On July 25, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, bucking both the House Appropriations Committee’s bill and HUD’s request for fiscal year 2025 (FY25) funding, voted to provide $115 million for new Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Homes in FY25. Neither the House Committee bill nor HUD’s request included funding for new Section 202 homes. Increasing the supply of housing affordable to older adults with low incomes is a long-standing LeadingAge priority.

A welcome departure from the House Committee’s bill, the Senate bill provides funding for $115 million for new Section 202 homes, $10 million to support the conversion of Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contracts through the Rental Assistance Demonstration, which the House Committee bill did not fund at all, and increasing funding for the HOME program, which the House Committee bill cut substantially.

The Senate bill also provides $200 million more than the House Committee’s bill for the renewal of Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance (PRBA) and a new $25 million loan to help rehabilitate 15 to 20 PBRA communities with market rate rents but need additional capital. “This bipartisan bill makes critical new investments to help people keep a roof over their head,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a statement. As noted by Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) in the Committee’s mark up, the bill provides funding to preserve existing HUD-subsidized housing while also making investments in new HUD assistance.

The text of the Senate Committee’s HUD funding bill has not been released; LeadingAge will provide further analysis of the bill at a later time.

On July 25, the House will depart Washington DC for its August recess until after Labor Day; the Senate departs on August 2. August is a great time for advocates to reach out to their House and Senate offices in support of strong funding for HUD’s affordable senior housing programs.

On June 27, the House Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) reviewed a draft of the Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2025 spending bills, including a proposed 7.3% cut to HUD.

After brief remarks by appropriators, the bill advanced on a partisan basis, with Subcommittee Chairman Steve Womack (R-AR) calling the bill a “responsible fiscal approach” to funding the country’s safety net programs. Subcommittee Democrats withheld their support, saying that the bill would devastate American households and increase homelessness.

LeadingAge strongly opposes the bill, which does not provide new resources for homes developed through HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly or for Service Coordination in HUD-assisted housing, among other priorities requested by LeadingAge and more than 1,000 organizations in a recent letter to Congressional appropriators.

In the meantime, the HUD FY25 bill was advanced by a voice vote, and the full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the bill on July 10; the Senate has not yet announced any bill mark-ups for HUD.

In preparation for the House Appropriations Subcommittee vote on its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) HUD funding bill on June 27,  a June 26 bill was released that would cut overall HUD funding by 7.5% compared to fiscal year 2024 (FY24), provide a small increase (from $912 million in FY24 to $931 million in FY25 to account for increased renewal costs) for the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program, and provide no funding for new Section 202 homes or new service coordinators.

In its request for FY25 funding, much to LeadingAge’s disappointment, HUD did not seek any funding for new Section 202 homes or new service coordinators. The need for more affordable housing for older adults is nationwide and at record levels. Dozens of Senators and Representatives support greatly expanded Section 202 funding, which mirrors LeadingAge’s advocacy for this program.

In addition, the bill would cut the HOME block grant program by 60% compared to FY24; many housing providers rely on the HOME program to help meet gap financing and other needs. The bill purports to fully fund renewals and ongoing assistance for existing housing, including for Section 8 project-based rental assistance, Section 202 project-rental assistance contracts, and service coordinator grant renewals. However, HUD requested $115 million, compared to the bill’s $112 million, for service coordinator grant renewals in FY25. The bill includes no funding to support increased rents for the conversion of Section 202 PRACs to the Section 8 platform through the Rental Assistance Demonstration, as HUD and LeadingAge requested.

The bill prohibits use of any of its funds to implement HUD’s proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule; LeadingAge supported the proposed rule. Overall, the bill would provide $90.400 billion, which is $7.084 billion (7.3%) below the FY24 enacted level, for HUD.

The Subcommittee will vote on their bill on June 27; full House Committee on Appropriations consideration is scheduled for July 10. The Senate has yet to consider its mark-ups but Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) has called for additional funding beyond the spending caps to accommodate the needs of her FY25 bills.

Watch the June 27 Subcommittee consideration here.

On June 18, Senate Committee on Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) called for an increase to fiscal year 2025 spending caps. The caps, implemented for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, allow for only a 1% increase to nondefense discretionary spending in FY25 for programs that receive annually appropriated funds from Congress, like HUD’s affordable housing programs. Overall, the caps led to level funding for nondefense discretionary funding in FY24, compared to FY23.

“I can’t emphasize enough that, under the caps for nondefense, everything struggles to keep up with rising costs,” said Senator Murray said in a statement. “So, to me, the path for the Senate is clear: we have got to provide additional resources beyond the caps to address major shortfalls and new challenges.”

Advocacy for FY25

LeadingAge has joined a letter to House and Senate leadership, coordinated by NDD United, urging Congress to “reject arbitrary and damaging funding levels for Fiscal Year 2025 and, at the very least, to fully appropriate the necessary non-defense discretionary (NDD) funds to keep pace with rising costs.” Organizations can read the letter and sign on here by June 21.

On June 27, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) will vote on its FY25 spending bill, which will then be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee on July 10. LeadingAge is urging stakeholders to reach out to members of Congress in support of strong funding to expand the supply of affordable housing for older adults and for more service coordinators in affordable senior housing. The Fiscal Responsibility Act’s spending caps make increasing HUD funding levels extremely difficult, as demonstrated by the cut to HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program in the final FY24 HUD appropriations bill. And, for the first time since FY18, the 2024 annual HUD appropriations bill had no funding for new Section 202 homes, despite rising need.

On May 16, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) released the markup schedule for Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bills, including for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). During the markups, first the Transportation and HUD Subcommittee and then the full House Appropriations Committee will review and vote on proposed funding levels for FY25. The markups follow relatively friendly Congressional hearings in early May, during which acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman defended the agency’s funding proposals for next year. Chairman Cole set the subcommittee markup for June 27 and the full committee hearing for July 10, an ambitious timeline meant to set up the Committee for funding bill completion ahead of the fiscal year end in September.

LeadingAge is disappointed in HUD’s request for FY25, in part because it does not seek any funding for new Section 202 homes or new HUD service coordinators. LeadingAge is urging Congress to instead increase funding for affordable housing for older adults, including for the Section 202 program, new service coordinators, and new Older Adult Special Purpose Vouchers. See Congress Must Adequately Fund Affordable Senior Housing, our Action Alert on HUD funding.

On May 10, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) led a letter to Senate Appropriations HUD Subcommittee Chair Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Ranking Member Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) urging strong funding in fiscal year 2025 for affordable housing programs serving older adults and persons with disabilities. Thanks to the advocacy of affordable senior housing stakeholders, who asked their senators to join this letter, 33 senators joined Senator Menendez on the letter. In addition to full contract renewal funding, the letter urges appropriators to include $600 million for capital advances and operating subsidies for new Section 202 homes to help meet existing and increasing need and $253 million to fund 20,000 Older Adult Special Purpose Housing Choice Vouchers.

“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. In addition to the Section 202 program, new Older Adult Special Purpose Vouchers should be funded in the FY 2025 bill to prevent and end homelessness among older adults, which is quickly rising,” the letter says.

LeadingAge worked with Senator Menendez’s office on the letter and is grateful for his continued championing of funding for affordable senior housing. Read the letter here.

Continuing his championship of funding for affordable housing for older adults and persons with disabilities, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is circulating a letter among his Senate colleagues in support of $600 million for approximately 6,200 new Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly homes nationwide, an additional $253 million to fund 20,000 Older Adult Special Purpose Housing Choice Vouchers, and sufficient funding to fully renew project-based rental assistance contracts. These are three of LeadingAge’s affordable senior housing priorities.

The letter is addressed to Senators Brian Schatz and Cindy Hyde-Smith, Chair and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

All aging services stakeholders should urge their Senate offices to let Senator Menendez’s staff member, Alfie Feder, know that they will join the letter by May 9.

The House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) announced on April 25 that he would not allow any earmarks in the HUD fiscal year 2025 spending bill to go to nonprofit organizations. For FY25, Cole said, any earmarks in the HUD funding bill would be restricted to state, local, and tribal governments as well as public colleges and universities. Of the $3 billion in individual project earmarks in the FY24 HUD funding bill, about one-quarter went to nonprofit organizations.

During consideration of HUD’s FY24 appropriations bill, there was much debate and disagreement about whether to fund certain earmarks designated for LGBTQ affordable senior housing and other LBGTQ proposals; these were ultimately not funded by the House but some survived thanks to subsequent Senate inclusion, including one earmark for a LeadingAge member whose funding was stripped during House consideration, much to LeadingAge’s disappointment.

Of his decision to nix nonprofit earmarks from the House’s HUD funding bill for FY25, Cole, who was the chair of the House HUD appropriations committee until his ascension to full committee chair in March 2024, said, “Some of these [earmarks] are unobjectionable, some of them create political problems for people. That’s just the reality of it. I shouldn’t have to have a political problem in my district because I voted for a bill that had your earmark in it.”

On April 30 and May 1, respectively, the Senate and House HUD appropriations subcommittees will hold hearings on HUD’s fiscal year 2025 budget request. HUD Acting Secretary Adrienne Todman is the sole witness at both hearings.

LeadingAge is disappointed in HUD’s request for FY25 because, in part, it does not seek any funding for new Section 202 homes or new HUD service coordinators. LeadingAge is urging Congress to instead increase funding for affordable housing for older adults, including for the Section 202 program, new service coordinators, and new Older Adult Special Purpose Vouchers.

Take Action: Congress Must Adequately Fund Affordable Senior Housing.

The White House released and sent to Congress its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget summary. Because of strict budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the Administration’s budget balances mostly level funding with proposals for new initiatives for aging services, including on workforce, Medicaid, immigration, and affordable housing.

Overall, the President proposed relatively flat funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) but included a number of bold initiatives for housing affordability and access, including for older adults. Like in Fiscal Year 2024, the President proposed guaranteed Housing Choice Vouchers for certain populations and is seeking the first new project-based rental assistance contracts in decades, designed to serve extremely low-income households. Newly this year, the President is proposing to establish a $20 billion “innovation fund” that would help invest in new multifamily housing development, as well as a new tax credit for first time homebuyers and grants to help local efforts on eviction prevention.

The proposal also renews existing project-based Section 8 and Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly contracts, seeks renewal funding for Service Coordinators, and requests supplemental funding to preserve Section 202 units undergoing conversion through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD). Missing from the proposal is significant new investment in Section 202 and Service Coordination.

Notably, the budget proposes continuity funds for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which will sunset as early as May 2024 without urgent investment.

Again, this is just the first move in a long and complex set of discussions and negotiations that will determine the actual budget for the federal government next fiscal year. Further LeadingAge analysis is forthcoming.