Most beds for the homeless in Grand Rapids are reserved for emergency shelter, rather than transitional housing, a shift pushed by national policy set a decade ago.
This could change under new rules set by the Trump administration, which push for a return to temporary housing with support services. These new funding rules are pivoting away from the “Housing First” approach which has been standard for the past decade.
The deadline for HUD’s grant competition was last Wednesday. The Housing First model emphasizes providing permanent housing without setting any conditions such as sobriety, a clean criminal record, or mental health treatment.
From 2014-16 the Department of Housing and Urban Development dropped funding for transitional housing, programs which act as bridges between shelters and independent housing.
Transitional housing offered by homeless ministries such as Mel Trotter provides private bedrooms. Degage’s Emergency Women’s Shelter is open from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m., although the shelter offers a community center for the off-hours. Mel Trotter’s Emergency Men’s Shelter, which offers suite dorm rooms with two guests per room, are cleaned daily. Guests can be at Mel Trotter’s Heartside Day Center while out of the beds.
Prior to a fire possibly caused by electrical malfunction, a former Seventh-day Adventist church building owned by LaGrave Christian Reformed Church was going to be used as a day shelter for the homeless.
Despite the day center offerings, many who use emergency shelters opt to stay in public parks surrounding the shelters when guests cannot be in the sleeping areas.
In 2015, a HUD national grant competition prioritized a “Housing First” approach, offering housing regardless of addiction or mental health status. Nationally, Continuums of Care (COC), organizations which coordinate the homelessness response across a given region, allocated beds to emergency use away from transitional housing. Grand Rapids followed this trend.
In 2014, there were 357 beds for emergency use and 519 for transitional housing across the Grand Rapids metro area. In the 2015 fiscal year, that ratio flipped: 618 total emergency beds and 226 transitional beds.
From 2016 onward, for every transitional bed, there were at least three emergency beds available.
HUD requires the COC to collect data on the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January, called a “point-in-time” study. In 2025, 1,238 people were experiencing homelessness in Grand Rapids, according to the study. Of those, 885 people sought emergency shelter, up 12% from 2024. Roughly 9%, 114 individuals, were unsheltered, sleeping in cars, parks, or on sidewalks. The remainder were in transitional housing.
The number of emergency beds in Grand Rapids has continued to grow. The Grand Rapids area had 597 emergency adult shelter beds, according to data submitted by the Kent County Continuum of Care in 2025, and 348 emergency family beds. The city also had eight emergency beds reserved for children. Beds for transitional housing have also grown, albeit at a more modest rate, with 314 recorded in the 2025 HUD report.
HUD has touted research in cities like Minneapolis, Denver, and Boston which showed the approach of rapidly housing families with children after their first encounter with emergency shelter was more cost effective. The approach was previously not used for individuals addicted to substances or with serious mental illness, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Write to juliana@grherald.com