Housing

Homelessness

81 public statements from 2026 candidates

§1The range of views

Why this matters: These choices affect the health and safety of people without homes, how parks and sidewalks can be used and how public money is spent.

Drafted by AI, then checked for neutral wording in a separate AI review. It describes the question and the main positions, not any candidate's view. Facts link to their sources.

How governments respond to people living outside or in shelters, including whether housing help should require treatment and whether to enforce bans on camping in public places.

  1. Provide permanent housing first, without requiring treatment or sobriety beforehand
  2. Provide housing that comes with requirements, such as treatment, sobriety or work
  3. Enforce bans on public camping and move people into shelters or treatment, including court-ordered treatment for some

These options describe policies, not people. The order is not a ranking.

§2What candidates have said

Why this matters: Statements candidates made publicly, summarized in plain words with a link to where they said it. Candidates who haven't spoken publicly on this issue aren't listed.

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Provide permanent housing first, without requiring treatment or sobriety beforehand (16)

  • Melat Kiros CO-1
    Her platform calls for a Housing First strategy that treats homelessness as a public health issue rather than a criminal one, with services for mental illness and addiction and long-term housing.1,2
  • Erik Underwood CO Governor
    His campaign website says he would fund Housing First placements at scale and push local governments away from camping bans toward outreach and housing.3
  • Dean Ocean Abrams FL Governor
    His campaign website says he supports Housing First with permanent supportive housing and opposes criminalizing homelessness.4
  • Jordan S. Conley HI-1
    His campaign website lists a Housing First approach to homelessness among the topics on its home page.5
  • Josh Green HI Governor
    His campaign website says he has made the largest investment in reducing homelessness in Hawaii's history, including building 30 kauhale villages, tiny-home communities meant to move people off the street permanently, and his official biography credits housing-first approaches with cutting health care costs for unsheltered people by up to 76%.6,7
  • Natalie M Fleming ID Senate
    Her campaign website says she supports Housing First together with job training, rehabilitation and mental health support.8
  • Moshe Y. Landman MD-6
    His campaign website says it would create a Housing First approach to provide immediate support for people experiencing chronic homelessness, and lists ending homelessness in America among its top priorities.9,10
  • William Lawrence MI-7
    His campaign website says he supports a Housing First approach, along with more affordable housing, rapid rehousing, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing.11
  • Erik Osberg MN-7
    It says he backs a housing-first approach together with more shelter capacity and wraparound services for people who are homeless.12
  • Michael A. Chiaradio MS-3
    His campaign website says chronically homeless people need stable housing first, before help with mental health and addiction, and that rental and mortgage assistance should be expanded for people who lose housing temporarily.13
  • Alani Bankhead MT Senate
    Her campaign website says people should be placed in a stable home first so that work, treatment and recovery can follow, and that arresting someone for having nowhere to sleep does not house anyone.14
  • Ryan Michael Kelly NJ-3
    His campaign website says he supports Housing First approaches and supportive services, and that clearing encampments without a safe and realistic place to go does not solve homelessness.15
  • Andres Jinete NJ-12
    His campaign website says it would use a Housing First approach to homelessness, without conditions for getting into public housing.16
  • Deb Haaland NM Governor
    Her public safety plan says she would address homelessness with a Housing First approach that provides permanent housing without barriers to entry.17
  • Dave Seeman TN Governor
    His campaign website says he supports Housing First, along with care and treatment options for all unhoused people.18
  • Amanda Janoo VT Governor
    Her campaign website says she would end homelessness through a Housing First approach, offering quick access to permanent housing along with voluntary mental health care, addiction treatment and job help.19

Provide housing that comes with requirements, such as treatment, sobriety or work (2)

  • Robb Tucker CA-3
    His campaign website says federal housing money should be usable for shelters that enforce rules and include case management and mandatory treatment paths, and that funding should be cut off for groups that do not reduce unsheltered homelessness.20
  • Sean Kirrane NJ-5
    His campaign website describes his Homeless Solutions and Stability Act as providing safe private shelter units, mandatory mental health screening and treatment, and a structured path from shelter to housing to independence.21

Enforce bans on public camping and move people into shelters or treatment, including court-ordered treatment for some (4)

  • Chuong V. Vo CA-45
    His campaign website says federal homelessness funding should be tied to results, paying for treatment, shelter and recovery that move people off the streets while no-camping rules are enforced near schools and parks.22
  • Matt Loesby ID Senate
    His campaign website says people camping in public places not meant for it should be detained and offered rehab, a shelter that will take them, or a trip to a city that will allow them to stay.23
  • Lisa Demuth MN Governor
    Her campaign website says she would sign an executive order to clear homeless camps and open-air drug markets on state land, help cities clear camps, and seek more state power to act when cities do not.24
  • David Brock Smith OR Senate
    His campaign website says he supports drug and mental health treatment with accountability, and ending permanent street camping.25,26

Statements that don't match one option (59)

  • Mary Peltola AK Senate
    Her campaign website says she would work to end veteran homelessness, including by restoring the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and adding permanent supportive housing.27
  • James "Rus" Russell, III AR-4
    His campaign website says a small tax on the richest 0.1% of Americans could help end homelessness.28
  • Michael Masuda CA-5
    His campaign website says he would support prevention-focused programs that keep people housed and expand access to mental health and transitional services.29
  • Mai Vang CA-7
    Her campaign website says federal homelessness policy should focus on prevention, mental health care, supportive services and permanent housing rather than clearing encampments.30
  • Josh Harder CA-9
    His campaign website says homelessness is an emergency, and that his plan would move people off the streets into support services, invest in mental health and substance abuse treatment, and provide job training.31
  • Connie Chan CA-11
    Her campaign website says she would expand support for permanent supportive housing and increase funding for behavioral health, substance use treatment and services connected to housing.32
  • Lateefah Simon CA-12
    Her campaign website says she would use federal funds to turn empty government buildings into emergency shelters, build more transitional housing in the East Bay and pursue funding for permanent supportive housing for all homeless residents of the district.33,34
  • Sam Liccardo CA-16
    His campaign website says Congress should fund more housing vouchers and make them more flexible, including for transitional housing, and remove a federal limit that keeps Medicaid from paying for more inpatient mental health and addiction treatment beds.35
  • Ro Khanna CA-17
    His campaign website says federal funding to reduce homelessness among veterans should be increased, and lists among his record securing $3 million to expand emergency shelter and transitional housing for homeless and unstably housed veterans and $500,000 to help Fremont residents move into permanent housing with services such as substance abuse counseling.36
  • Ritesh Tandon CA-17
    An earlier policy page still on his campaign website says he would build more shelter capacity and mental health treatment facilities and invest more in cost-effective housing, and that people who become homeless after a job loss and alcohol abuse should be encouraged to enroll in tax-exempt affordable housing while taking part in remedial programs.37,38
  • Jacqui Irwin CA-26
    Her campaign website says she helped secure $27 million in state Project Homekey funds for Thousand Oaks' first homeless housing facility and co-authored the Care Court law, which changes how local governments can step in to help people with mental illness who are living without shelter and unwilling to accept treatment voluntarily.39
  • Sam Gallucci CA-26
    His campaign website calls for funding programs that combine detox, mental health care, transitional housing and job placement, tying federal homelessness funding to results such as moves into stable housing and finished treatment, and letting cities remove encampments while offering services.40
  • April A. Verlato CA-28
    Her campaign website says that as mayor she pushed for better mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities and supported the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust Fund.41
  • Angélica María Dueñas CA-29
    Her campaign website calls for more permanent supportive housing to end chronic homelessness and says drug abuse and mental health problems should be treated rather than handled as crimes.42
  • Eric Ching CA-31
    His campaign website says he would support legislation encouraging treatment centers to help people with substance abuse, and that he has worked with groups supporting people who are homeless because of mental illness.43
  • Larry Thompson CA-32
    His campaign website calls for treating homelessness mainly as a mental health issue, housing and treating people in existing closed mental institutions, addiction facilities and veterans' homes, with shelter and treatment tied to personal responsibility and measurable results.44,45,46
  • Angela Gonzales-Torres CA-34
    Her campaign website calls for expanding rapid rehousing with mental health, job and family services and early-warning programs to prevent homelessness, and opposes laws that punish unhoused people for sleeping outside.47
  • Hilda Solis CA-38
    Her campaign website says that as a county supervisor she helped pass Measure H, which funds homeless services in Los Angeles County, created a supportive housing rental subsidy program and helped launch Project Roomkey to shelter people in empty hotels.48,49,50
  • Pedro Antonio Casas CA-38
    His campaign website calls for using existing homelessness funds to build mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities with job re-entry training, regulating public spaces, and tighter oversight of tax money given to nonprofit groups.51
  • Robert Garcia CA-42
    His campaign website says people who are unhoused should have access to shelter, services and permanent supportive housing, and calls for expanding affordable housing and building public housing.52
  • Nanette Diaz Barragan CA-44
    Her campaign website's 2016 Issues page says addressing homelessness starts with Congress funding enough mental health services, investing in affordable housing and taking care of veterans.53
  • Dave Min CA-47
    His campaign website says ending chronic homelessness takes more than housing alone, and that he would ease the barriers to combining federal, state and local money for housing and mental health and substance abuse services while continuing to fund those programs.54
  • Jenny Rae Le Roux CA-47
    Her campaign website says every federal homelessness grant should carry outcome-based requirements, with programs that cannot show they are getting people off the streets not renewed, and that federal mental health and addiction treatment money should reach the communities that need it most.55
  • Jim Desmond CA-48
    His campaign website calls for a treatment-first approach to homelessness instead of what it calls a one-size-fits-all Housing First approach, including mandatory treatment for people with severe addiction or serious mental illness, more psychiatric care, a national audit of homelessness spending and federal money tied to measurable results.56,57
  • Mike Levin CA-49
    His campaign website says he secured funding for a homeless shelter with support services in Oceanside and is working to end veteran homelessness in San Diego and Orange counties, including through more project-based housing vouchers.58
  • Scott Peters CA-50
    His campaign website says he wants to get more people off the street and into housing, and lists laws he wrote letting local nonprofits receive federal homelessness aid directly and opening HUD-VA housing vouchers to veterans with other-than-honorable discharges.59,60
  • Eric Yonce FL-6
    His campaign website says homelessness should be addressed through coordinated housing, food, health and workforce support.61
  • Jeffrey Peter "Dr. Jeff" Datto FL Governor
    His campaign website says he would build hotels to give people experiencing homelessness a safe place to stay, and that homelessness should not be handled simply through jail or institutions.62
  • La Shawn K. Ford IL-7
    His campaign website says his housing plan would expand permanent supportive housing for people cycling through shelters, hospitals and incarceration.63
  • John Elleson IL-9
    His campaign website says he supports practical aid-based programs for addiction, homelessness and mental health.64
  • André Carson IN-7
    His campaign website says he strongly supports more federal resources to fight housing insecurity and for temporary housing and wrap-around services to prevent homelessness.65
  • Patrick McAuley IN-7
    His campaign website says he will fight to expand housing supply, convert vacant properties into productive use, and support practical pathways off the street through partnerships and federal resources.66
  • Lauren Jewett LA-1
    Her campaign website says she opposes treating poverty, addiction and homelessness as crimes when what people need is treatment and housing.67
  • Hannah M. Pingree ME Governor
    Her campaign website says she would fully carry out the Home for Good program, which houses chronically homeless people with support services, and end veteran homelessness in her first year in office.68
  • C. Mia Pettus MI-8
    Her campaign website lists homelessness prevention, mental health treatment, supportive housing and workforce development among its priorities on poverty and homelessness.69
  • Lydia Christensen MI Senate
    Her campaign website says she would pass a rapid rehousing program to get people off the streets quickly, funded by capping the Pentagon budget, and fund zoning reform and credits for homebuyers and builders.70
  • Kelly Morrison MN-3
    Her campaign website says she has introduced legislation to provide guaranteed housing to every homeless veteran.71
  • Ilhan Omar MN-5
    Its equality page lists ensuring affordable housing and ending youth homelessness among her priorities for LGBTQIA+ young people.72
  • DeVelle L. Jackson MN-5
    It says the federal goal should be ending hunger and homelessness, including preventing evictions, helping people leave shelters or the street for permanent housing, and offering supportive housing to those who need ongoing services.73
  • Amy Klobuchar MN Governor
    Her campaign website says she would set up a statewide network that connects people to housing and supportive services through a single point of contact, and expand efforts to end veteran and student homelessness.74
  • Brian J Miller MT-2
    His campaign website's veterans page lists a loss of 1,000 beds in the GPD program for homeless veterans and a $2.2 billion cut to HUD's Housing First housing support for veterans among cuts to veterans' programs, and says the trend of such cuts needs to be reversed completely.75
  • Michael D Eisenhauer MT-2
    His Voter Contract and Issues pages say he will champion temporary housing next to existing VA facilities where homeless veterans can stay for up to 6 to 12 months and get medical and mental health care, job help and assistance moving into permanent housing.76,77
  • Michael Dublin NC Senate
    His platform calls for ending the criminalization of homelessness.78
  • Lynne Walz NE Governor
    Her campaign website says she would invest in mental health services, job training and other services to reduce homelessness and prevent crime.79
  • Cinde Warmington NH Governor
    Her campaign website says she would protect the Continuum of Care program and keep housing slots for homeless Granite Staters available.80
  • Zack Mullock NJ-2
    Its Veterans section lists ending veteran homelessness in South Jersey among his goals.81
  • Ramon Mora Jr. NJ-2
    It also lists building transitional housing units for different stages of life, including for people who are unhoused.82
  • Rachel Peace NJ-4
    Her campaign website says she would cosponsor the End Veteran Homelessness Act and collaborate with the Department of Veterans Affairs on ending veteran homelessness.83
  • Alan B. Bond NJ-11
    His campaign story on veterans says addressing veteran homelessness takes more than temporary shelter and can involve mental health services, addiction treatment, employment help, housing support and coordinated case management.84
  • Adam Hamawy NJ-12
    His campaign website says he supports full funding for HUD-VASH housing vouchers and more transitional and permanent supportive housing, with the aim of ending veteran homelessness.85
  • Afzal "Bobby" Khan NV-1
    His campaign website says he supports partnerships among federal, state and local governments and faith-based and nonprofit groups to expand transitional and supportive housing paired with mental health care, addiction treatment and job placement. It also says he supports using federal land in Nevada for veteran housing.86,87,88
  • Steven "Chap" St John NV-1
    His campaign website says he would strengthen efforts to prevent veteran homelessness, with supportive housing and quick help for veterans about to lose their housing.89
  • Robert E Brooks Sr OK Governor
    His homelessness plan supports help with rent and utilities to prevent evictions, outreach and a range of housing options including housing with support services, and voluntary mental health and addiction treatment rather than jail as the default.90
  • Tina Kotek OR Governor
    Her campaign website says she declared a homelessness state of emergency on her first day as governor and has added shelter and treatment beds.91,92,93
  • Christine Drazan OR Governor
    Her campaign website says she would audit homeless services spending, focus state money on addiction recovery, sobriety and mental health treatment, end funding for programs it says enable addiction, and let local governments clean up public spaces.94
  • Catherine Barcel "Barcy" Whitson TN Senate
    Her campaign website proposes partnering with churches and businesses to create tiny house communities for Tennesseans without homes.95
  • Wendell Jackson TN Governor
    His campaign website says secure housing for all Tennesseans would be a priority.96
  • Lauren Pinkston TN Governor
    Her campaign website proposes pilot housing programs for people experiencing homelessness in up to three communities, modeled on a tiny home community in Austin, Texas.97
  • June Goodband VT Governor
    Her campaign website says the state should provide short-term emergency housing in group settings, as it would after a natural disaster, and help people keep stable long-term housing through cooperative housing and no-interest mortgages for modest homes.98