Instead of providing solutions to hunger, homelessness, and poverty, an onslaught of recent federal actions and policies are attacking the people suffering from these challenges. The massive cuts to food assistance (SNAP), Medicaid, and homeless prevention and housing programs are harming thousands of Mainers, including older adults, people with disabilities, Veterans, families, homeless youth and adults, survivors of human trafficking, and children. These attacks on vulnerable people will lead to impacts across our communities, including more people living outside on the streets or in doorways. 

In just the last few months: 

• Congress passed the Harmful Budget Megabill that slashed lifesaving programs like SNAP and Medicaid, which hundreds of thousands of Mainers rely on. The immediate effects of these cuts are that many people will need to choose which basic items to pay for: food, medications, healthcare, or heating or cooling for their homes. As more of our neighbors struggle to meet these needs, inevitably, these cuts will lead to more homelessness, which is already at a crisis level in our state.   
   

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services effectively cut a vital resource to prevent and rapidly respond to youth homelessness, abuse, and trafficking. Youth Outreach workers do what no other program does: they meet youth where they are — on the streets — and build trust to connect them to safety and services before abuse or trafficking occurs. Eliminating funding for this program takes away the safety and stability that all young people deserve. Without funding for these preventative efforts for youth homelessness, adult homelessness across the country will only continue to grow in the coming years.  
   

• The White House issued a directive to forcibly remove people experiencing homelessness in D.C., which appears to be a policy that will spread to other states. 
   

• The White House issued an executive order (EO) encouraging states to arrest or involuntarily institutionalize people who are unhoused. These efforts to criminalize homelessness cut or redirect vital funding for mental health or substance use treatments, new emergency shelters, housing efforts, and social services nonprofits trained to connect people with assistance and support. 
   

• The Department of Justice allowed funding for critical anti-trafficking services in Maine and across the country to lapse, leaving Preble Street and other agencies with little resources to support adult survivors of sex trafficking. 
   

• The Trump administration is expected to cut more than half of the 2026 funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homelessness program designated for permanent supportive housing projects. Not only will this make it harder for people to move out of homelessness – something that is already increasingly difficult – it will potentially force people who are housed to lose their housing.