Appropriators sparred during an April 17 subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year (FY) 2025 defense budget proposed by the Biden administration, foreshadowing contentious fights ahead to secure needed funding increases in FY25. The “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (FRA) – the agreement reached to raise the federal debt ceiling in exchange for capping federal spending – restricted federal spending in FY24 to roughly the previous year’s level and capped spending in FY25 at a paltry 1% increase over existing levels.
Republican appropriators criticized the budget proposal for sticking to the 1% increase to defense spending mandated by the FRA, when the President’s overall request for domestic spending provided a 2% increase. By comparison, between 2020 and 2024 the cost of rent increased, on average, by over 20% nationally. While rising rates have slowed recently, rent prices are still high. For HUD programs like Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs), it is vital that funding increase year over year to keep up with the cost of rent and ensure that no households lose the assistance they rely on to keep a roof over their heads.
Take Action: Tell Congress to Provide Significant Funding Increases for HUD in FY25
Your advocacy makes a difference! It is thanks to the hard work of advocates that in FY24 – at a time when programs faced cuts of up 25% – HUD received increased funding in the final spending bill.
Congress needs to keep hearing from you about the importance of affordable housing and homelessness programs! NLIHC is calling on Congress to provide the highest possible funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs in FY25, including significant funding for NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and expand assistance to 20,000 more households.
- $6.2 billion for public housing operations and $5.135 billion for public housing capital needs
- $4.7 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $100 million for the Eviction Prevention Grant Program.
- $1.3 billion for Tribal housing programs, plus $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Advocates can continue to engage their members of Congress by:
- Emailing or calling members’ offices to tell them about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources to you, your family, your community, or your work. You can use NLIHC’s Take Action page to look up your member offices or call/send an email directly!
- Using social media to amplify messages about the country’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis and the continued need for long-term solutions.
- Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds emotional weight to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact actual people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource.
National, state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,200 organizations on CHCDF’s national letter calling on Congress to support the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources in FY25.