The Trump administration has announced a sweeping overhaul of how it will reallocate funds for housing and the homeless, triggering concerns that it could lead to more people living on the street.

The changes involve $3.9 billion in funds previously used to place people in permanent housing.

That money will now be shifted to transitional programs with work requirements and for mandatory

treatment for addiction or mental illness.

For more on what's at stake and the potential impact, I'm joined by Jennifer Ludden of NPR.

Good to see you.

Hi there.

Thanks for being here.

Let's just start with how big a shift this is from the previous policy and approach, and what's

the reasoning behind the change?

It's an enormous shift. This is the main source of homelessness funding. It's used by local

programs, thousands of them, all across the country. And the reason is the Trump administration

has a very different philosophy for how best to tackle homelessness, and really what is the root cause, as they put it, of homelessness.

They are very clear in their ideas that mental illness and addiction are the root causes.

You see this, especially with the rise of street homelessness, you know, encampments are in so many cities now.

And they say that this is a way to address that and help promote self-sufficiency. And it's a major change from what has been for many years. So give us a sense of who would be impacted here. How many people are we talking about? Where are they in the country? And who do you have to be to qualify for these funds in the first place? So it's really focused, the change really focuses a lot on chronically homeless people. People who have been chronically homeless and are now in permanent housing, what's called permanent

supportive housing, because it's people who are offered supports for their mental health

or addiction or finding a job, but it's

voluntary. And this is what the Trump administration wants to make mandatory. And to be in these

permanent housing situations, you have to have been chronically homeless and also have some kind of

disabling condition. There's a lot of seniors. And that is who homelessness

advocates are fearful that might lose their current housing. In some cases, they've been there for years.

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