The
move
reportedly
occurred
on
April
15,
with
all
13
USICH
staff
members
being
notified
by
its
acting
director
that
they
will
be
placed
on
administrative
leave
effective
immediately.
Bloomberg
cited
three
people
familiar
with
the
matter
and
the
agency
was
also
included
in
a
further
whittling
of
the
federal
workforce
in
an

executive
order
signed
by
President

Donald
Trump
on
March
14.

That
order
also
included
the

Institute
of
Museum
and
Library
Services
and
the

Community
Development
Financial
Institutions
Fund.

“The
irony
here
is
that
[USICH]
is
designed
for
government
efficiency,”
said
Jeff
Olivet,
the
council’s
executive
director
under
President

Joe
Biden,
in
an
interview
with
NPR.
“[Congress
established
USICH
in
1987]
to
make
sure
that
the
federal
response
to

homelessness
is
coordinated,
is
efficient,
and
reduces
duplication
across
federal
agencies.”

Olivet
now
serves
as
senior
advisor
on
health
and
homelessness
for
the

Harvard
T.H.
Chan
School
of
Public
Health.
In
a
Bloomberg
interview
he
called
the
decision
“devastating,”
describing
it
that
way
“not
only
for
the
fine
public
servants
who
work
at
USICH
and
have
dedicated
their
lives
to
the
work
of
ending
homelessness,
but
also
for
federal
homelessness
policy
as
a
whole,”
he
said.

USICH’s
current
acting
director
is
Kenneth
Jackson,
whom
Bloomberg
says
is
an
official
with
DOGE
working
under
Musk.
His
actions
“appear
to
violate
the
statutory
guidelines
that
established
the
agency,”
Bloomberg
said
in
its
report.

That’s
because
the
federal
law
that
established
it
in
the
first
place
is
required
to
develop
a
strategic
homelessness
plan
and
deliver
a
report
based
on
it
on
an
annual
basis
to

Congress.

“It
comprises
the
secretaries
and
directors
of
19
different
federal
agencies,
among
them
the
Departments
of

Health
and
Human
Services,


Housing
and
Urban
Development
and

Veterans
Affairs,”
the
report
said.
“Four
times
a
year,
the
leaders
of
those
agencies
convene
to
coordinate
the
government’s
work
on
homelessness.”

Most,
if
not
all,
staffers
placed
on
leave
plan
to
accept
the
government’s
renewed
deferred
resignation
offer
from
the

Office
of
Personnel
Management
(OPM),
the
report
added.