Comments on U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Notice Justifying Incentives for Activities to Reduce Homelessness

I am Jessica Kubicki, President and CEO of The Housing Collective, a non-profit based in Bridgeport, CT. Since 2014, our organization has served as the backbone for the Fairfield County Continuum of Care (CoC), also known as Opening Doors Fairfield County, and, since 2020, the Northwest Connecticut Coordinated Access Network. Prior to serving as CEO, I served as Chief Initiative Officer overseeing our homelessness efforts. For more than a decade, I helped build the modern homeless response system in Connecticut, in partnership with federal, state, and local partners.

Since 2014, The Housing Collective has partnered closely with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cut rates of homelessness nearly in half through an approach which prioritizes permanent supportive housing and makes the most efficient use of federal funding. During the pandemic, growing housing costs drove growing homelessness. Yet funding for supportive housing did not increase to match the increased inflow into the system. (Meanwhile, housing starts in CT have also failed to meet need, leaving a gap of up to 380,000 homes.) Today, homelessness continues to rise because of too little investment in supportive housing and affordable housing more broadly, not because of too much investment. 

Connecticut is a Homelessness Success Story

From 2014 to 2021, according to the annual Point-In-Time Count, we reduced homelessness in our catchment area by 49% from 1,083 people to 549 people. Since 2021, rates of homelessness have increased in our catchment area (as well as across Connecticut and the United States). Connecticut became one of the first states to effectively end veteran homelessness in 2016, and we nearly ended chronic homelessness in Fairfield County, bringing the number of chronically homeless individuals down to single digits. We achieved these results by heavily investing in permanent supportive housing in partnership with HUD. 

Since 2021, the pandemic disrupted the real estate market, rents and home prices soared, and homelessness has increased every year since. By 2025, unsheltered homelessness increased by 45% in Connecticut in one year alone. Among older adults, homelessness increased by 33%. Did 45% of residents and 33% of older adults suddenly start making bad choices last year, and that’s why they became homeless? This is doubtful. 

Connecticut data shows the main driver of homelessness is housing affordability—when expenses exceed income, people lose housing, double up, and face eviction or foreclosure. Homelessness increased in our CoC, as it has increased throughout Connecticut and across the United States. Despite staggering increases to rent and housing-related costs during the pandemic, funding did not increase to match the inflow. As a result, homelessness continues to rise because of too little investment in supportive housing and affordable housing more broadly, not because of too much investment. 

Housing-Based Approaches Save Taxpayer Money

Before, during, and after the pandemic, our investments in permanent supportive housing have continued to make the highest and most efficient use of federal funds. Studies have shown that in practice, and not just in theory, providing people experiencing chronic homelessness with permanent supportive housing saves taxpayers money.

• A recent study followed the progress of the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) in Seattle, WA. All the residents at this Housing First-styled residence had severe alcohol problems and varying medical and mental health conditions. When taking into account all costs – including housing costs – the participants in the 1811 Eastlake program cost $2,449 less per person per month than those who were in conventional city shelters, as described in the article from the Journal of American Medical Association.
• A cost study of rural homelessness from Portland, ME found significant cost reductions when providing permanent supportive housing as opposed to serving the people while they remain homeless. The study specifically noted a 57 percent reduction in the cost of mental health services over a six-month period, partly due to a 79 percent drop in the cost of psychiatric hospitalization.
• A study from Los Angeles, CA – home to ten percent of the entire homeless population – found that placing four chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing saved the city more than $80,000 per year.

These examples demonstrate that a housing-based approach to homelessness is not only more cost-effective than a shelter-based approach, but more effective in the long term.

Complement Supportive Housing, Do Not Replace It

The tools HUD wants to prioritize through additional incentives–transitional housing, supportive services, sober housing and partnerships with law enforcement–all have a critical role to play. These tools work well as complements to permanent supportive housing, however, not replacements for it. 

HUD’s proposed approach would impact at least 2,080 Connecticut residents–including many older adults and disabled people. These individuals could lose their housing is they lose HUD subsidy, and tools like sober housing and transitional housing–while helpful for many residents–would not help these individuals or prevent them from becoming homeless again. Further, as the above cited research demonstrates, a return to homelessness will not impact the individual alone. Taxpayers will bear far greater costs supporting these individuals through emergency rooms, police departments, and prisons than they currently do through housing. 

In addition, The Housing Collective has been demonstrating that housing-based approaches can coexist with strong, meaningful collaboration with law enforcement. Through a partnership with Safe Night LLC, we are convening police, first responders, homeless service providers and city agencies across two cities in Connecticut, Stamford and Waterbury, to build the relationships and coordination needed to connect people experiencing homelessness with housing, services, and other support. We can have a humane approach to homelessness and safe streets, we do not need to choose one or the other.