Overview

• Housing First, the bipartisan federal policy providing permanent housing for homeless people, is being attacked by conservatives seeking funding for groups emphasizing sobriety and employment.
• Housing First gives homeless people places to live and offers them services for issues like mental illness or substance abuse but does not require accepting them.
• Critics argue Housing First ignores underlying problems and want funding shifted to groups mandating sobriety or jobs.
• The dispute over Housing First is both an earnest policy debate and rivalry for federal money but has become an ideological flashpoint.
• Supporters say Housing First has succeeded in reducing homelessness and ending it would be disastrous.