'Deeply illogical': this man's life work could end homelessness - and Trump is doing all he can to stop it [View all]

Homelessness
‘Deeply illogical’: this man’s life work could end homelessness – and Trump is doing all he can to stop it
After four decades of research and over a decade of federal support, Housing First’s Sam Tsemberis is ‘back to being an outlaw’ in the US
Timothy Pratt
Thu 12 Feb 2026 08.00 EST

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In the 1990s, Tsemberis began developing a simple idea: people living on the street want, and should have, safe housing with no strings attached. When you add accessible mental health and addiction services and caring, consistent case management, most stay housed. His research would bear out the idea, showing that Housing First results in at least 85% of people staying housed 12 or 24 months later, depending on the study. These are higher rates than any other approach that’s been studied.

The idea was and still is not easy to implement because it depends on all the components being present: the apartments, the services and the committed case workers. It also requires believing that unhoused people “deserve” a place to live – a belief abhorrent to the Trump administration and most Maga conservatives.

On the phone from his apartment in Santa Monica in October, Tsemberis told me he had had an “eye-opening experience” earlier that week. He was preparing the kind of talk he’s given hundreds of times, this time on Zoom, about the relationship between homelessness and health, for several dozen doctors and lawyers hosted by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership. The center asked Tsemberis to send in his slides before the event. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) – a federal agency funding the event – wanted to see them, an event organizer told him.

When Tsemberis got them back, there were red lines throughout. Among other things, a federal official had deleted sections referencing the idea that racially discriminatory government policy is one cause of homelessness, as well as the terms “harm reduction” and “trauma-informed”, and mentions of Tsemberis being the founder of Housing First. What’s more, the term “Housing First” was deleted throughout.

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The incident was indicative of the Trump administration’s attempts to do away with Tsemberis’s life work in the US. Instead, the federal government is pushing a longstanding approach sometimes called “Treatment First”, because it is based on the notion that homeless people have to resolve addictions, mental illness and other issues before obtaining housing.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/feb/12/sam-tsemberis-homelessness