HUD posted guidance that the vacated FY2026 Continuum of Care NOFO and its August 26 application deadline "are no longer in force," and Judge David O. Carter indicated interest in a trial as early as February 2027 in LAHSA's suit over $240 million in suspended funds. ONDCP, HHS, and HUD released a "Treatment First" toolkit that rejects harm reduction and the housing-first model. Portland City Council voted 8-4 to approve a Moda Center term sheet committing $120 million up front, and Portland Solutions director Skyler Brocker-Knapp said she will step down next week. Multnomah County's new homeless services director said $15 million to $20 million in county HUD funding could be at risk. The Los Angeles Times reported that inconsistent counting of one Skid Row shelter's beds accounted for nearly half of the city's reported homeless-count increase; the paper's calculation put the increase at just under 1.9% rather than the reported 3.4%.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp, who has led Portland's effort to build its own homeless shelter and outreach system for the past four and a half years — first under Mayor Ted Wheeler, then as director of Portland Solutions under Mayor Keith Wilson — will step down from her city job next week to become chief strategy officer at United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. Her deputy director, Hank Smith, will take over on an interim basis at the end of the month.
The city confirmed in July that its city-run adult overnight shelter system will shrink to 580 beds this winter, down from 876.
Street Roots · 2026-08-12 · on Homeless Services Department director Nathaniel VerGow's funding outlook
In an hour-long Street Roots interview, new Homeless Services Department director Nathaniel VerGow said $15 million to $20 million in county HUD funding could be at risk, with roughly 40% of HUD-funded programs forced into national competition and Tier 1 renewals capped at 60% versus roughly 90% or higher in prior years. He said Metro's supportive housing services tax now supplies 60% of HSD's budget and has housed more than 10,000 people, and that the county is converting rapid-rehousing programs to transitional housing in response to HUD restrictions.
VerGow told OPB the prior week that the agency must do as much if not more with less against a $67 million budget gap.
Portland City Council voted 8-4 to approve a non-binding term sheet opening lease negotiations with the Trail Blazers over a nearly $600 million Moda Center renovation, a week after the Multnomah County board approved its $101 million package. The city's term sheet commits $120 million up front and up to $275 million in maintenance over a 20-year lease, alongside $365 million in state bonds; opponents at the hearings cited concurrent cuts to rent assistance and shelter programs.
Negotiations are expected to wrap by early December 2026, when the final lease agreement returns for a binding council vote.
Portland.gov Impact Reduction Program · 2026-08-11 · on the week's campsite-report, assessment, and removal figures
The city's Impact Reduction Program reported receiving 1,470 new campsite reports in the week of August 3-9, including 403 reports of people living in vehicles, and said it assessed approximately 652 reported campsites and removed 141 that it said posed a risk to health and safety. Of people contacted, 11 expressed interest in a shelter referral, 3 accepted, and 3 used a shelter bed for at least one night.
The prior week's report (July 27-August 2) recorded 1,701 new campsite reports and approximately 538 campsites assessed.
City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is expected to announce this week that Nithya Raman, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee since 2023 and a challenger to Mayor Karen Bass in November, will lose the post as the committee is split in two, with Ysabel Jurado expected to lead a homelessness panel and Imelda Padilla a housing panel. The Post reported that a $62.6 million housing initiative Raman championed had housed three households by June 25 against a goal of roughly 2,000; Raman said in a video that Bass "may be trying to punish me for challenging her."
The 2026 count estimated 45,194 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles, up 3.4% from the prior year.
The Times reported that Skid Row shelter beds at the Union Rescue Mission — counted in some years and omitted in others because the shelter does not use LAHSA's data system — accounted for most of a reported 614-person rise in Skid Row's sheltered population, inflating the city's 2026 count increase. The paper's calculation put the citywide increase at just under 1.9% rather than the reported 3.4%. Mayor Bass said LAHSA did not tell her office about the discrepancies before release; LAHSA said singling out one factor "can be inaccurate and misleading."
LAHSA reported the city's 2026 count as 45,194 people, a 3.4% increase, on July 23.
San Francisco ordered Hospitality House's Sixth Street Self-Help Center to shut down by December 31, with officials citing street conditions on Sixth Street; the nonprofit also took a $250,000 cut over two fiscal years while retaining about $7.4 million in city funding. The closure coincides with the May 2026 opening of the city's RESET sobering center three blocks away, which the sheriff's dashboard says had admitted 1,231 people as of August 10, with 64% declining referrals to services.
The SOMA West Neighborhood Association filed a state civil-rights complaint this spring alleging the city concentrates homeless services in SoMa and the Tenderloin.
Mission Local · 2026-08-11 · on a city-property inventory for affordable housing and food-access siting
District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood requested a centralized database of all city-owned property to identify sites for grocery stores, food pantries, and affordable housing, citing New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's municipal-land inventory as a model. A City Administrator's Office spokesperson said the information currently sits in multiple places with no single database, and the annual surplus-property reports exclude holdings of departments such as SFUSD and SFMTA.
Mahmood's earlier push on shelter data produced a biannual citywide shelter list.
The Tennessean reported that Tennessee's felony anti-camping law is drawing renewed scrutiny after Metro Nashville Police charged an unhoused man and woman with felonies for camping in an East Nashville park in June — the department's first charges under the statute — and the cases were dismissed days later.
Tennessee's 2022 law made camping on local public property a felony, the only state law of its kind in the country.
Philadelphia's Office of Homeless Services runs weekly encampment cleanups citywide, posting notices and cleanup dates in advance and sending outreach workers with police to offer shelter before trash crews clear sites, a process Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration ties to her goal of "functional zero" street homelessness. At one I-95 on-ramp site, an outreach worker found beds for all five remaining residents; the article noted couples are hard to place because most shelters separate men and women.
KYW reported in July that February's point-in-time count found 711 people living unsheltered in Philadelphia, down from more than 1,100 counted in 2025.
The Rhode Island ruling vacating HUD's FY2026 CoC NOFO eliminated the August 26 application deadline at issue in the LAHSA case, and Judge David O. Carter said he was interested in setting a trial date as early as February 2027. The court is weighing temporary relief over $240 million in federal funding that providers across LA County rely on to serve 11,000 people, according to local homelessness officials.
HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity in June 2026, and Carter granted a stay on July 2 maintaining funding during the litigation.
ONDCP, HHS, and HUD released a "Treatment First" toolkit on August 12, presented as implementing the July 2025 executive order "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets." STAT reported the toolkit promotes faith-based interventions and abstinence-based recovery while rejecting harm-reduction principles and the housing-first model. The joint release said 75% of homeless Americans are addicted to drugs and 78% suffer from mental illness; HUD Secretary Scott Turner said "Housing is essential, but housing alone is not enough."
The joint ONDCP/HHS/HUD release is dated August 12, 2026.
NH&RA · 2026-08-12 · on HUD's posted guidance canceling the August 26 CoC application deadline
HUD posted guidance on its CoC Program Competition page stating the 2026 NOFO and its August 26, 2026 application deadline "are no longer in force" and that it is unable to accept applications at this time. HUD said further guidance and updates will come via the SNAPS Competition Listserv and HUD.gov; NH&RA noted the same judge previously ruled against HUD's FY2025 NOFO changes, a ruling HUD unsuccessfully appealed.
The FY2026 NOFO was vacated by a federal judge in Rhode Island on August 7.
Zillow's July Market Report put the typical U.S. rent at $1,962, up 2.3% from a year earlier, with 39.8% of rental listings offering a concession, up from 36% a year earlier. Home sales rose 7% year over year — what the report called "the strongest annual gain of the year" — while newly pending listings grew 0.3% from a year ago and fell 7.7% from June. For-sale inventory stood 1.5% above year-ago levels, a 32-month streak of supply gains.
Zillow's August Market Report is scheduled for release September 8.
The Bipartisan Policy Center published an analysis of the comment record on HUD's proposed rule letting public housing agencies and assisted-housing owners opt into work requirements and time limits, reporting that the public submitted nearly 2,000 comments. The brief said the rule could affect a share of the more than 4.3 million households served by HUD's Housing Choice Voucher, public housing, and PBRA programs, and that an estimated 20 Moving to Work agencies have already established some form of work requirement.
The proposed rule published March 2, 2026, closed comments May 1, and HUD has said it plans a final rule this fall.
Bipartisan Policy Center · 2026-08-13 · on analysis of HUD's 2025 Point-in-Time count data
The Bipartisan Policy Center published an analysis of HUD's 2025 Point-in-Time count, which found 745,652 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2025, roughly 3% below the record 771,480 counted in 2024. The analysis noted chronic homelessness rose to a record 155,750 people, up 2% from 2024, while veteran homelessness reached its lowest level on record and family homelessness fell 11%.
HUD released the 2025 AHAR Part 1 PIT estimates on May 29, 2026.
2026-08-26 — Former FY2026 CoC application deadline — no longer in force per HUD's posted guidance; also the date by which Judge Carter earlier said he would endeavor to rule in the LAHSA case (source)
2026-08-31 — House returns; vote expected on the Senate-passed CR funding government through December 11 (source)
2026-09-08 — Zillow August Market Report scheduled release (source)
2026-10-09 — Comments due on HUD's proposed rescission of the Fair Housing Act disparate-impact standard (source)
2026-12-31 — Deadline for Hospitality House's Sixth Street Self-Help Center in San Francisco to close (source)