As the annual 2026 federal budget advances, proposed cuts to housing programs threaten to reduce affordable housing. Take action.
The Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives has advanced their annual Transportation-HUD spending bill, including deep cuts into federal programs that sustain, build, and facilitate access to affordable housing. This comes as Congress recently concluded its major domestic policy bill, codifying severe cuts to SNAP and Medicaid programs into law, and as lawmakers are now working to pass a full budget by the fiscal year Oct. 1 deadline.
Though homeless assistance grants received a 2% increase in the committee proposal, the total U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) budget would be cut by nearly $1 billion from last year’s funding levels. The cuts would include:
- Enacting a 26% staffing cut at HUD.
- Eliminating funding for projects that help build new affordable housing, like the HOME Investment Partnerships program.
- Keeping funds flat for most rental assistance programs that need basic housing market increases.
- Making deep cuts to public housing and more.
ELCA social teaching affirms that all people have a right to life-sustaining livelihood - and “housing is a fundamental human right” that is essential to the wellbeing of the full person (ELCA Social Message, Homelessness, 1990). With the lack of affordable housing becoming one of the largest drivers of homelessness, and in a year when homelessness rose to over 771,000 people on a single night, lawmakers must hear from constituents that this is not a time to be divesting from housing programs.
[Posted: 7/21/2025]
