Despite a fast-approaching funding deadline, Congress has yet to reach an agreement on a final fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bill for vital HUD and USDA affordable housing and homelessness programs. Without an agreement – or another continuing resolution (CR) to extend funding – the federal government will partially shut down.
Advocates should contact members of Congress TODAY and urge them to pass a final FY25 spending bill with increased funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs!
Background
Congress is almost five months behind in passing a final spending agreement for FY25 and has been relying on a series of CRs to extend funding for the federal government and avoid a government shutdown. The next CR deadline is March 14, at which point Congress will need to either pass a final spending bill, enact another CR to extend federal funding again, or face a partial shutdown of the federal government.
Congress is under additional pressure to reach an agreement by the end of April. Lawmakers are still operating under the terms of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which dictates that failure to enact final FY25 spending bills result in mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts, known as “sequestration.”
Insufficient funding, budget cuts, and long-term CRs have a devastating impact on affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. CRs maintain spending levels from the previous fiscal year, but because the cost of affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs rises every year, increased annual funding for HUD programs is required to simply maintain the number of people served by these vital programs.
Take Action
Urge Congress to pass a final FY25 spending bill with increased funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs!
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 take action on FY25 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 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.
Using 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 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 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.
Thank you for your advocacy!