Mari Castaldi

If families don't get their #SNAP benefits, this doesn't just mean they won't be able to put food on their table - but their table might be at risk altogether if they then can't afford to make their rent. The Trump admin needs to release SNAP funds immediately.

State and local policymakers should instead look to real solutions: endhomelessness.org/wp-content/u...

Attacking people for being unable to afford the rent or for experiencing a mental health condition is the wrong approach. Fines, tickets, detention centers do a lot of harm to people, and do not solve their housing crisis.

We also see a lot of states rejecting the failed policy of ticketing and arresting unhoused people. Analysis of state-level bills criminalizing homelessness this past year by @homeless-law.bsky.social found that nearly 80% were voted down or tabled. housingnothandcuffs.org/wp-content/u...

States Should Fund Rental Assistance as a Frontline Strategy to Address the Housing Affordability Crisis | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Key Findings35 states and D.C. use state dollars to fund rental assistance programs5 states created new rental assistance programs in their 2023-2024 legislative sessionsMost state rental assistance.....

We do see that as the fed gov’t moves to strip people of housing and healthcare, some states are stepping up to help people with the lowest incomes afford the rent, which we know works to solve homelessness: www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

Housing and healthcare are what we all need to be safe. Here’s what elected officials should be doing that could actually make our communities safer and address the urgent needs of unhoused people:

Executive Order Calls on Federal Agencies to Abandon Effective Homelessness Solutions and Promote Fear and Punishment | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities July 24, 2025: In a nation as wealthy as ours, we can solve big problems like homelessness and ensure no one is forced to sleep outside, in their car, or in a shelter. And we can do it while respectin...

Trump’s overreach in DC builds on his recent Executive Order which would call for state and local governments to engage in similar tactics of punishing and banishing our neighbors because they can’t afford housing: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

State and Local Policymakers Should Advance Policies Prioritizing Stability and Dignity to Solve Homelessness | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Our communities are safer when each person has a stable place to call home. Policies that improve access to housing assistance together with robust, voluntary services have been shown to both prevent....

This week, Trump ordered the fed takeover of local police & mobilized the nat'l guard and ICE in DC, w/ threats of action toward many including unhoused ppl. This is an abuse of power and an escalation of cruel anti-homeless policies across the country: www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

The average rent for a one-bedroom in DC is over $2,300. That is why folks live outside. But Trump and the billionares are so out of touch that they don't see what most ppl do: housing costs too much, and when rents go up, so does homelessness.

States & localities are being responsive to people’s struggle to afford rent. These papers show the progress they are making and the example they are setting for the federal gov’t.

Solutions to homelessness & housing affordability exist and need larger scale investment.

States Should Fund Rental Assistance as a Frontline Strategy to Address the Housing Affordability Crisis | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Key Findings35 states and D.C. use state dollars to fund rental assistance programs5 states created new rental assistance programs in their 2023-2024 legislative sessionsMost state rental assistance.....

We also provide insights for policymakers about how to design state rental assistance programs for maximal impact and to get us closer to a world where everyone can access an affordable home. www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

State and Local Policymakers Should Invest in Rental Assistance to Reduce Homelessness and Increase Economic Security | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Key FindingsRental assistance increases housing stability and reduces homelessnessState policymakers should fund rental assistance programs alongside increasing housing supply and expanding tenant...

But states can fund rental assistance, too. We find that while state programs are smaller and more limited in scope, they play a key role in making more housing deeply affordable for people with the lowest incomes that would otherwise be left behind by other policies: www.cbpp.org/research/hou...

Federal rental assistance programs like vouchers are incredibly impactful – for those who are actually able to access them. But because of severe federal underfunding, most people who need help affording housing can’t get it, and that could get worse with proposed cuts.

State and Local Policymakers Should Invest in State-Funded Rental Assistance to Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Everyone needs and should have a place they can call home. Yet housing is unaffordable for more people than ever in the United States, including most low-income renters. For people with the lowest...

Feeling down about the affordable housing crisis (among other things)? Here’s a bright spot – 2 new reports out today catalogue over 100 state-funded rental assistance programs across 35 states helping people afford housing: www.cbpp.org/blog/state-a...

🧵We all want to live in communities where no one is forced to sleep outside, in a car, or in shelters. The President’s budget would force MORE people into #homelessness.

Trump’s Budget Plan Continues Agenda of Hurting Those He Pledged to Help | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Trump Administration’s partial budget plan released today is just its latest repudiation of the Trump campaign’s promises to help people struggling at the margins of the economy — an economy that ...

We just released a statement from @sharonparrott.bsky.social on the partial details of Pres. Trump's 2026 budget plan released today, which breaks his campaign promises by proposing cuts that would most hurt people struggling at the margins of a weakening economy: www.cbpp.org/press/statem...

'Look, there’s nowhere else to go': Inside California’s crackdown on homeless camps Last year, California cities gained more power to ban homeless encampments. CalMatters dug into what that looks like in three cities.

"Here’s what we did see ... ppl becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, ppl losing essential items they need to get into housing (birth certificates) or to survive the elements (tents) and ppl still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations." calmatters.org/housing/home...

R proposals to shift the cost of core programs like SNAP and Medicaid to states would not only take away basic needs like food and medicine from millions of people but would also make it harder for states to fund other priorities like affordable housing and homelessness programs.

I ❤️policy nerds

What a cool resource! Will definitely be digging in here.

My beloved trans family and friends and community: I see you, I love you, I fight with you and for you.

Housing is a basic human need. Policymakers should embrace evidence-based solutions to #homelessness. Instead, HUD Sec. Scott Turner rebuked proven strategies & refused to condemn inhumane, ineffective policies punishing #unhoused people w/ nowhere else to go during confirmation process.

Federal cuts would devastate not only vital services but also state budgets. Many fed housing programs, like vouchers and CoC funds, mostly bypass state budgets & go straight to local agencies. But the fiscal impacts of more housing insecurity & homelessness will still be deeply felt by state govs.

Rising Homelessness Highlights Need to Invest in Proven Solutions, Reject Policies That Worsen Homelessness and Housing Instability | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Homelessness has risen sharply since 2023, new data show. The research is clear: rental assistance promotes housing stability and is key to solving homelessness. Reducing, and ultimately solving,...

The critical federal resources we have may be at risk under the new Administration – so state leaders can also step up by advocating with Congress to protect and expand federal rental assistance program funding: www.cbpp.org/blog/rising-...

Or in WA, where the proposed state budget hopes to build on state investments in operating funding to help make new affordable and supportive housing accessible to people with extremely low incomes and help more new housing projects pencil out. ofm.wa.gov/budget/state...

But a lot of state leaders are stepping up – like Governor Kotek in OR who proposed almost $300M in state funds to prevent homelessness and fund long-term rental assistance in the biennial budget: www.oregon.gov/gov/Media/Bu...

Shortchanging rental assistance is a policy choice: one that leaves 23 million low-income renters paying over half their income for housing. The fed gov spends more on homeownership subsidies like mortgage interest deductions, which mostly benefit high income households.

When state leaders try to make sense of rising homelessness, evictions ticking up, and more and more constituents complaining about housing costs, this gap is the reason why: people can’t afford housing, and the programs that help are massively underfunded.

Over ten million people benefit from federal rental assistance programs, which help fill the gap between what the cost of rent & what they can afford – but that’s only 1 in 4 of those needing assistance. This leaves a massive gap that at present, state and local govs are left to fill.

Rental costs continue to rise faster than incomes in nearly every state. This leaves more and more families – including most low-income households – paying more than they can afford to keep a roof over their heads.