Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), along with Representatives Clay, Moore, and Jayapal, wrote to President Donald Trump in opposition to his recent pick of Robert Marbut, a consultant who has urged cities to stop feeding homeless individuals, to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). Full text of the letter can be found here.

“Mr. Marbut is, among our may concerns, unqualified, unprepared, and disdainful of the mission of the critically important federal agency which he has been appointed to lead,” said Pingree in the letter. “Marbut has encouraged cruel policies because he believes that municipalities efforts are making living on the streets too comfortable, which he derisively calls ‘goodies’. He often says that he does not believe criminalization is the answer to homelessness, but he is a strong proponent of criminalizing much of the behavior and activity that makes being homeless and living on the street bearable.”

The letter continued, “Homelessness has always been a bipartisan issue—with leaders on both sides of the aisle working to end this solvable crisis. We are very concerned that the Trump administration would pick someone whose professional work is based on practices that are such cruel, punitive, ineffectual and expensive to run the only federal agency tasked with ending homelessness.”

For 32 years, USICH has been the only federal agency to ensure a coordinated federal response to homelessness. Trump recently fired the Executive Director of USICH, Matthew Doherty, who was named by President Obama, and named Robert Marbut as his replacement. Marbut is to be confirmed by the council at their December 10 meeting.

The Trump administration has also been critical of the popular and effective “Housing First” model , which is backed up by over a decade of research, practice, and bipartisan agreement and has been found to effectively reduce homelessness, reduce costs within the criminal justice system, and ensure safety and stability for homeless adults and children alike. The Administration released a report on homelessness in September, where they suggested increased policing and efforts to arrest the homeless as potential tools to combat homelessness.

Marbut previously served as a consultant advising cities on how to reduce homelessness, where he advocated for policies like putting the homeless in “24/7 programming” to treat addiction, as well as outlawing “street feeding” programs run by churches and charitable organizations. He has repeatedly criticized “Housing First” policies.

Homelessness is a serious problem in the United States, with over half a million people homeless on a single night in the United States. According to USICH as of January 2018, Maine had an estimated 2,516 people experiencing homelessness on any given day.

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