The Trump Administration released today (April 3) a fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget request calling for an overall 10 percent cut to non-defense programs, including a cut of at least $3.8 billion dollars to HUD’s vital affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs. An initial analysis is below; NLIHC will provide a more detailed analysis and an updated budget chart in Monday’s (April 6) Memo to Members and Partners.
The White House requests $73.5 billion in funding for HUD in the coming fiscal year, a roughly five percent cut from the $77.3 billion for HUD programs Congress provided in the final FY26 budget. As in the Trump Administration’s FY26 budget request, the proposal would not fund several important affordable housing programs, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership, Housing Opportunities For Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), Indian Housing Block Grant-Competitive (IHBG-C), Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant (NHBG), Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing Grant, Eviction Protection Grant (EPGP), and Housing Counseling programs. As in the previous budget request, the president also requests eliminating the Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP), while also slashing funding for the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP).
Similar to last year, the FY27 request would eliminate the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and provide no funding for the construction of new Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), or for the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YDHP) or the National Homeless Data Analysis Project (NHDAP). Rather, the President’s request would allocate $4.02 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program, a $393 billion decrease from the final FY26 spending bill, and reframe HAG as “an expanded emergency solutions grants program.” Under the proposal, funding would be used to provide emergency and transitional housing assistance rather than more effective assistance like permanent housing and supportive services, which are shown to successfully address the long-term housing needs of people experiencing homelessness. If enacted, the changes outlined in the budget request would severely impact communities’ ability to prevent and end homelessness.
The President’s budget request would impose work requirements and time limits on households receiving HUD rental assistance and replace the existing community service requirement so that non-exempt individuals would have to perform at least an average of 20 hours of approved work activities per week. Under the President’s budget request, there would be a five-year limit on assistance, subject to exemptions. The request states that these policies would be effective upon HUD publishing regulations or a notice implementing these policies. Federal rental assistance is a vital tool to combat the affordable housing crisis, helping families afford the cost of rent and freeing up more income for other necessities. Work requirements or time limits would lead to more families and children experiencing eviction and homelessness, with people of color at greater risk.
Unlike the FY26 budget request, the White House does not propose major cuts and programmatic overhauls to rental assistance programs. In FY26, President Trump and HUD Secretary Scott Turner proposed combining HUD’s five largest rental assistance programs – Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs), public housing, Section 202 Housing for the Elderly, Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities, and Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) – into one State Rental Assistance Block Grant and slashing funding for the program. This proposal was widely criticized by advocates and ultimately dismissed by lawmakers.
This year, the administration instead proposes a small, $608 million increase for the renewal of Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) contracts, which includes HUD’s HCV program. While this is a welcome change from the administration’s previous proposal, it would still be vastly insufficient to cover the cost of renewing all current TBRA contracts. Because the cost of rent rises every year, flat funding, or insufficient funding increases, for rental assistance programs act as a cut, reducing the number of families served and the number of available vouchers. The proposal would provide flat funding for HUD’s public housing capital needs, including flat funding for emergency and disaster grants, and would increase funding for HUD’s Public Housing Operating Fund by $353 million from the final FY26 spending bill.
In addition, the budget request would cut funding for the Section 202 program and the Section 811 programs, which if enacted, would negatively impact communities’ ability to provide affordable, accessible homes to people with disabilities and older adults. The proposal also includes language that would prohibit Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) from issuing “any new vouchers or otherwise [assisting] new families,” including through Project-Based Vouchers (PBVs), “except vouchers for HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) and the family unification program.” The request would not provide additional funding to expand the availability of HUD-VASH; however, it does propose $30 million for vouchers to help young people aging out of foster care.
The FY27 budget request also proposes $30 million in funding for a new Program Integrity Initiative, dedicated to “fight fraud, waste, and abuse of Federal housing programs.” The funding would purportedly be used to “enhance the financial reporting, visibility, and oversight of recipients and subrecipients of HUD assistance,” including “to prevent Federal rental assistance going to deceased tenants and ineligible non-citizens, and eliminate funding to entities that use funding to proselytize woke agendas.”
Take Action: Tell Congress to Provide the Highest Possible Funding for Affordable Housing and Homelessness Programs in FY27!
NLIHC is calling on Congress to once again reject funding cuts and harmful policy changes proposed in the White House’s budget request, and instead provide the highest possible funding for HUD’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs, including for NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) 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 PRA and PRAC 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.
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.
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.