National Women’s Law Center Releases Report on Impact of Key Programs on the Well-Being of Women, LGBTQ+ People, and Their Families

By Julie Walker, NLIHC National Campaign Coordinator 

The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), an Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign Steering Committee member, released a report, By the Numbers: Data on Key Programs for the Well-Being of Women, LGBTQI+ People, and their Families, detailing how proposed cuts to housing assistance, Medicaid, food assistance, and other essential social programs would disproportionately harm women—particularly Black, Latina, and Native women and LGBTQ+ individuals. The report features data about each program’s anti-poverty impacts and participation rates. Federal housing assistance and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) are featured in the report, with women heading 74% of HUD assisted households in 2024 and 67% of households receiving ERAP in 2023. In 2023, federal housing assistance lifted over 2.8 million people out of poverty, including 1.2 million women. The report concludes by emphasizing that programs like housing assistance that help households meet their basic needs especially benefit women, particularly women of color, immigrant women, women with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals. At the same time, all individuals benefit when everyone in a community can afford essential needs.  

 The report reveals how women, LGBTQ+ people, and their families are facing disproportionate economic hardship amid rising costs and limited public supports. Historically, this population has been more likely to experience poverty and hardship due to discrimination and structural inequities across systems, including housing, along with their relative likelihood of being responsible for unpaid caregiving work. NWLC’s report includes data on the anti-poverty impacts and participation rates of key programs in housing assistance, health care, nutrition assistance, educational opportunity, refundable tax credits, and social insurance programs. For housing assistance, chronic underfunding has led to demand that far outpaces the assistance available. Women of color in particular experience high rates of severe housing cost-burden (spending more than 50% of household income on housing costs), which puts this population at increased risk having an unexpected expense lead to eviction. Over the past few years, ERAP funding has helped mitigate the rising threat of evictions, and its impact demonstrates that housing assistance is critical to keeping people housed as eviction rates continue to rise.  

 Read the report here. Read the OSAH fact sheets to learn more about the connections between gender equity, LGBTQ+ equity, and housing here.