Tell Congress to Protect HUD Funding and Expand – Not Cut – Vital Affordable Housing and Homelessness Programs in FY26!
Apr 25, 2025
Congress will soon begin negotiating a spending bill to fund HUD’s vital affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs in the coming fiscal year. The recently passed fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bill underfunded HUD programs, providing insufficient funding for renewal needs for programs like the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) and Homelessness Assistance Grants (HAG) programs. As a result, fewer households will receive needed rental and homelessness assistance.
The Trump Administration is also scheduled to release a FY2026 budget request in May that is expected to propose massive spending cuts to HUD programs for the coming fiscal year. With more people than ever experiencing homelessness or struggling to afford the cost of rent, lawmakers must expand – not cut – investments that help people find and maintain safe, stable housing!
Take action to protect and expand housing assistance!
Advocates can use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on the FY2026 spending bill, and urge federal lawmakers to expand – not cut – investments in HUD programs, including NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) contracts and funding to renew 60,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs).
- Increased funding for public housing operations and public housing capital needs.
- $4.922 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $20 million for the Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP).
- At least $1.3 billion for HUD’s Tribal housing programs and $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on FY26 funding, including 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!
- Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds meaningful context to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact real people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource.
National, state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,300 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 FY26.
Background
Members of Congress return to their offices in Washington, D.C. on April 28 after a two-week spring recess to take up several priorities, including federal funding for FY26. Unable to reach a final agreement on an updated spending bill, in March Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend the previous year’s (FY24) funding for federal programs through FY25. Because rent and the cost of housing construction and homelessness services increase every year, it is vital HUD programs receive increased funding every year to maintain the number of households served.
While the final FY25 bill also provided some funding increases for select HUD programs – including the HCV program –funding was still insufficient to ensure full renewal of all existing HCVs, and short of what would be required to ensure the continuation of all HAG-funded programs and services. As a result, an estimated 32,000 vouchers will be lost through turnover, and homelessness assistance services will be impacted for an estimated 18,500 households. Underfunding or actively cutting these programs in FY26 will further deplete communities’ ability to respond to the housing and homelessness needs of its members.
The Need for Additional Funding for the Emergency Housing Voucher Program
In addition to the need for increased funding in FY26 to cover the cost of HCV renewals, Congress will need to provide funding to ensure the 60,000 households who receive an Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) do not lose their assistance. The EHV program was created in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided $5 billion for 60,000 new tenant-based rental assistance vouchers specifically targeted to people experiencing or at immediate risk of homelessness, including people escaping intimate partner violence. The EHV program mandates that public housing authorities (PHAs), which are responsible for administering the program, work with their local Continuums of Care (CoCs) to identify people and families at risk of or experiencing homelessness and connect them to an EHV, plus wrap-around services when needed for long-term housing stability.
The EHV program has been extremely successful, helping almost 60,000 people and families – and in particular families with children – find and maintain stable housing. While funding for the program was originally slated to last until 2030, the rapid increase in the cost of rent over the last four years has caused funding to run out much more quickly than expected. Unless additional funding is allocated by Congress, HUD estimates that funding for the program will likely run out in 2026. Congress must provide additional funding to ensure the 60,000 households who receive an EHV do not lose the assistance they need to keep a roof over their heads.