Marin Voice: Cuts to permanent supportive housing could be disastrous

Permanent supportive housing is one of the few homelessness interventions that consistently works. It provides housing first, then allows people to rebuild their lives. In Marin County, that progress is now at risk.

Permanent supportive housing has enabled many people who once experienced years of homelessness to remain stably housed for the long term. Here in Marin, more than 700 people have been housed in permanent supportive housing since 2017, and 94% of them were able to retain housing. Some residents have maintained housing for many years. Others were only recently housed after prolonged homelessness. Both groups are now facing the same threat: losing housing not because these programs failed, but because funding priorities are shifting away from permanent supportive housing and toward short-term models.

The “Housing First” approach is based on a simple principle. People need stable housing before they can address employment, education, health, recovery or family stability. Permanent supportive housing reflects that principle. It does not require people to resolve every challenge before being housed. Housing itself becomes the foundation for progress.

I know this because I lived it.

After five years of homelessness in Marin, including two years on the streets and a pregnancy spent living out of a car, I entered into the family shelter in Marin County when a bed became available. Shortly after my daughter was born, I was accepted into permanent supportive housing. That stability allowed me to continue my recovery, maintain sobriety, return to school and work part time. I am now one semester away from earning my bachelor’s degree. Most importantly, my daughter has never experienced homelessness.

That outcome was not extraordinary. It was the result of stable housing.

Yet today, permanent supportive housing programs in Marin County are under threat. As funding shifts away from permanent supportive housing, people who are already stably housed are being left without realistic alternatives.

In theory, displaced residents have other options. In practice, there are none that are viable. Emergency shelters are time-limited and uncertain. Relocating out of the county disrupts employment, education, recovery networks and community ties. It is also impractical, as surrounding counties face similar funding cuts, housing shortages and program constraints.

Although policy shifts may allow for the development of new transitional housing programs, people currently housed in permanent supportive housing do not qualify for them because they are not currently homeless. Even if eligibility were not a barrier, transitional housing is temporary by design, typically limited to two years. Rebuilding a life after years of homelessness, addressing trauma, stabilizing mental health, sustaining recovery, completing education and securing employment that pays enough to survive in Marin County, takes far longer — particularly considering that Marin prioritizes those with the highest services needs, like seniors and people with multiple disabilities, for permanent supportive housing. A time-limited model therefore does not prevent a return to homelessness; it structurally produces it.

Permanent supportive housing provides the time that recovery and stability require. It allows people to focus on long-term progress rather than a countdown to the next housing crisis. Without it, many will be pushed into short-term solutions that end before true stability is possible, inevitably forcing them back into homelessness.

The consequences extend beyond those who lose housing. Permanent supportive housing reduces strain on emergency rooms, behavioral health systems, shelters, law enforcement and child welfare services. When people lose housing, those systems absorb the impact, and they are already stretched thin.

This is where local leadership matters.

A budget is a moral document. It reflects who we choose to prioritize. Marin County has discretion within its budget, and those choices should be used to protect permanent supportive housing programs from abrupt termination.

While federal housing policy continues to shift toward short-term models, Marin County has the ability and responsibility to step in and treat permanent supportive housing as a standing local priority. Preserving permanent supportive housing is not about expanding government programs. It is about maintaining the stability that already works. Keeping people housed is both fiscally responsible and morally necessary, and when we protect permanent supportive housing, we protect the stability of our entire community.

Sara McEvoy, of San Rafael, is a third-generation Marin County resident and community advocate who serves on the Marin County Lived Experience Advisory Committee.