Faith leaders will join lawmakers and housing advocates for a 12-hour vigil on Tuesday at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis to protest recent cuts from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The “Losing Sleep, Losing Homes” vigil is urging HUD officials to reconsider their decision. The event starts at noon with speakers and a candle light ceremony. The vigil goes from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
This comes after HUD announced last week it would alter access to housing funds, capping spending for housing attached to voluntary support services. The cap would reduce national funding from $2.3 billion to $1.2 billion.
The changes would affect Continuum of Care grants, programs aimed at ending homelessness through non-profits and state and local government.
The cuts could reduce supportive housing funds by half and force program closures, according to housing advocates.
HUD officials said the Continuum of Care program — which aims to prioritize housing placements over sobriety — is ineffective in ending homelessness.
“Roughly 90% of the last four years CoC awards funneled funding to support the failed ‘Housing First’ ideology, which encourages dependence on endless government handouts while neglecting to address the root causes of homelessness,” a HUD spokesperson said, in a written statement.
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Chris LaTondresse, the president and chief executive officer at Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, said the vigil was inspired in part by Betty Allen, a woman who is using supportive housing and is now worried she might lose her housing assistance.
“The vigil is called losing sleep, losing home,” he said. “It’s us standing in solidarity saying we will lose sleep because too many of our friends, neighbors and fellow Americans and Minnesotans are losing homes.”
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