With the March 14 expiration of the continuing resolution coming quickly, appropriators, who have been trying to determine an overall framework for fiscal year 2025 funding and then agree to the 12 annual appropriations bills before the March 14 deadline, along House and Senate leadership, still do not have a plan.

With the date fast approaching, one option that seemed more and more likely is a year-long continuing resolution (CR), which would fund programs at fiscal year 2024 levels throughout fiscal year 2025.

For the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, funding at FY2024 levels, as LeadingAge has argued in advocacy outreach to elected officials, is insufficient to fully renew multifamily rental assistance contracts and pay for rising costs in other HUD programs.

In a win for affordable senior housing stakeholders, the White House’s list of anomalies (i.e., exceptions) to funding at FY24 levels includes an additional $893 million for Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance renewals. Based on HUD’s request for FY25, this additional amount would provide HUD with sufficient resources to fully renew contracts in FY25. “The PBRA funding needs increase [sic] annually due to inflationary pressures on the operating expenses of assisted properties,” the anomalies list says. “At [only] the full year CR level [HUD] would need to ‘short fund” contracts, meaning HUD would only be able to provide for about 11 months of contract rents instead of 12 months.”

The list also notes that insufficient funding for FY25 would also dig a funding hole that would need to be addressed in FY26, when 13 months of funding would be needed if FY25 is only funded at FY24 levels.

The list does not include an anomaly for Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC) renewals. For FY25, HUD had said a $16 million increase was needed for the Section 202 account. It’s possible that no anomaly is being requested because the previous $16 million increase request was inaccurate, because there are unexpected carryover funds, or that HUD plans on working to tamp down on cost increases by more tightly controlling HUD rent increases to affordable senior housing communities, including for service coordinator grants.

However, hopes for even a year-long CR are fading as some in the White House and Congress hope to include spending cuts sought by the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a year-long CR. Senate passage of an appropriations bill, including a year-long CR, requires 60 votes to pass. This means that Democrat votes will be necessary to pass a year-long CR. Democrats have said they will not support a CR that includes DOGE-sought cuts.

Stakeholders are urged to reach out to senators and representatives and urge them that full, uninterrupted HUD funding is needed.