The House passed a new continuing resolution to extend the deadline to enact six fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills on February 29, including the HUD funding bill until March 8. The remaining six bills, including the one that funds HHS discretionary programs, now have an enactment deadline of March 22.

On February 28, House and Senate leaders announced negotiations on all 12 bills had been completed. The Senate is expected to pass the continuing resolution by midnight, March 1, when the current continuing resolution expires. LeadingAge is eager for the appropriations bills to be enacted and for HUD to have full FY24 funding for its programs.

In a February 5 letter to House and Senate appropriators, LeadingAge reiterated our fiscal year 2024 funding priorities and urged Congress to enact the highest possible levels of funding.

“As described in HUD’s 2023 recent report to Congress on worst case housing needs, 2.35 million older adult renter households with very low incomes spent more than half of their incomes on housing in 2021, an increase of 60% since 2011. These households are on the precipice of homelessness without Congressional action to preserve and expand the nation’s affordable housing supply,” the letter says.

How to increase the supply of affordable housing, inextricably linked to increasing subsidies for affordable housing, was a key focus of a January 11 HUD oversight hearing held by the House Committee on Financial Services. Read about the hearing here.

The House and Senate struck an agreement on January 7 to topline spending limits for fiscal year 2024 (FY24), a necessary step to enacting federal spending bills to keep government programs funded past upcoming deadlines. With the new agreement, appropriators will race toward finishing funding bills and attempt to avoid a year-long continuing resolution or a government shutdown.

Read the full LeadingAge article for more details.

If a year-long continuing resolution (CR) is enacted, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said is possible, an analysis released by the Senate Committee on Appropriations on December 7 says that “federal housing assistance for nearly 700,000 households” would be cut, “pushing many of them toward homelessness.”

A year-long CR would fund Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs during all of fiscal year 2024 at fiscal year 2023 levels. Such funding would be insufficient to renew all Section 8 project-based rental assistance contracts and continue funding for all Housing Choice Voucher Households. Funding at last year’s levels would also result in 3,000 fewer new affordable homes built, including in HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program.

Take Action! Use this action alert to urge members of Congress to enact a final FY24 HUD appropriations bill.

On November 1, 2023, the Senate passed the fiscal year 2024 HUD funding bill as part of a three-bill appropriations package. The bill would fully-fund the renewal of HUD project-based rental assistance contracts that support affordable senior housing communities, provide $152 million to expand the supply of Section 202 homes, provide $6 million to support Rental Assistance Demonstration conversions by Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contracts, and provide renewal funding for existing HUD service coordinators.

During consideration of the Senate bill, which passed with an 85–15 vote, the Senate rejected an amendment from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) that would have cut HUD and USDA funding by $30 billion for FY24. The House is poised to consider its FY24 HUD funding bill, which would cut overall HUD funding as well as funding for the Section 202 program, on November 2. LeadingAge urges advocates to ask their House members to reject the bill and any amendments to further cut housing programs.

Senate leaders have struck an agreement to move forward on a package of three fiscal year 2024 (FY24) appropriations bills, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding bill.

Some amendments filed for Senate floor consideration would impact HUD funding, including an amendment from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to prohibit the use of any funding to implement any energy efficiency standards in HUD subsidized housing; an amendment from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to cut funding for most housing programs including a $279 million cut to the bill’s $1.075 billion for the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program; and an amendment from Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) to authorize perpetual continuing resolutions, which could perpetually fund programs at a previous year’s funding level and be very damaging to affordable housing programs.

Aging services stakeholders are urged to Take Action and ask senators to protect and expand affordable senior housing programs.

The full House of Representatives could start consideration of its fiscal year 2024 HUD funding bill later the week of October 9, after a new House Speaker is named. Regardless of the specific timing of the full House considering its HUD FY24 funding bill, the House Committee on Rules allowed members to submit amendments to the bill, HR 4820, until October 5. In this LeadingAge article, learn more about two proposed House amendments we support, that would increase Section 202 funding by $15 million in total by transferring funds from HUD administrative support offices. There are also several amendments of great concern to LeadingAge, including measures that would restrict financial assistance to some individuals aged 21-59, prohibit DEI programming, and halve HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program.

Submission of an amendment does not mean the Rules Committee will allow the amendment to be considered. Join us in urging Congress to do more, not less!

Two days after the House proposed dramatic cuts, Senate appropriators on July 20 approved a proposal to “flat-fund,” or maintain at current levels, overall Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding for fiscal year 2024 (FY24).

The June agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling capped overall discretionary spending for FY24 at FY23 levels. The Senate kept to those caps when writing its FY24 HUD funding bill. The House cut spending much deeper than the agreement required, resulting in an FY24 HUD funding bill that underfunds some programs and eliminates others.

View the full LeadingAge article for more details.

The House Appropriations Committee continues consideration of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding bills for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), which begins at the end of September. Lawmakers had previously advanced on July 12 a draft of the legislation that would cut HUD’s budget by 25%, including a 15% cut to HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, and prevent HUD from using funds to implement fair housing provisions. “Cuts of this magnitude to programs that, at existing funding levels, meet only a small portion of demand, will leave too many older adults without homes, and also without the valuable help provided by service coordinators working at many 202 communities,” said LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan in a press statement.

During the full committee markup on July 18, several lawmakers offered amendments to adjust funding and policy provisions in the draft legislation, and a heated debate ensued about providing funding for housing projects that serve LGBTQ households, along with other fair housing issues. The House Appropriations Committee has not yet concluded the markup and the Senate will consider its version of the funding legislation on July 20.

During a markup held by the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) on July 12, lawmakers advanced a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding proposal for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) that would enact serious cuts to affordable housing programs.

The proposed legislation would reduce HUD’s budget overall by 25% for FY24 over the current fiscal year, including a 15% cut to HUD’s flagship initiative for low-income older adults, the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program. During the markup, Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) stressed the importance of fiscal responsibility in approving federal agency funding for next year, saying that not all of the country’s current housing and transportation programs “made the cut.”

In response, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who serves as the Ranking Member for the House Appropriations Committee, said that the cuts proposed in the Subcommittee’s bill are “unthinkable.”

The subcommittee’s proposal “demonstrates lawmakers’ tremendous disregard for low-income seniors across the country who rely on federally assisted housing and a serious lack of foresight about this country’s future housing needs,” said Katie Smith Sloan, LeadingAge president and CEO, in a press statement. “Cuts of this magnitude to programs that, at existing funding levels, meet only a small portion of demand, will leave too many older adults without homes, and also without the valuable help provided by service coordinators working at many 202 communities. Single adults over 50 now make up half of the homeless population; experts project that if no actions are taken in the next 15 years, an additional 2.4 million seniors in the United States will have no access to affordable housing.”

Several other subcommittee members also voiced their opposition to cuts to housing and transportation programs, as well as to a regulatory provision in the proposal that would restrict HUD implementation of affirmative fair housing requirements.

Next, the full House Appropriations Committee will consider the bill, during which time amendments may be offered; the Senate has yet to release its own version of HUD funding legislation for FY24.

A recording of the markup is available here. For more information about the proposed legislation, see “15% Cut to HUD Section 202 Program in House Bill,” below. LeadingAge members can take action to protect HUD funding for affordable senior housing by completing an urgent action alert here.

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.

LeadingAge, along with other members of the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF), sent a June 30 letter to House and Senate appropriators “to express our sincere concern for the fate of HUD and USDA affordable housing, homelessness assistance, and community development programs in the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget.” CHCDF is a coalition of national housing and community development organizations working together to secure the highest possible funding for housing and community development programs, and LeadingAge is on the steering committee.

“Efforts to cap funding for the upcoming year at FY22 levels—despite the agreement reached in the Fiscal Responsibility Act—represent an urgent threat to the millions of people who rely on HUD and USDA housing programs. Under the 302(b)s adopted by the House Appropriations Committee, the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) bill would be cut by over $22.12 billion, or over 25%, from FY23 enacted levels,” the letter says.

Housing advocates are urged to respond to LeadingAge’s action alert on FY24 HUD funding and find additional information on FY24 HUD funding here.

As the fiscal year 2024 appropriations cycle continues, the Senate Committee on Appropriations on June 22 adopted fiscal year 2024 (FY24) allocations for each of its 12 subcommittees. The Senate’s allocations reflect the spending caps agreed to in the debt ceiling negotiations, while the House allocations, adopted June 15, do not and are much lower.

For the Transportation—Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Subcommittee, the Senate allocation provides $88.091 billion for FY24—35.1% more than the House THUD Subcommittee allocation of $65.2 billion, which, as explained in this June 16, 2023 post, is 26% below the final  FY22 THUD Subcommittee allocation of $88.6 billion.

The Senate $88.091 billion THUD subcommittee allocation is $759 million more than the amount allocated and spent by THUD for FY23—in line with the debt ceiling deal, which allows for overall federal spending to be 1% more than FY23 levels. For the Senate’s THUD allocation, the $88.091 billion amount is 0.9% above the FY23-enacted THUD bill.

The proposed $88.091 billion THUD Subcommittee funding is still very low compared with housing program funding needs; after all, the costs incurred to operate HUD programs and maintain even the same number of assisted households rise more than 0.9% each year.

Further complicating HUD’s FY24 funding outlook is a projected decline in revenues generated from the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) single family mortgage insurance product, which HUD usually contributes to help appropriators fund the HUD appropriations bill. As interest rates rose in 2022, revenues from FHA single family insurance products nose-dived,and the home purchasing and refinancing markets cooled. For FY24, appropriators will have access to $13 billion less in FHA receipts than they did in FY23.

Aging services stakeholders are urged to respond to the LeadingAge action alert for FY24 HUD funding.

The House Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved fiscal year 2024 (FY24) funding allocations well below fiscal year 2022 (FY22) allocations for most subcommittees—a move that set funding at levels lower than those agreed to as part of the recent debt ceiling deal, and also below the drastic cuts previewed by  Appropriations Chair Kay Granger  earlier in the week.

For the Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD), the FY24 allocation of $65.2 billion is 26% below the FY22 THUD Subcommittee allocation of $88.6 billion. At such funding levels, it is unclear if the House THUD Subcommittee can develop a bill that will garner the votes necessary to pass the House.

The vast majority of annual HUD funding pays for existing housing subsidies; a bill written to comply with the $65.2 billion allocation would almost certainly result in housing subsidy contract cuts.

LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a June 14 press statement: “House Committee on Appropriations Chair Kay Granger’s announced intention to limit overall spending …will drastically reduce funding for the House’s Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) appropriations bill – a move that will be devastating for older adults, especially those waiting for a home in affordable housing. The debt ceiling deal’s two years of spending caps were already terrible for the older adults, but this new, even more outrageous step would be catastrophic.”

We urge aging services stakeholders to continue to respond to our new action alert to protect and expand affordable senior housing funding.

The House Committee on Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) announced her plans to write fiscal year 2024 (FY24) appropriations bills at fiscal year 2022 (FY22) spending levels—a move that was just rejected by the debt ceiling deal reached after lengthy negotiations by House Speaker Keven McCarthy (R-TX) and the White House. The debt ceiling deal, enacted as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, does cap FY24 spending, but at a level equal to fiscal year 2023, plus 1%.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act set a topline spending cap—a ceiling, not a floor—for fiscal year 2024 bills. That is why I will use this opportunity to mark up appropriations bills that limit new spending to the fiscal year 2022 topline level,” Granger said in a statement. Taking a harder line on spending, she ignited ire from Democrats for an about-face on the debt ceiling agreement.

The House Committee on Appropriations is expected to vote on allocations to its 12 subcommittees on June 14. Media reports say the subcommittee allocations total $1.471 trillion, or $119 billion less than the spending caps from the debt ceiling law, and $131 billion less than the current fiscal year’s level; all of the reductions are in nondefense discretionary spending (e.g., housing programs). Granger has said that $115 billion in rescissions would make additional funds available for FY24 but has not identified any such rescissions.

Asked earlier in the year what funding at FY22 levels would mean for HUD programs, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge said approximately 87,000 Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance households would lose their housing and 350,000 currently in-use Housing Choice Vouchers would be eliminated.

“House Committee on Appropriations Chair Kay Granger’s announced intention to limit overall spending …will drastically reduce funding for the House’s Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) appropriations bill – a move that will be devastating for older adults, especially those waiting for a home in affordable housing,” said LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan in a press statement. “The debt ceiling deal’s two years of spending caps were already terrible for the older adults, but this new, even more outrageous step would be catastrophic.”

Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents today: Take action and tell your members of Congress to protect and expand affordable senior housing!

Tens of millions will be rescinded from Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) multifamily programs from unobligated COVID relief funds and overall federal non-defense discretionary spending, including for HUD programs, for fiscal year 2024 (FY24) will be at no more than fiscal year 2023 (FY23)  levels in a debt ceiling deal passed by the House and Senate May 31 and June 1, respectively, and on its way to the White House for President Biden’s signature.

Read the full LeadingAge article for more details.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge discussed and defended the agency’s FY24 budget request at an April 20 hearing. Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies expressed concern and gratitude on a range of issues and asked Secretary Fudge pointed questions about specific programs and populations.

In 2020, Secretary Fudge said, people 55 and older were 17.9% of all people experiencing homelessness and were 30% of all people experiencing chronic homelessness. “We don’t have enough senior housing. We don’t have enough housing that’s affordable to seniors. We don’t have enough housing where seniors can age in place,” Secretary Fudge said. The dangerous mix of lack of affordable housing, fixed incomes, and rising rents means that “seniors are being forced and pushed to the street,” the Secretary said. “We know the answer is more affordable housing.” The statements reiterated comments Secretary Fudge made at an April 18 House HUD appropriations hearing.

Read the full report from the hearing.

Sixteen Senators joined a letter led by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies leadership requesting inclusion of $30 million for housing-based models of care through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to expand or adapt evidence-based, existing population health models serving older adults and adults with disabilities in the FY24 Labor-H spending bill. Senator Sanders is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

“This request aims to further President Biden’s goal of increasing access to mental and physical health care services, bringing down medical costs for low- and moderate-income Americans, and creating greater health care equity,” the letter says. Read the letter here.

On April 6, Senator Robert Menendez sent a letter in support of strong funding for HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program to Senate Appropriations Committee leadership. The letter garnered sign-ons from 41 Senators, the most ever to join this annual letter.

“We respectfully request: full funding for contract renewals for the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program and an additional $600 million for capital advances and operating subsidies for new 202 homes to keep up with existing and increasing need,” the letter says. “Section 202 provides a sensible and necessary approach to meeting our nation’s growing affordable housing needs for seniors, and it is the only federally funded program expressly aimed at doing so. As HUD’s most recent Worst Case Housing Needs Report finds, 2.24 million very low-income elderly households are paying more than 50 percent of their income in rent, an increase of 68% since 2009.”

LeadingAge advocates urged every Senate office to join the letter and are grateful for Senator Menendez’s continued leadership in support of the Section 202 program.

In a letter coordinated by LeadingAge, 40 national organizations urged House and Senate appropriators to fully fund housing renewals and expand the supply of affordable senior housing in HUD’s FY24 funding bill.

“We urge Congress not to stray from its commitment for full and timely renewal funding for the 1.9 million older adult households currently assisted by HUD’s Project-Based Rental Assistance, Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, Public Housing, and Housing Choice Vouchers programs. Meeting funding needs for the uninterrupted provision of quality affordable housing for currently assisted residents is of utmost importance,” the March 31 letter says. “We urge Congress to expand the supply of housing affordable to older adults with very low incomes by providing $600 million for new capital grants and operating subsidies for approximately 5,400 new Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly homes.”

“By suggesting cuts that would rob a million older adults of nutrition services, deny thousands of seniors access to paid work opportunities, and put seniors across the country at risk of homelessness, the Republican proposal shows that they are willing to turn their backs on this vulnerable portion of our population at a time when they need the support the most,” a March 23 press release from Appropriations Democrats says.

Contemplated House cuts to domestic discretionary programs in fiscal year 2024 would equate to a “five-alarm fire” for older adults, the White House said on March 23. Individual departmental assessments, requested and received by House Committee on Appropriation Democrats, describe how the House Freedom Caucus’s suggested cuts would impact programs.

The White House assessment takes a cross-department view of the discussed cuts’ impact on older adults and says the suggested cuts would worsen Social Security and Medicare wait times, rob seniors of healthy meals, cut housing for seniors, and reduce other vital services for older adults.

House Committee on Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) is circulating an FY24 appropriations letter to her House colleagues. The letter requests investments in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance programs and is addressed to House Committee on Appropriations leadership. Affordable senior housing advocates and stakeholders are urged to ask their U.S. Representatives to join the letter by March 27.

“Older adults with such severe housing cost burdens spend significantly less on basic necessities like health care and food than their peers without housing cost burdens and may even be pushed into homelessness. In fact, according to LeadingAge, between 2007 and 2017, the rate of homelessness among individuals 62 and older nearly doubled from 4.1% to 8%,” the letter says.

U.S. Senate offices have until April 3 to join a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and related agencies for strong Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly funding in FY24. LeadingAge is grateful to Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) for his leadership of the letter.

“As you consider the Fiscal Year 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, we urge you to support the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 and 811 programs for seniors and persons with disabilities. We respectfully request: full funding for contract renewals for the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program and an additional $600 million for capital advances and operating subsidies for new 202 homes to keep up with existing and increasing need,” the letter says.

To join the letter, U.S. Senate offices should email alfie_feder@menendez.senate.gov by COB April 3. Advocates can reach their U.S. Senator and ask them to join the letter through the U.S. Capitol switchboard, 202/224-3121.

On March 20, Chair DeLauro published the full suite of responses from Administration departments and agencies, including the response from HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge. In response to a proposal by a majority of House Republicans to cut discretionary spending for FY24 back to FY22 levels, House Committee on Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro asked every agency what such a rollback to FY22 funding levels or to a cut of 22% compared to FY23 levels would mean for programs they administer.

Read more in the full article.

On March 13, the White House released appendices and tables to accompany with the fiscal year 2024 budget request overview delivered to Congress on March 9. For housing programs, the new documents provide detail on the Administration’s request. Overall, the request seeks $73.3 billion for HUD, approximately $1.1 billion more than the 2023 enacted funding level.

Read the full article.

LeadingAge policy team gives a comprehensive overview of the proposed budget and how it impacts affordable housing.

“The President’s 2024 Budget directly supports this historic Administration’s goal of building a better America for all. For those of us at HUD, that means addressing homelessness with urgency and ensuring everyone in this country has access to quality affordable housing,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a March 9 statement.

Read the full article.