What Policy Priorities and Key Issues Does the National Alliance to End Homelessness Focus On?

Updated

The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) organizes its advocacy around two policy priorities—increasing federal funding for homelessness programs and expanding the affordable housing supply—and five key issues: reducing unsheltered homelessness, decriminalizing homelessness, expanding resources to help people thrive, expanding the homelessness workforce, and addressing environmental justice. This guide is for policymakers, advocates, and community organizations who want to know whether NAEH's positions align with their own work. All items below come from the organization's own site (endhomelessness.org).

Policy Priorities

NAEH lists two federal-level priorities:

  • Increase federal funding for homelessness programs. The Alliance advocates for more federal dollars directed at homelessness services and housing interventions.
  • Expand the affordable housing supply. Alongside funding, it pushes for more affordable housing units, framing the shortage of affordable housing as a root cause of homelessness.

These two priorities connect directly to the causes NAEH identifies on its site: a shortage of affordable housing, income not keeping up with housing costs, limited access to healthcare and voluntary services, and systemic racism and marginalization.

Key Issues

NAEH's "Key Issues" section names five areas of work:

Key Issue What NAEH Says It Means
Reducing unsheltered homelessness Provide housing and services for people sleeping outside.
De-criminalizing homelessness Stop treating homelessness like it's a crime.
Expanding resources to help people thrive Provide supports and services to help address people's needs.
Expanding the homelessness workforce Help the workforce recover from record levels of burnout and turnover.
Addressing environmental justice Create climate-resilient communities.

Advocacy Stance on Punitive Policies

The site takes an explicit position against criminalization. A featured blog post is titled "Punitive Policies Will Never Solve Homelessness: The Evidence is Clear," and the decriminalization issue is framed as "Stop treating homelessness like it's a crime." If your organization works on encampment policy, camping bans, or local ordinances, this is the clearest signal of where NAEH stands.

How the Work Is Organized

NAEH describes its mission as spanning several activities: conducting research and analysis, building the capacity of the homelessness sector, ending homelessness through policy, connecting communities, building awareness and public will, and building equity into systems. It also convenes external advisors through a Leadership Council, Capacity Building Network, Research Council, and Lived Experience Advisors.

Who This Is Relevant For

  • Policymakers looking for federal funding and housing-supply positions to reference or respond to.
  • Advocates who want language and evidence against criminalization measures.
  • Community organizations and program staff seeking technical assistance, training, webinars, toolkits, and case studies through the Alliance's Training & Resources section.

Where to Go Next

If you want the data behind these positions, the site's "State of Homelessness: 2025 Edition" presents key data from the 2024 Point-in-Time Count. For practical support, the Training & Resources area offers guided and self-paced learning, technical assistance requests, webinars, online training, toolkits, research, shareable graphics, videos, and case studies.