The federal laws on homelessness in the United States rest on one main statute, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as amended by the HEARTH Act of 2009. That statute defines who qualifies as homeless, authorizes the two grant programs that pay for most of the country’s response, and sets the rules local agencies must follow to receive that money. A separate line of constitutional law, reshaped by the Supreme Court in 2024, governs when cities can enforce public camping bans against people sleeping outside.
Who Counts as Homeless Under Federal Law
The McKinney-Vento Act defines a homeless individual as someone who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. That includes people sleeping in places not meant for habitation, people living in shelters, people exiting institutions, and people facing imminent loss of housing within 14 days with no subsequent residence identified.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 11302 – General Definition of Homeless Individual
The 14-day category is the one that surprises people. Someone with an eviction date and no backup plan is legally homeless for federal purposes before ever sleeping in a car or shelter, which means they can access assistance while still housed.
The Two Federal Grant Programs
The HEARTH Act created two grant programs that fund almost everything the federal government does on homelessness.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program funds permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, transitional housing, supportive services, and the data systems that connect those pieces. Its statutory purposes are to build community-wide commitment to ending homelessness, quickly rehouse people while minimizing trauma, and promote self-sufficiency.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 11381 – Purpose
The Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program funds the crisis side of the response: emergency shelter operations, street outreach, homelessness prevention, and rapid re-housing. It also authorizes housing relocation and stabilization services, including housing search, legal services, credit repair, security deposits, utility payments, and short-term rental assistance.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC Chapter 119 Subchapter IV Part B – Emergency Solutions Grants Program
To receive either grant, communities must organize into regional Continuums of Care. Each CoC is responsible for coordinating the local response, operating a Coordinated Entry process, running a Homeless Management Information System, and meeting HUD performance standards. Programs are administered locally, so service quality and availability vary considerably between communities.
Housing First: The Policy That Shapes the Spending
Housing First is the framework HUD uses to guide how federal homelessness dollars are spent. The model provides permanent housing immediately, without requiring people to first complete treatment, prove sobriety, or meet other preconditions. Supportive services are offered but voluntary.
The HEARTH Act embedded Housing First principles into federal policy by expanding permanent housing eligibility and authorizing rapid re-housing assistance. Experimental studies show Housing First participants achieve housing retention rates of roughly 80 percent, about 50 percentage points higher than traditional treatment-first models.4HUD User. Housing First – A Review of the Evidence
Two housing interventions dominate the federal portfolio.
Permanent Supportive Housing
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) pairs long-term rental assistance with ongoing supportive services for people with disabilities who have experienced chronic homelessness. Under the CoC Program, PSH provides indefinite leasing or rental assistance with no arbitrary time limit.5HUD Exchange. Continuum of Care Program Eligibility Requirements Participants sign standard leases and hold the same tenant rights and responsibilities as any other renter. PSH is the most intensive intervention and targets the people who cycle most frequently through emergency rooms, jails, and shelters.
Rapid Re-Housing
Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) is the lighter-touch option for people whose homelessness stems from a financial crisis rather than a chronic disability. It provides short-term (up to three months) or medium-term (four to 24 months) rental assistance along with supportive services.6HUD Exchange. CoC Program Components – Rapid Re-Housing Assistance is progressive: participants receive only as much help as they need, and support scales down as they stabilize.
Prevention and Eviction Defense
ESG explicitly authorizes prevention spending, and the prevention menu is broader than most people realize. Federal dollars can go toward legal services in eviction proceedings, back rent, security deposits, utility arrears, and mediation between tenants and landlords.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC Chapter 119 Subchapter IV Part B – Emergency Solutions Grants Program
Legal representation in eviction proceedings is one of the higher-impact prevention tools. Tenants without lawyers lose at high rates; represented tenants are far more likely to stay housed or negotiate a workable outcome. As of early 2025, five states, 19 cities, and two counties had enacted right-to-counsel laws guaranteeing representation to tenants in eviction cases. Where those programs operate, courts have shifted from processing default evictions to considering tenant defenses, including habitability claims and landlord violations.
How People Actually Access the Programs
Federal law requires every Continuum of Care to operate a Coordinated Entry process, established under HUD’s CPD-17-01 notice. Each CoC’s process must cover its full geographic area, be easily accessible, use a standardized assessment tool, and prioritize people with the most severe needs for the most intensive interventions.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. CPD-17-01 – Notice Establishing Additional Requirements for a Continuum of Care Centralized or Coordinated Assessment System
Assessment considers length and pattern of homelessness, health conditions, history of emergency service use, age, and safety concerns. Someone with a long history of unsheltered homelessness and acute health needs is prioritized for PSH. Someone experiencing homelessness for the first time after losing a job is routed to RRH. HUD’s rules also prohibit screening people out for lack of income, active substance use, or criminal history.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. CPD-17-01 – Notice Establishing Additional Requirements for a Continuum of Care Centralized or Coordinated Assessment System
The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is the data backbone. The HEARTH Act made HMIS participation a statutory requirement for all CoC and ESG recipients.8HUD Exchange. HMIS Requirements It collects standardized data on who is experiencing homelessness, what services they receive, and what outcomes they achieve. Communities use HMIS to produce unduplicated counts, identify service gaps, and make funding decisions.9HUD Exchange. HMIS Data and Technical Standards
Documenting Homelessness
Programs targeting chronically homeless individuals, such as PSH, require documentation of homelessness status. HUD accepts several forms of third-party documentation: HMIS records showing shelter stays or street outreach contacts, written observations from outreach workers, written observations from community members, and referrals from other housing or service providers.10HUD Exchange. What Are Acceptable Forms of Third-Party Documentation for Documenting an Individuals History of Residing in a Place Not Meant for Human Habitation The documentation requirement is itself a barrier for people disconnected from service systems, which is why outreach worker contact matters for future eligibility.
What the Supreme Court Changed in 2024
In June 2024, the Supreme Court decided City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, holding 6-3 that enforcing generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.11Supreme Court of the United States. City of Grants Pass v Johnson, 603 US (2024) The ruling overturned a decade of Ninth Circuit precedent that had generally barred cities from punishing people for sleeping outdoors when shelter beds were unavailable.
Before Grants Pass, cities in the nine western states covered by the Ninth Circuit had to show adequate shelter existed before clearing encampments or issuing citations. That requirement is gone. Justice Gorsuch, writing for the majority, emphasized that the Eighth Amendment focuses on what punishment a government may impose after conviction, not on whether a government may criminalize particular behavior in the first place. The Court noted that Grants Pass’s ordinances applied to everyone equally, regardless of housing status.11Supreme Court of the United States. City of Grants Pass v Johnson, 603 US (2024)
The ruling does not touch other constitutional protections. Fourth Amendment protections for personal property during sweeps, due process rights to notice before encampment clearances, and equal protection claims based on discriminatory enforcement remain available. Some cities have adopted policies requiring advance notice and property storage during sweeps, but those are local policy choices, not federal constitutional requirements. Decisions about how aggressively to enforce camping bans now sit with elected officials rather than federal courts.