U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) pledged to pair any increase in fiscal year (FY) 2025 defense spending above the 1% allowed by the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (FRA) with an equal increase to FY25 domestic spending. Appropriators must draft FY25 spending bills according to the limitations of the FRA, which raised the federal debt ceiling for two years in exchange for capping FY24 spending at approximately FY23 levels and allowing for a spending increase of only 1% in FY25.
In the previous fiscal year, Chair Murray and Senate Appropriations Vice-Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) led the charge for a side funding deal that provided almost $70 billion in extra funds for vital federal programs. To maintain the number of households served and services offered, HUD’s budget must increase from one year to the next. It is extremely likely that additional funding above what would be provided under the FRA will be required to meet the increased cost of HUD’s programs in 2025.
Take Action: Tell Congress to Provide Significant Funding Increases for HUD in FY25
Your advocacy makes a difference! It is thanks to the hard work of advocates that in FY24 – at a time when programs faced cuts of up 25% – HUD received increased funding in the final spending bill.
Congress needs to keep hearing from you about the importance of affordable housing and homelessness programs! NLIHC is calling on Congress to provide the highest possible funding for HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs in FY25, including significant funding for NLIHC’s top priorities:
- Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and expand assistance to 20,000 more households.
- $6.2 billion for public housing operations and $5.2 billion for public housing capital needs.
- $4.7 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants (HAG) program.
- $100 million for the Eviction Prevention Grant program.
- At least $1.3 billion for Tribal housing programs, plus $150 million for competitive funds targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.
Advocates can continue to engage their members of Congress by:
- Emailing or calling members’ offices to tell them about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources to you, your family, your community, or your work. You can use NLIHC’s Take Action page to look up your member offices, or call/send an email directly!
- Using social media to amplify messages about the country’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis and the continued need for long-term solutions.
- Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds emotional weight to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact actual people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource.
National, state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,200 organizations on CHCDF’s national letter calling on Congress to support the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources in FY25.