Overview of Funding Levels Impacting Key Homelessness & Housing Programs
The House Appropriations Committee released their FY26 report out of committee. While House appropriators did not take up many of the program proposals the Administration outlined in its budget request, funding levels were still insufficient to meet the current homelessness and housing crisis. The House’s budget proposal threatens to cut nearly $3.3 billion from critical programs that support local efforts to prevent and end homelessness.
Please note that the Senate amount, and therefore the final amount, are not yet decided upon, so these columns are left blank. The Alliance will update the chart with this information as it becomes available.
| Program | FY25 Level Final | FY26 House | % Change | FY26 Senate | FY26 Final |
| Homeless Assistance Grants | $4.051 billion | $4.158 billion | 3% | – | – |
| Tenant Based Rental Assistance | $36.048 billion | $35.268 billion | -2% | – | – |
| Public Housing (Operating) | $5.501 billion | $5.000 billion | -9% | – | – |
| Public Housing (Capital) | $3.410 billion | $2.286 billion | -33% | – | – |
| Housing Opportunities with People with AIDS | $505 million | $505 million | 0% | – | – |
| Community Development Block Grant | $3.300 billion | $3.300 billion | 0% | – | – |
| Project Based Rental Assistance | $16.890 billion | $17.127 billion | 1% | – | – |
| HOME Investment Partnerships | $1.250 billion | $0 | -100% | – | – |
| Indian Housing Block Grants | $1.111 billion | $1.111 billion | 0% | – | – |
| Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant | $22 million | $18 million | -18% | – | – |
| Elderly Housing (Sec 202) | $931 million | $950 million | 2% | – | – |
| Housing for People with Disabilities (811) | $256 million | $262 million | 2% | – | – |
| Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity | $86 million | $29 million | -66% | – | – |
| U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness | $4 million | $0 | -100% | – | – |
| Total | $73.365 billion | $70.014 billion | -4.6% | – | – |
Top Policy Concerns
- Forces staffing cuts. The House bill cuts funding for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) staff by 26%, reflecting the reductions implemented by Secretary Turner. Codifying this reduction in force will result in harmful delays and decreased efficiency, and will impact HUD’s ability to respond to disasters.
- Eliminates the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME). The bill does not provide funding for HOME, the only federal block grant dedicated exclusively to the production of new affordable housing. (Note that this is not the same program as HOME-ARP, which Committee members mistakenly conflated and cited for having unspent funds).
- Undermines local decision-making. The bill withholds live-saving funds from “sanctuary cities” that do not comply with requests from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to notify federal immigration authorities with “advance notice of the scheduled release of an immigrant without legal documentation.”
- Provides insufficient funding to cover existing programs. Most accounts within HUD are either decreased or flat funded in this bill. This means that this budget does not address increased costs associated with rent and housing production, risking an even greater shortfall for existing programs and initiatives.
- Offers broad waiver authority. The bill allows the HUD Secretary to waive or create alternatives to statutory requirements on public housing and rental assistance. This change opens the door to implementing problematic conditions, such as time limits on rental assistance and work requirements.
- Defunds HUD-VASH. The bill adopts the President’s proposal to move HUD-VASH vouchers to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) as part of the new “Bridging Rental Assistance for Veteran Empowerment” (BRAVE) program.
- Slashes funding for Fair Housing programs. The bill decreases funding for HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity by $58 million from the previous fiscal year, for a total of $29 million.
Removes a critical eviction protection. The bill does away with the requirement that owners of HUD-assisted housing must provide tenants at risk of an eviction notice at least 30 days prior to taking action.
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