House Appropriators Release FY27 Spending Bill with Significant Cuts to Vital HUD Programs – Take Action!

The House Appropriations Committee released their fiscal year (FY) 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) spending bill on May 20. The bill would fund HUD at $71.38 billion, a $5.94 billion, or over 8%, cut from the $77.3 billion provided for HUD programs in FY26. For details, see NLIHC’s full analysis, and our updated budget chart. 

Overall, the House’s FY27 appropriations bill for HUD would likely be inadequate to ensure continued assistance for the families and communities with low incomes served by HUD programs:   

• The House appropriations bill provides $35.4 billion for contract renewals under the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) program, an increase of only $496 million, or less than 1.5%, from the final FY26 spending bill, and even less than the 1.7% increase proposed in the White House’s FY27 budget request. This would likely be insufficient to cover the cost of fully renewing all existing TBRA contracts, including the over 46,000 households who still rely on an Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) to keep a roof over their heads. The bill cuts funding for the Tenant Protection Voucher (TPV) program by over 50%, from $601 million in the final FY26 spending bill to $300 million in the House’s FY27 bill. Congress provided additional TPV funding in the FY26 spending bill to help ensure PHAs could continue serving households with expiring EHV contracts, but more funding will be needed in a final FY27 spending bill to ensure households who still rely on an EHV continue receiving assistance and are not pushed back into homelessness. PHAs are also still waiting for guidance from HUD on how to use TPV funding to continue serving EHV families; HUD should release this guidance as soon as possible. 
• The House’s FY27 THUD spending bill did not take up the White House’s proposal to recast HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grant (HAG) program as an “expanded Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program” by eliminating Continuums of Care (CoCs). The bill would provide level funding of $290 million for ESG and cut funding for CoCs by $232 million – over 5.7% – from FY26, for a total of $3.78 billion. CoCs provide Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and other long-term, supportive services to help people experiencing homelessness find long-term, stable housing. Cuts to CoC funding would likely force programs to limit services, and in some cases may result in people who had previously been experiencing homelessness losing their housing assistance.  
• The bill would also cut funding for public housing capital needs by $914 million, a decrease of nearly 29% from FY26, for a total of $2.28 billion. Similarly, funding for public housing operations would decrease by $287 million, for a total of $4.73 billion in FY27 – a 5.7% decrease from the previous fiscal year. For decades, the federal government has failed to adequately invest in the operation and upkeep of the nation’s public housing stock, leaving this vital source of deeply affordable housing in a state of disrepair, and exposing the people living in public housing to unsafe, unhealthy conditions.   
• The House’s FY27 THUD spending bill would provide slight funding increases to HUD’s Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities program and Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program of 2.7% and 3%, respectively, for a total of $295 million for Section 811 and $1.06 billion for Section 202; it is not clear whether this will be sufficient to ensure renewals of all current 811 and 202 contracts. The challenges of finding an affordable, available home are compounded for people who also need an accessible home; as a result, people with disabilities and older adults are disproportionately likely to experience housing insecurity and homelessness. Programs like Section 811 and Section 202 help communities afford the cost of building, operating, and maintaining deeply affordable, accessible homes.  
• The House bill would allocate over $1.15 billion for HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, an increase of $46 million, or 4%, from the FY26 enacted spending bill. The IHBG-Competitive program would receive level funding from FY26, $125 million. Native communities have some of the most urgent affordable housing and infrastructure needs in the country, and HUD’s IHBG and IHBG-C programs play an important role in ensuring federal assistance reaches tribal nations.  
• The bill rejects the White House’s request to impose arbitrary and needless time limits and work reporting requirements on recipients of HUD assistance.  
• The bill does not include language establishing needed guardrails to ensure Congressionally-approved funding reaches the communities for which it is intended, and is not rescinded, frozen, or otherwise withheld by the administration.  
• In addition, the House’s FY27 spending bill for HUD programs proposes permanently rescinding unobligated balances from the final FY25 HUD spending bill, including:  
  • “Any unobligated balances” for the Community Development Fund. 
  • Over $126 million for Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA). 
  • $75 million for the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program. 
  • $98 million for the Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities program. 
  • $55 million for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity programs. 
  • $58 million for Housing Counseling Assistance.   

The House Appropriations THUD Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over HUD funding, held a markup on the bill on May 21, and a full Committee markup is scheduled for June 4. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to announce its schedule for releasing and reviewing their draft FY27 THUD spending bill. 

Tell Congress to Expand – Not Cut – Federal Investments in Affordable Housing and Homelessness Assistance Programs!  

At a time when a record number of renters are housing cost burdened and families around the country are struggling to afford necessities like housing, food, and medical care, Congress should be working to expand – not slash – funding for programs that help people make ends meet.  

Advocates can use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on the FY27 spending bill, and urge federal lawmakers to increase investments in HUD programs, including NLIHC’s top priorities:  

• Full funding to renew all existing Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) contracts, including ensuring continued assistance for Emergency Housing Voucher holders. 
• At least $5.1 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants program to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. 
• Increased funding for public housing operations and capital needs, to help maintain and efficiently operate public housing. 
• Increased investments in programs that support the construction and preservation of deeply affordable, accessible housing, including full funding for all Section 811 Project Rental Assistance (PRA) and PRA Contract renewals, at least $424 million for new Section 811 PRA contracts, and full funding to renew all existing contracts under the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program.  
• At least $15 million for HUD’s Eviction Prevention Grant Program (EPGP), to provide communities grants to establish right to counsel and other programs that help people avoid eviction and remain housed.  
• At least maintained funding of $1.1 billion for the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, and increasing funding to $150 million for the IHBG-Competitive program.  
• Establishing guardrails to ensure the Administration releases appropriated funding to communities, and does not withhold, redirect, or otherwise rescind Congressionally-approved funding.  

Advocates can take action today 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 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.     
• Organizations can also join CHCDF’s sign on letter calling for the highest possible funding for HUD and USDA affordable housing, homelessness and community development programs in any final FY27 spending bills. Read the letter and sign your organization on here.  

Visit NLIHC’s Advocacy Hub for more information and resources that can help you take action and help protect the affordable housing programs people rely on.