Appropriations leaders are continuing their work on a long-overdue fiscal year 2025 (FY25) spending bill, with a March 14 deadline fast approaching. Lawmakers will only have until March 14 to negotiate, draft, and enact a massive FY25 spending bill to fund critical federal services and programs, including HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. The federal government is currently funded until March 14 by a continuing resolution (CR), which temporarily extends funding levels from the previous fiscal year. Absent a final agreement, Congress will need to enact another CR, or there will be a partial shutdown of the federal government.
Despite continuing negotiations over an FY25 spending bill, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) are pushing for appropriators to instead begin working on a full-year CR, which would extend the level of funding from FY24 through September 30.
Proposed Spending for HCV Renewals Comes Up Short
Because the cost of rent rises every year, it is crucial that HUD programs receive increased funding every year to simply maintain the number of people, families, and communities they currently assist. Insufficient funding increases or flat funding act as a cut, reducing the number of people served.
According to a recent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), neither the House nor Senate draft FY25 spending bills would provide sufficient funding to renew all existing Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) contracts. The HCV program is the country’s largest rental assistance program, helping over 2.4 million households with low incomes afford the cost of rent on the private market; if Congress provides the essentially flat funding levels proposed in the House’s FY25 spending bill (or flat funding through a year-long CR), CBPP estimates that almost 330,000 fewer households – nearly 750,000 fewer people – would receive a housing voucher.
This would represent the deepest cut in the history of the voucher program. With such a severe funding shortfall, it is likely that some housing agencies would have no choice but to end families’ ongoing assistance. The Senate’s proposed FY25 spending bill would provide significantly more funding than the House’s proposal; however, the cost of helping families afford housing rose more rapidly than expected over the course of 2024, and the Senate proposal is now expected to fall about $800 million short of what will be required to fully renew all voucher contracts. If enacted, the Senate’s proposed level of funding would lead to an estimated 60,000 fewer households receiving assistance.
The White House Floats 30-40% Cuts Across Government Agencies
While negotiations over FY25 continue, the Trump Administration has turned its attention to federal funding in FY26. The president releases a proposed budget – known as the president’s “budget request” – every year, and while it is not binding, it is intended to signal the Administration’s priorities and the direction they would like Congress to take federal spending. President Trump’s FY26 budget request is expected in early April, and recent reporting suggests the Administration is considering proposing 30-40% cuts across federal agencies. Such severe funding cuts would be even more drastic than the 15-18% cuts to HUD’s budget included in the budget requests released during the first Trump Administration and would have devastating implications for people who depend on HUD assistance to help make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads.
Take Action!
Urge Congress to pass a final FY25 spending bill with increased funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs.
At a time when more households are struggling to afford rent and more people than ever are experiencing homelessness, we need more – not less – federal investments in the programs proven to help people find and maintain stable housing.
Advocates can use NLIHC’s resources to take action today and push Congress to pass increased funding for affordable housing and homelessness in FY25, including for NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.
- $6.2 billion for public housing operations and $5.2 billion for public housing capital needs.
- $4.7 billion for HUD's Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $100 million for the Eviction Protection Grant Program.
- At least $1.3 billion for Tribal housing programs, plus $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to influence FY25 funding:
- Email or call congressional 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!
- Share 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.
- Use our “Oppose Dramatic Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing” toolkit. This toolkit includes resources, talking points, advocacy ideas, and other helpful information on defending funding for affordable housing and homelessness resources in the FY25 federal budget. Meet with your congressional members and urge them to provide the most possible funding for these vital programs in any final FY25 budget agreement!
National, state, local, Tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,300 organizations on Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding’s (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.