The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD)’s fiscal year (FY24) funding bill would provide $65.208 billion for HUD in FY24, which the House Committee on Appropriations says is 25% below fiscal year 2023 (FY23) funding. The bill would cut funding for many HUD programs and eliminate funding for others.

The subcommittee’s bill would also rescind $25.035 billion from Internal Revenue Service enforcement spending, as provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and another $564.2 million from HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes to supplement the bill’s overall funding for HUD and Transportation programs in FY24.

Even including these controversial rescission proposals, the bill would cut HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program from its FY23 level of $1.075 billion to $913 million in FY24, or by 15%.

Of the $913 million provided by the subcommittee’s bill, up to $6 million is to increase Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC) rents for conversion under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), up to $25 million is for new intergenerational housing under the Section 202 program, and up to $112 million is for service coordinators.

For FY23, HUD has said that $797 million is necessary to renew PRAC subsidies in the Section 202 account. Subtracting the bill’s “up to” funding for service coordinators, PRAC conversions under RAD, and new intergenerational housing, $770 million remains for PRAC renewals in FY24. Meanwhile, the Subcommittee’s summary of the bill claims the bill fully funds housing contract renewals.

If funded at $913 million for FY24, it is highly unlikely there would be any new Section 202 units funded by the bill besides intergenerational units. LeadingAge supports HUD funding for intergenerational units as well as for mainstream Section 202 senior housing units.

For service coordinators, HUD had requested $112 million to renew existing service coordinator grants, the same amount provided by the bill. Therefore, at this funding level, it is unlikely the bill could also provide any funding for new service coordinator grants. The bill does not provide any funding through the Section 8 PBRA account for budget-based rent increases for service coordinators as HUD had requested and LeadingAge is seeking.

To support Section 202 PRAC conversions under RAD, the Administration has requested $10 million for FY24, a level supported by LeadingAge. The bill would expand the RAD program to include senior preservation assistance contracts (SPRACS), which LeadingAge supports.

The bill would provide $15.820 billion for Section 8 PBRA contract renewals, which the bill’s summary says is sufficient to renew all contracts.

The bill summary says it would fully fund Section 811 project rental assistance (PRA) and PRAC renewals and all Section 811 mainstream voucher renewals, but it does not provide any funding for new Section 811 project rental assistance or PRAC homes.

The bill would eliminate the Older Adult Home Modification Program, which was funded at $30 million in FY23. The bill does include $1 million for a Veterans Housing Rehabilitation and Modification Pilot program to help rehabilitate and modify housing for disabled and low-income veterans.

HUD’s HOME program, a flexible source of financing for many types of affordable housing needs, is slashed by the bill, from $1.5 billion in funding in FY23 to the bill’s proposed $500 million for FY24.

HUD’s requests to expand the number of housing choice vouchers was not funded, nor was a new FY23 program to help increase access by voucher holders to good neighborhoods.

The bill would also prohibit HUD from using of any of its funds to implement Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which is in the early stages of regulatory development at HUD.

The bill zeros out funding for the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, a public housing revitalization program.

The bill also deeply cuts the transportation side of the THUD bill, including a 64% cut to Amtrak.

Read the bill summary here and watch the July 12 House Subcommittee mark-up of its FY12 THUD bill here.

Take Action! Urge your member of Congress to fully fund and expand HUD’s critical housing programs with this action alert.