Trump Administration Releases Additional Details of FY26 Budget Request Slashing HUD Rental and Homelessness Assistance Programs – Take Action!

By Kim Johnson, NLIHC Senior Director of Policy

President Donald Trump and HUD Secretary Scott Turner released on May 30 the remaining details of their full fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request. As indicated in the partial request released on May 2, the full budget request proposes a historic 44% cut to HUD’s vital affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs, and would impose changes to rental and homelessness assistance that would leave more families struggling to afford rent, and at increased risk of homelessness. See NLIHC’s updated budget chart here.  

The president’s budget request is a step in the annual appropriations process and represents the President and his administration’s priorities – only Congress has the power to allocate federal funding, and ultimately it will be up to members of Congress to decide how to fund HUD’s vital affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs in the coming fiscal year.  

Appropriators in Congress have already begun drafting spending bills for FY26. House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) released the anticipated schedule for Appropriations subcommittees and the full committee to review and debate their 12 annual spending bills, a process known as “markup.” The House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee is slated to markup their draft FY26 spending bill for HUD programs on July 14, with a full Appropriations Committee markup scheduled for July 17. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet announced the markup schedule for their draft FY26 spending bills, but Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) released a statement in response to the President’s budget request, noting the request would “eviscerate” HUD funding and “rip the roofs off Americans’ heads and put even more families at risk of homelessness.”  

The need for additional funding for the Emergency Housing Voucher program  

In addition to the need for increased funding in FY26 to cover the cost of renewals for HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, Congress will need to provide funding to ensure the 60,000 households who receive an Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) do not lose their assistance. The EHV program was created in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided $5 billion for 60,000 new tenant-based rental assistance vouchers specifically targeted to people experiencing or at immediate risk of homelessness, including people escaping intimate partner violence. The EHV program mandates that public housing authorities (PHAs), which are responsible for administering the program, work with their local Continuums of Care (CoCs) to identify people and families at risk of or experiencing homelessness and connect them to an EHV, and wrap-around services when needed for long-term housing stability.  

The EHV program has been extremely successful, helping almost 60,000 people and families – and in particular families with children – find and maintain stable housing. While funding for the program was originally slated to last until 2030, the rapid increase in the cost of rent over the last four years has caused funding to run out much more quickly than expected. Unless additional funding is allocated by Congress, HUD estimates that funding for the program will likely be depleted in 2026.   

Detailed Analysis  

Extreme cuts and changes to HUD’s rental assistance programs  

The Trump Administration’s full budget request would slash funding for HUD rental assistance programs by $26.72 billion from the previous year – an unprecedented 43% cut – and redesign HUD rental assistance programs entirely. Under the proposal, HUD’s HCV program, Public Housing, Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA), Section 202 Housing for the Elderly (Section 202), and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811) programs would be combined into one State Rental Assistance Block Grant (SRABG) program, funded at $31.79 billion. Together, these five HUD programs help more than 4.4 million households with the lowest incomes – including families, people with disabilities, older adults, workers, caregivers, and people who formerly experienced homelessness – find and maintain stable, affordable, accessible homes.  

The full request provides limited details on the administration of the SRABG program, specifying the HUD Secretary would be charged with developing a formula to allocate funding to states, and instructing the Secretary to develop a formula for FY26 prioritizing the maintenance of assistance for people with disabilities and older adults who already receive HUD assistance. The request also instructs the HUD Secretary to “establish program requirements to incentivize self-sufficiency…including but not limited to two-year time limits on assistance for households in which neither the elderly nor persons with disabilities reside.” There are no additional details provided on how a two-year time limit on receiving rental assistance would be implemented.  

In addition to the devastating impact a 43% cut to rental assistance programs would have on the households who currently rely on HUD assistance, over time, block granting anti-poverty programs leads to significant funding decreases for those programs. Moreover, rather than promoting self-sufficiency, proposals like time-limits and work requirements impose unnecessary, bureaucratic barriers to obtaining and maintaining housing assistance, making it more difficult for individuals and families to find safe, stable housing.  

Cutting and limiting the use of homelessness assistance for permanent supportive housing  

The President’s FY26 budget request would allocate about $4.02 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program, a decrease of around $27 million from FY25. The request reframes the HAG program as “an expanded emergency solutions grants program,” specifying that assistance would be used to “assist homeless individuals or those at-risk of homelessness on an emergency, short-term, or medium-term basis,” and proposing no additional funding for the Continuum of Care (CoC) or Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs. This would severely limit communities’ ability to use HAG funding for permanent housing and supportive services, crucial tools for addressing the long-term housing needs of people who have experienced chronic homelessness and those who require additional support for long-term stability. The request would also allow HAG grantees to create a preference for assisting “elderly individuals or families, or disabled individuals or families.” It would not provide additional funding for the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program or the National Homeless Data Analysis Project.  

In addition, the President’s FY26 budget request would not provide additional funding for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program, previously funded at $505 million in FY25. The budget request argues that “individuals living with HIV/AIDS who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness may be served through the expanded emergency solutions grant program.” Taking into consideration cuts to both HOPWA and HAG funding, the budget request would slash homelessness assistance by $532 million, or 12% from the previous fiscal year.  

Public Housing  

The budget request would not provide additional funding for Public Housing Capital or Operating Funds.  

Native Housing  

The President’s FY26 budget request would cut funding for HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program to $872 million, a roughly 24% cut from the over $1.1 billion allocated for the program in FY25. It would provide $10 million, to “remain available until expended,” for noncompetitive grants to continue assisting Native veterans currently being served by HUD’s Tribal Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (Tribal HUD-VASH) program. The request would not provide additional funding for HUD’s IHBG-Competitive (IHBG-C) program, which was funded at $150 million in FY25 and targets funding to tribal communities with the most urgent affordable housing needs. The proposal would also not provide additional funding for HUD’s Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program.  

Eviction Protection Grant Program  

The FY26 budget request would not provide additional funding for HUD’s Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP), which provides grants for communities to establish right to counsel programs for tenants facing eviction and in need of legal assistance.  

Fair Housing  

The President’s budget request would allocate $26 million for HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP), while also zeroing out funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), the National Fair Housing Training Academy, and the Limited English Proficiency Initiative. Fair Housing programs were previously funded at $86 million in FY25.  

Healthy Housing   

The FY26 budget request would not provide additional funding for HUD’s Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Reduction grant programs, stating instead “HUD will use unobligated balances and recaptured funds to accomplish” the programs’ goals.  

Other HUD Programs  

The President’s budget request would provide an additional $25 million under the SRABG program for the Foster Youth to Independence grant program, which helps ensure young people aging out of foster care do not experience homelessness.  

The budget request would not provide additional funding in FY26 for HUD’s PBRA program, the Section 811 program, or the Section 202 program, instead folding these programs into the proposed SRABG program.