Statement by UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative Director Dr. Margot Kushel on Proposed Federal Funding Cuts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO (October 8, 2025) – Following is a statement by Dr. Margot Kushel, Director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) at the University of California, San Francisco, on the potential impact of proposed federal funding cuts to critical programs that address housing insecurity, hunger, and poverty. 

“As healthcare providers, we witness every day what happens when people are forced to make impossible choices between rent, food, and medicine. We meet workers who go to their jobs and still sleep in cars or tents. We meet elders who face eviction after a lifetime of work because they were too old to continue the physically demanding low-wage work they had always done, or because their spouse died. We meet children who go to school exhausted because they have no bed to sleep in. We meet people with disabilities who are forced to live outside, terrified their wheelchairs will be taken in a sweep.

“These are not isolated stories. They are the direct consequences of policy decisions. The proposed cuts to Emergency Housing Vouchers, time limits on housing subsidies, work requirements for housing, food, and healthcare, and other proposed cuts will deepen poverty and drive more people into homelessness and hunger. There has never been enough federal funding to end homelessness and hunger in the United States. These cuts will lead to more homelessness, hunger, poor health, and despair.

"The evidence is clear: when we disinvest in basic supports, people suffer. The proposed funding cuts will devastate our communities and increase suffering. Our response will determine whether they can thrive—or whether more people will be pushed into crisis.”

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About UCSF BHHI
The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) provides accurate, timely, policy-oriented research on homelessness for local, state, and national audiences. Funded by a generous gift from Marc and Lynne Benioff and based at the UCSF Division of Health and Society, UCSF BHHI is a trusted source for evidence-based practice, policy, and scalable solutions—turning evidence into action to prevent and end homelessness.
 

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