Mesa transitional housing program declines new HUD funding
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House of Refuge consists of 80 two-bedroom homes. Photo: Courtesy of House of Refuge
Mesa's House of Refuge, one of the nation's few remaining transitional housing programs, is likely one of the only Arizona entities that currently qualify for assistance under HUD's new funding rules.
Yes, but: "No way in the world would I apply," president and CEO Kayla Kolar told Axios.
The big picture: Her organization has been where the majority of Arizona's housing providers now find themselves: locked out of federal funding overnight.
- HUD announced last week it will cap the amount of money regional homeless agencies can spend on permanent supportive housing, which is how Maricopa County currently spends the majority of its federal homeless housing dollars.
- Instead, the federal agency wants funding to go toward transitional housing: one- or two-year programs designed to get homeless people ready to return to independent living that require participants to attend drug treatment, work programs or mental health clinics.
Flashback: That's an about-face from 2016, when HUD, under the Obama administration, cut all funding for transitional housing in favor of Housing First policies, including housing vouchers.
- House of Refuge, which relied on HUD funding for about 75% of its budget, had to pivot to private donors. It took years to recover and "it's a miracle House of Refuge is still around," Kolar said.
Between the lines: Kolar told us she laughed when she read HUD's new rules, which called for exactly what the agency said it didn't want less than 10 years ago.
- She said House of Refuge won't seek funding because she doesn't want to go back to designing programs based on the whims of federal officials.
- "What's not to say they'll pull [funding] again?"
The intrigue: Kolar is passionate about transitional housing programs. She's seen how House of Refuge, which requires residents to hold jobs and participate in service programs, has changed the trajectory of young families.
- And still, she said, she knows the format doesn't work for all unhoused individuals. She said she's worried about how HUD's last-minute switch will impact vulnerable people in the Valley.
The bottom line: House of Refuge found a way to maintain its 80-family program without HUD's support, but there's not enough philanthropic dollars to backfill all of metro Phoenix's permanent supportive housing programs, which serve thousands of households.