Members of Congress are considering another short-term continuing resolution (CR) lasting no more than two weeks to push back the deadline to enact four of the 12 fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending bills, including the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill that funds HUD’s vital affordable housing and homelessness programs. The CR currently covering THUD and three other funding bills is slated to expire on March 1; the CR for the other eight bills will expire on March 8.
With funding levels now decided, appropriators are close to agreement on a final bill but must first resolve disagreements over controversial “policy riders” being pushed by conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Still, even if an agreement is reached and final bill text released soon, members of Congress will have less than a week to pass the four bills through both chambers. The Senate returns from recess today, while members of the House will not return to session until Wednesday, February 28. Therefore, even if the House takes up the spending bills immediately, there will be little time for the Senate to process and pass them before March 1, making the likelihood of another CR – or a partial government shutdown – increasingly likely.
With less than a week before the March 1 deadline, federal agencies that would be impacted by the potential shutdown released updated guidance about how their activities would be affected. In the case of HUD, nearly all the department’s fair housing activities would cease, and most of HUD’s roughly 8,600 staff would be furloughed. Programs like emergency housing services for people experiencing homelessness and housing vouchers would continue. However, long-term shutdowns put even these programs at risk – the longer a shutdown, the more serious the impact.
Take Action: Tell Congress to Pass a Final FY24 Spending Bill for HUD!
Your advocacy makes a difference! It is thanks to the hard work of advocates that – at a time when programs faced cuts of up 25% – HUD received increased funding in both the House and Senate FY24 proposals. But the fight isn’t over!
Congress needs to keep hearing from you about the importance of affordable housing and homelessness programs! NLIHC is calling on Congress to finalize and pass an FY24 spending bill with increased funding for HUD’s programs as soon as possible, including:
- Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.
- Increased funding for public housing operations and repairs.
- At minimum, the Senate’s proposed $3.9 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants.
- The protection of $20 million in funding for the Eviction Prevention Grant Program provided in the Senate bill.
- The House’s proposed $1.1 billion for Native Housing.
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 FY24.