Federal Appropriations Spending Bill for HUD Proposes Cut to Programs

The U.S. House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) released its draft fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bill for HUD programs on June 26. The bill proposes an overall cut to HUD programs of $2.3 billion, or 3%, from the funding provided in FY24.

While the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program would receive an increase of $115 million compared to the previous year’s funding level, bringing the program to a total of $32.3 billion, this amount may not be sufficient to cover the total cost of renewals. Several programs, including the Public Housing Operating Fund and Public Housing Capital Fund, would receive deep spending cuts as part of the House proposal.

The Choice Neighborhood program, Yes in My Backyard program, eviction defense resources, and Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grants are eliminated under the House proposal, and the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program would be dramatically cut to $500 million, resulting in a 60% cut compared to the previous year’s funding.

A few programs would receive level funding compared to last year’s spending bill, including Community Development Block Grants ($3.3 billion in formula funding), Housing for Persons with AIDS ($505 million), Policy Development and Research ($119 million), and Housing Counseling ($57.5 million).

The Senate has not passed its appropriations bill yet. Once the Senate has passed its bill, the final stage of the process is resolving any disagreements between the House and the Senate so that both chambers pass the exact same measure. The practical deadline for passage of appropriations is October 1st when the next fiscal year begins and the previous appropriation bills expire. However, these deadlines are not enforceable, and over the past few years, Congress has enacted multiple continuing resolutions to extend this timeline. Given elections in November, it is highly likely that lawmakers will punt funding debates past those dates.