The future of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County’s homeless are up in the air following a month of political uncertainties and policy shifts in Washington, D.C.
Cleveland, through its Home For Every Neighbor program, has housed 188 people since the initiative kicked off in 2024, rapidly housing those on the street by clearing hurdles to traditional housing. Thirty have “graduated” from the program, health director David Margolius told Scene this week, including five who’ve secured permanent housing vouchers—free rent—with Cuyahoga County’s Emerald Development and Economic Network.
EDEN, meanwhile, currently serves 2,700 households,.
But Trump’s hardheaded approach to the less fortunate, shown in a July executive order that vilifies housing-first, has now officially seeped into the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. Since November, the winds have shifted from a Biden-era get-‘em-housed mentality to one pinning “personal accountability” on America’s homeless, spelling HUD’s desire to greatly curtail federal dollars spent on thousands of nonprofits across the country serving the unhoused population.
While the overall budget for HUD’s contributions won’t change much, and in fact will grow slightly, cuts are coming to any programs that are focused on permanent housing. Sixty percent in fact. Which means EDEN could go from serving those 2,700 households to just over 550.
“Our philosophy for addressing the homelessness crisis will now define success not by dollars spent or housing units filled,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said, “but by how many people achieve long-term self-sufficiency and recovery.”
Turner’s perspective on how to solve such a crisis now seems at odds with those leading Cleveland’s and the county’s efforts to keep people off the street and in stable housing. Local advocates are doubtful as to whether programs like HFEN or EDEN will be as effective without federal assistance.
Not to mention what the redirected federal assistance and Trump’s own words mistakenly say about the issue.
“I think it’s kind of like the classic ‘It’s the individual’s fault that they’re homeless,’” Chris Knestrick, the director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, told Scene.
A person can be denied housing for a myriad of reasons: they are a survivor of domestic violence; they have a poor credit score; they have a history of evictions; they have mental health issues; they have a criminal record; they have a disability; their landlord isn’t okay with their lifestyle.
All common complaints amongst HFEN applicants Knestrick says are ignored by HUD’s new policy.
“It doesn’t recognize any of those,” he said. “It just says that people have done something wrong, that’s why they’re experiencing homelessness.”
Such a mentality shift means that HFEN’s chiefs, like Margolius, are figuring out how they can clarify to HUD that their program is transitional housing after all: it’s meant to better Clevelanders’ lives for the year it supplies them with free rent.
And with finding housing afterward, a prospect that is looking worse heading into 2026.
Along with the potential HUD cut, the EDEN program is set to lose about a fifth of its funding from the county after its biennial budget bill was passed earlier this month.
That could spell fewer leases with landlords and selling off county properties, EDEN director Elaine Gimmel told Ideastream.
“It is not an easy time for us,” Gimmel said. “I’ve been here 30 years and I’ve never seen an environment like this.” (Gimmel didn’t respond to a request for additional comment.)
As for when HUD will certify any cuts, it’s unclear.
But Cleveland has received donations from Rocket Mortgage’s Community Fund and from the Old Stone Church downtown to help offset any drop in HUD funding, Margolius told Scene. He hopes to receive more “foundational grants” to match the $2 million City Council usually budgets annually in rent payments for those 200 or so people.
In other words, Cleveland will likely find a way to sustain Home for Every Neighbor despite whatever happens in Washington.
“That’s been the beauty of our program,” Margolius said. “While you’re still on that wait list, you know, we will make sure that you’re not living outside.”
“We’re making sure that you’re in an apartment that we’re going to pay for,” he added. “And we’ll have case management, help make your appointments, help you get a state ID. Help you get through all the bureaucratic hurdles that are so hard.”
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