upstream prevention through emergency rental assistance, eviction diversion, and discharge planning.
You cannot therapy someone into a home that does not exist. Housing is the treatment. Everything else is triage. Finland proved this at national scale — homelessness fell 40% while every other European country saw increases. The evidence is not ambiguous. The United States is choosing to ignore it.
This policy is funded through Issue #3 (Housing) infrastructure, dedicated federal homelessness appropriations, and Medicaid savings from permanent supportive housing. It costs less than the status quo. It saves more lives.
On a single night in January 2023, HUD counted 653,104 people experiencing homelessness in the United States — the highest number ever recorded. The crisis is getting worse, not better, and America's dominant policy response is criminalization.
American homelessness as a mass phenomenon is not ancient. It was created in the 1980s through specific policy decisions and has been sustained by the refusal to reverse them.
1960s–1980s
Deinstitutionalization Without Replacement
Between 1955 and 1994, the number of Americans in state psychiatric hospitals dropped from 559,000 to 72,000. The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 was supposed to create community-based alternatives. It was never adequately funded. Hundreds of thousands of people with severe mental illness were discharged into communities with no housing, no services, and no plan. The federal government closed the institutions and did not build the replacement.
1980s
Reagan-Era HUD Cuts
The Reagan administration cut HUD's budget by 75% in real terms — from $32 billion in 1978 to $7.5 billion by 1988. Federal funding for new public housing construction was eliminated almost entirely. Section 8 voucher appropriations were slashed. Modern mass homelessness began during this period as the combination of deinstitutionalization, housing defunding, and the crack cocaine epidemic converged. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (1987) created a patchwork of emergency programs that managed homelessness rather than solved it.
2000s
The Foreclosure Crisis
The 2008 housing crash foreclosed on millions of homes, adding a new population to homelessness: previously middle-class families who lost everything. The federal government bailed out the banks that created the crisis but provided minimal direct assistance to the homeowners who lost their homes. Institutional investors then purchased hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes at distressed prices, converting them to rentals and driving up costs. Cross-ref: Issue #3 (Housing).
2020–2023
The Rent Explosion
Post-pandemic inflation drove rents up over 30% nationally. The eviction moratorium prevented a wave of homelessness during 2020–2021, but when it expired, many tenants were evicted with back rent they could not pay. Remote work shifted demand to previously affordable markets, pricing out existing residents. Homelessness reached record levels in 2023. Unsheltered homelessness surged 40%. Cross-ref: Issue #35 (Affordability).
2024
Grants Pass — The Supreme Court Says Punish
In Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that cities can fine and jail people for sleeping outdoors, even when there are no available shelter beds. The decision overturned the Ninth Circuit's Martin v. Boise framework, which had held that punishing people for sleeping outside when they have no alternative violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Grants Pass opened the door to sweeps, fines, and arrests as the primary policy tool — approaches that every rigorous study shows are more expensive and less effective than providing housing.
Finland is the only country in Europe where homelessness is declining. It did not achieve this through shelters, enforcement, or emergency services. It achieved it by giving people homes.
| Country | Model | Key Feature | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | Housing First nationwide | Converted shelters to apartments; wraparound services; no preconditions | 40% reduction since 2008; near-zero street homelessness |
| Japan | Housing policy + social welfare | Public housing; employment support; minimal street homelessness | ~3,000 total homeless in 125M people (down from 25K in 2003) |
| Vienna | Social housing as prevention | 62% in subsidized housing; homelessness prevented through supply | Street homelessness effectively eliminated |
| Canada (Medicine Hat) | Built for Zero | Functional zero chronic homelessness; by-name list tracking | First city in Canada to reach functional zero |
| Denmark | Housing First (adopted 2014) | Pilot cities; permanent housing + support services | 45% reduction in street homelessness in pilot cities |
| United States | Criminalization | 653,104 homeless; 40% unsheltered; Supreme Court greenlights arrests | Record high homelessness; $35K/person/year to not solve it |
Finland converted its shelters into apartments. Homelessness fell 40%. Every other European country that kept building shelters saw homelessness rise. The Y-Foundation, which leads Finland's Housing First implementation, found that permanent housing with voluntary support services costs less per person than the emergency response system it replaced. Japan reduced homelessness from 25,000 to roughly 3,000 in a nation of 125 million through persistent housing policy and social welfare — not through sweeps or criminalization. Vienna prevents homelessness entirely by housing 62% of its residents in subsidized social housing. The evidence is not ambiguous.
The Common Good Party's homelessness policy is built on eight pillars, each addressing a specific structural failure. The non-negotiable commitment: no American sleeps outside because there is nowhere to go.
Housing First as Federal Policy
Every federally funded homelessness program must provide permanent housing first, unconditionally. No sobriety requirements. No treatment prerequisites. No program compliance gates. Services are offered inside stable housing, never as a condition of entry. This is the model Finland has used since 2008 to reduce homelessness by 40% — the only country in Europe where homelessness is declining. Housing First does not ask people to earn housing. It recognizes that housing is the precondition for everything else to work: treatment, employment, family reunification, recovery. Cross-ref: Issue #3 (Housing).
End Criminalization of Homelessness
Federal legislation overriding Grants Pass v. Johnson. No federal funds flow to any jurisdiction that criminalizes sleeping, sitting, or lying in public spaces without providing adequate housing alternatives. Sweeps without relocation to permanent housing are prohibited. Arrest records from homelessness-related offenses create barriers to housing, employment, and benefits — criminalization makes homelessness harder to escape, not easier. The purpose of law enforcement is public safety, not punishing people for having nowhere to go. Cross-ref: Issue #12 (Criminal Justice).
Permanent Supportive Housing at Scale
100,000 new permanent supportive housing units per year through a dedicated federal funding stream. Permanent supportive housing combines affordable apartments with voluntary on-site services — case management, mental health treatment, substance use services, and employment support. Not shelters. Not transitional housing. Permanent homes. At $12,800 per person per year versus $35,578 in emergency costs, PSH pays for itself. A Denver study found Housing First reduced emergency service costs by 73%. A Charlotte study found it cut hospitalizations by 78%. The 10-year target: 500,000 new PSH units, integrated with the National Housing Corporation pipeline (Issue #3). Cross-ref: Issue #3 (Housing), Issue #39 (Mental Health).
Veteran Homelessness: Functional Zero
HUD-VASH vouchers become an entitlement — every eligible veteran receives one within 30 days. No waitlist, no lottery. Expand SSVF (Supportive Services for Veteran Families) to prevent homelessness before it starts. 35,574 veterans were homeless on any given night in 2023. The HUD-VASH program has already proven it works — veteran homelessness fell 55% between 2010 and 2023. Houston housed over 25,000 veterans using this model. Medicine Hat, Canada achieved functional zero citywide. The target: functional zero veteran homelessness within 5 years nationwide. Cross-ref: Issue #27 (Veterans Affairs).
Youth and Family Rapid Rehousing
Dedicated stream for unaccompanied youth and families with children. 90-day rehousing guarantee for all families experiencing homelessness. Education stability provisions — children do not change schools during the rehousing process. Host family programs modeled on Finland's youth housing model for unaccompanied youth, especially LGBTQ+ youth rejected by families. One in 30 American children experiences homelessness each year — 2.5 million kids. Families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. That growth ends here.
Mental Health and Substance Use Integration
Co-locate behavioral health services in permanent supportive housing. Expand Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) as the service delivery backbone. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) available on demand, not on waitlists. Mental illness and addiction are contributing factors for a significant minority of people experiencing homelessness — but they are not the primary cause (housing cost is). For those who do need behavioral health treatment, services work dramatically better when the person has a stable address. You cannot attend outpatient appointments when you do not know where you will sleep tonight. Cross-ref: Issue #19 (Drug Policy), Issue #39 (Mental Health).
Encampment Response That Works
Replace sweeps with engagement teams: outreach workers, not police. 72-hour notice minimum with genuine housing offers — not shelter beds, not bus tickets, but permanent housing placement. Storage for belongings. No destruction of property. Encampments clear when housing is available — not when an election is coming. Sweeps do not reduce homelessness. They displace it. They destroy survival belongings — medications, identification documents, family photographs — making the path to housing harder, not easier.
Upstream Prevention
Fund emergency rental assistance and eviction diversion programs. Establish discharge planning requirements for hospitals, jails, and foster care systems — no one is discharged into homelessness. Legal aid for tenants facing eviction. The cheapest intervention is preventing homelessness before it starts. Every dollar spent on eviction prevention saves $7 in emergency response costs. Connect to the broader housing supply through the National Housing Corporation's 500,000 units/year (Issue #3), HCBS expansion for elderly homeless (Issue #40), and tenant protections that prevent homelessness before it starts. Cross-ref: Issue #3 (Housing), Issue #35 (Affordability), Issue #40 (Elder Care).
The homelessness program costs less than the current system of not solving the problem. Emergency services, jails, and shelters already cost taxpayers $35,578 per homeless person per year. Permanent supportive housing costs $12,800. The fiscal case is settled.
| Source | 10-Year Estimate |
|---|---|
| National Housing Corporation integration (Issue #3) | Included in NHC capitalization |
| Dedicated federal homelessness appropriations | $150 – $250 billion |
| Medicaid/emergency services savings (PSH offset) | $80 – $150 billion |
| HUD-VASH entitlement expansion (VA budget) | $20 – $30 billion |
| Eviction prevention / legal aid programs | $15 – $25 billion |
| Cost Component | 10-Year Estimate |
|---|---|
| Permanent supportive housing (500K units) | $100 – $150 billion |
| Housing First program operations | $50 – $80 billion |
| HUD-VASH veteran voucher entitlement | $20 – $30 billion |
| Youth and family rapid rehousing | $25 – $40 billion |
| Behavioral health integration (CCBHCs + MAT) | $30 – $50 billion |
| Upstream prevention (rental assistance + legal aid) | $15 – $25 billion |
| Engagement teams and outreach infrastructure | $10 – $15 billion |
| TOTAL | $250B – $390 billion |
This program costs less than the status quo. The United States currently spends an estimated $35,578 per homeless person per year through emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitalizations, jail bookings, and shelter operations — none of which solve the problem. Multiplied across 653,000 people, that is over $23 billion per year in emergency response costs alone. Permanent supportive housing at $12,800 per person per year costs 64% less and actually ends homelessness for the individuals it serves. A Denver study found Housing First reduced emergency service costs by 73%. This is not a spending increase. It is a reallocation from failure to success.
Implementation is phased to deliver results immediately while building permanent infrastructure. No one sleeps outside while waiting for a system to come online.
The strongest objections to Housing First and the end of criminalization deserve honest engagement. Each is addressed below with evidence.
"Housing First enables addiction and bad behavior."
Finland has reduced homelessness by 40% using Housing First — the only country in Europe where homelessness is declining. The evidence across dozens of studies in multiple countries is unambiguous: housing stability is the precondition for treatment to work, not the reward for completing it. Requiring sobriety before housing means requiring the hardest thing a person will ever do while they are sleeping outside. It does not work. Housing First does not mean "housing only" — it means housing first, then services. Treatment uptake actually increases when people have stable housing, because they can keep appointments and store medications safely.
"People choose to be homeless."
The overwhelming evidence is that homelessness is driven by housing cost, not personal choice. HUD's own data shows that cities with the highest rents have the highest rates of homelessness — regardless of their mental health or addiction rates. When housing is offered under Housing First programs, acceptance rates exceed 85%. The "choice" framing is a rationalization that allows policymakers to avoid the harder work of funding solutions. Some individuals do resist traditional shelter systems — because shelters are often dangerous, rule-heavy, and not designed around the needs of the people they serve. The answer is better housing, not punishment.
"We should enforce laws. You can't just let people camp anywhere."
The CGP does not propose that encampments are acceptable as a permanent condition. The policy is that encampments clear when housing is available — not when an election is coming. Engagement teams with genuine housing offers clear encampments more effectively than sweeps, which simply displace people to the next block. Houston cleared encampments by housing the people in them — and kept them housed. Sweeps without housing offers cost more, clear nothing permanently, and destroy the survival belongings (medications, IDs, personal documents) that people need to access services.
"This costs too much."
The current system costs $35,578 per homeless person per year in emergency services, and it does not solve the problem. Permanent supportive housing costs $12,800 per person per year, and it does. Over 10 years, the program costs $250–$390 billion — offset by $80–$150 billion in Medicaid and emergency services savings. The United States spent $1.9 trillion on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It spent $2.2 trillion on the Afghanistan War. The question is not whether we can afford to end homelessness. The question is what we choose to spend on.
"Mental health is the real problem, not housing."
Mental illness is a contributing factor for roughly one-third of people experiencing chronic homelessness — but it is not the primary driver of homelessness overall. Housing cost is. The cities with the highest homelessness rates are not the cities with the highest mental illness rates — they are the cities with the highest rents. For those who do need mental health treatment, services work dramatically better when the person has a stable address. Outpatient therapy requires showing up to appointments. Medication management requires a safe place to store medication. Housing First provides the stability that makes treatment possible.
Homelessness policy intersects with multiple other platform positions. The following cross-references identify dependencies and the party's clear position on contested homelessness questions.
| #3 | Housing | National Housing Corporation supplies 500,000 units/year. Housing voucher entitlement eliminates waitlists. Community land trusts remove land from speculation. PSH units integrated into NHC pipeline. |
| #12 | Criminal Justice | Anti-criminalization legislation. Discharge planning from jails. Arrest record barriers to housing. Re-entry housing prevents recidivism. |
| #19 | Drug Policy | MAT on demand for people experiencing homelessness. Harm reduction integrated with PSH services. Substance use treated as a health issue, not a housing disqualification. |
| #27 | Veterans Affairs | HUD-VASH entitlement. SSVF prevention. Functional zero veteran homelessness target. Post-9/11 veteran-specific PTSD and TBI services. |
| #35 | Affordability | Housing cost is the primary driver of homelessness. Eviction prevention, tenant protections, and emergency rental assistance prevent homelessness upstream. |
| #39 | Mental Health | CCBHCs as service delivery backbone. Co-located behavioral health in PSH. Youth mental health services for unaccompanied homeless youth. |
| #40 | Elder Care | Elderly homelessness prevented through HCBS expansion and aging-in-place infrastructure. LTCI coverage prevents seniors from losing housing due to care costs. |
| Housing First? | Yes — unconditionally, as federal law |
| End criminalization of homelessness? | Yes — federal override of Grants Pass |
| Permanent supportive housing at scale? | Yes — 100,000 units/year; 500K over 10 years |
| Functional zero veteran homelessness? | Yes — HUD-VASH entitlement; 5-year target |
| Encampment sweeps? | No — engagement teams with housing offers |
| Shelters as the primary response? | No — permanent housing, not temporary beds |
| Treatment before housing? | No — housing first, then services |
| Who pays? | Federal appropriations + Medicaid savings + NHC integration (Issue #3) |
"You cannot therapy someone into a home that does not exist. Housing is the treatment. Everything else is triage. Finland proved it. Japan proved it. Medicine Hat proved it. The evidence is not ambiguous. The United States is choosing to ignore it. That choice ends now."— The Common Good Party
Sources & Citations