Idaho is one of the nation’s most seismically active states, so people living in Ada County, home to Boise, aren’t typically surprised when an earthquake hits. But Jan. 27, 2025, was different; though the “shaking” that day was figurative, Deanna Watson, executive director of Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities (BCACHA), says in some ways it was just as damaging for BCACHA’s clients.
“Once that news came out, it was like an earthquake for so many of our folks, many of whom have come to us out of homelessness,” she says. “The fear they had of finally getting to a stable place and then having the earth kind of shake beneath their feet again—we saw that play out in anxiety behaviors that were just heartbreaking.”
Watson is talking about the memo issued by the Office of Budget Management freezing all federal funding and grant payments. Since the freeze was announced just three days before rents are typically due, tenants in the Housing Choice Voucher program didn’t know whether their rents would get paid on Feb. 1. Tenants in the voucher program (also known as Section 8) are responsible for paying 30 percent of their income toward the monthly rent; the federal government pays the balance.
The White House rescinded the memo on Jan. 29 following a public uproar (and specifically excluded Section 8 verbally prior to rescission), but not before upending a sense of stability for many of the most vulnerable residents. BCACHA administers housing for 2,600-plus clients—many struggle with long-term housing instability and severe, persistent mental health issues, Watson says. BCACHA staff immediately received a barrage of calls when the memo was published. A few clients even came into the office, visibly agitated, “coming across as very angry and sure that they were going to be homeless,” she says. “[One client] had a total meltdown, crying, yelling, screaming. And a number of people were just calling in saying, ‘What’s going to happen on the first? What do I do?’”
Norma-Lee Huffman, a leader at housing justice nonprofit Arkansas Community Organizations, understands being gripped by panic at the threat of potentially becoming homeless again. She’s been there, though not for quite some time. Huffman and her son both receive Medicaid assistance. Their living costs are supplemented by a Section 8 voucher. Huffman says the memo traumatized renters, especially those receiving supplemental support.
“I am a permanently disabled single mother, and I unfortunately have to depend on government assistance for myself and my son,” she says. “When they say they’re going to freeze the government and hold back assistance, there’s that [question]: Is the whole department eventually going to go away?”
Tenants are rightly concerned, says Katie Goldstein, director of housing and health care campaigns at Center for Popular Democracy, a network of economic and racial justice organizations—especially considering what’s called for in Project 2025, a federal policy blueprint created by legacy conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation. “It seems like they’re following that playbook pretty aggressively,” Goldstein says.
“It’s definitely stressful—so stressful,” Huffman says. “I know I’m dealing with it as best as I can, but there’s millions of other people dealing with it in their own way . . . and it’s stressing them out to where they end up in the hospital because it’s too much.”
The original freeze memo is more than a month in the past, the federal government paid March’s Section 8 rents on time, and no similar broad-brush funding freezes appear to be on the horizon. Nonetheless, given the cuts happening to both grants and staff in other program offices in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), uncertainty and worry continue to ripple through the affordable housing world. Tenants on housing assistance are worried their services will be cut. Landlords with Section 8 tenants worry they won’t get paid. Public housing authorities (PHAs) don’t know if they’ll be able to pay their clients’ rent, their vendors’ invoices, or their employees’ payroll. What’s going to happen in the months to come? What lasting, unseen damage has already been done, and what crucial processes in HUD and other federal departments will the so-called Department of Government Efficiency decimate next?
“The wild card here is [Elon] Musk. Now that he’s got access to our Social Security accounts, you can see him [saying], ‘Oh, there’s waste, fraud, and abuse; let’s cut Social Security,’” says Michael Kane, a longtime tenant activist, director at Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, and current chair of the Leaders and Organizers for Tenant Empowerment (LOFTE) Network. “[President Donald J. Trump] is in a position to cut entitlements like Social Security under some pretext, so that’s what we have to watch. I think the dynamic on Capitol Hill in March and April is going to be critical to how tenants fare in this. We have to watch it very carefully and be prepared.”
Tenants like Huffman are watching it carefully—and feeling it acutely. “I’m already having to pay out of pocket for things I’ve never had to pay out of pocket for before,” she says. “We are doing the best we can to help these people that have been cut off, that are limited on what they can pay for because of their Medicaid being cut, or Medicaid not wanting to pay as much as they have before.”
As the Trump administration continues to mercilessly gut federal agencies and wantonly fire essential career civil servants at the HUD, many of the effects are obvious. Others aren’t as visible, and some are likely still unknown. But everyone is on edge, scrambling to prepare for the next attack. Amid the uncertainty and fear, subsidized housing tenants, landlords, and PHAs all say they’re doing their best to brace for additional, and potentially more severe, shakeups in the months and years to come.
PHAs and the “Bank of HUD”
The problem is that having no access to your own, already-approved funds is intimidating—especially when the “bank of HUD” goes entirely offline unexpectedly (and during business hours). But that’s what happened at BCACHA and thousands of other PHAs on Jan. 29.
Housing authorities keep very little of their money in accessible bank accounts, thanks to HUD’s “cash management” rules, which require HUD to control federal money “to ensure PHAs do not receive federal funds before they are needed.” Officially it’s the Line of Credit Control System, or LOCCS, but Michael D. Webb, senior policy analyst at the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA) and others call it “the bank of HUD.” Even if a PHA has been able to sock away federal funds for emergencies, they’re still only accessible through HUD’s online payment system—the one that locked PHAs out during the funding freeze.
“Even if a housing authority has reserves, the vast majority of those reserves are held in accounts that HUD controls. They’re held in the ‘bank of HUD,’” Webb says. “If you want to get access to those reserves—that money that you’ve saved over the years—you still have to go through HUD’s payment system to draw that money down.”
The obvious immediate side effect of a LOCCS lockout would be that Section 8 recipients’ government-funded portion of the rent wouldn’t get paid. Some housing authorities, like Washington state’s Vancouver Housing Authority, could have footed the bill for a single month of missed payments, but if federal funding were shut off for long enough that contractor bills or monthly debt installments were missed entirely, the secondary effects would reverberate through PHA offices.
Losing Landlords
As a PHA administering local Housing Choice Voucher program payments, you also don’t want to have a reputation for stiffing your landlords. That’s especially true in places without source-of-income protections, allowing landlords to legally refuse to rent to Section 8 voucher holders. Getting that guaranteed, on-time rent payment every month is “a huge draw” for landlords who participate in the voucher program, Webb says. “So any threat that those payments can be interrupted or delayed would result in dramatic decreases in landlords willing to participate in the voucher program,” he says. “Because that really is the selling point.”
LOFTE’s Kane agrees with Webb. “Even a two-day pause is going to frighten landlords away,” he says.
Even a two-day pause is going to frighten landlords away [from the Section 8 program].”
Michael Kane, Leaders and Organizers for Tenant Empowerment Network
Nicole Upano, assistant vice president of housing policy and regulatory affairs at the National Apartment Association (NAA), agrees that landlords have been leaving the Section 8 program in droves, but did not report any departures due to the recent funding freeze. She instead said “programmatic barriers” are the main reason landlords choose not to participate (where they’re able to opt out). Upano said that due to the “rapidly evolving” situation at the federal level, NAA is “trying to figure out how the impacts at the federal level impacts what happens with PHAs and how they administer the program.” She also says NAA is concerned about the “over-regulation of the [Housing Choice Voucher] program” and hopes that HUD under the current leadership will be open to exploring ways to reduce administrative, inspection, and other burdens on participating landlords.
“You’ve got some affordable housing providers who are dedicated to serving these communities,” she says. “They have dedicated employees on staff to do compliance and navigate the thousands of PHAs who administer the program differently all across the country.”
When the freeze took effect, many of PHADA’s member leaders contacted many of their participating landlords to request they not take action against tenants for late payments, Webb says. (It’s worth noting that tenants cannot be evicted if the government fails to pay its portion of the rent.) Unfortunately, landlord participation going forward isn’t something PHAs can control, and many landlords who participate in the voucher program don’t have much financial wiggle room.
“A lot of the landlords in the voucher program, they’ve got fewer than 10 units. They’re renting to voucher holders because, yes, it is a guaranteed payment—but they feel like they’re doing some good for the community,” Webb says. “So, any actions that drive landlord participation down are going to result in helping fewer families.”
The number of families receiving HUD help could take a hit when Congress votes on legislation to fund the federal government through the end of September if HUD funding stays at current levels, Kane says, which seems likely. “Section 8 [funding] has to go up for inflation to just take care of the same number of people,” he says. “So if the dollar amount is frozen, that’s a cut in the number of people served.”
Losing Staff = Losing Institutional Knowledge
Late or missed rent payments and diminished landlord participation are serious looming threats that housing agencies are trying to anticipate and prepare for, but they’re just two on a long list of current PHA concerns. Another one is the delays and uncertainty that will come from the loss of experienced HUD staff as mass terminations proceed. Gutting HUD’s already-shorthanded employee base could generate a wait-time quagmire for PHAs as they both administer existing affordable housing and work on development projects, where the effects could be catastrophic, Andy Silver, executive director of Washington state’s Vancouver Housing Authority warns.
“With all real estate development, there’s inherent risk—you’re buying land while you’re applying for funding, you don’t know what rents are going to look like, you don’t know what interest rates are going to do. You hope that there’s as much certainty and stability as possible, because that allows you to inform decisions about risk and keep your agency stable over time,” he says. “One of the most challenging things of the moment is just so much uncertainty over such a broad area of things that it’s very difficult to make informed decisions about calculated risk.” Without knowing what staffing levels at HUD will look like, whether the administration will slash HUD’s budget, or even if another surprise funding freeze is coming, “it just it really makes it difficult to move forward with our mandate of doing whatever we can to produce more and more affordable housing,” Silver says.
PHADA’s members have similar concerns, especially about HUD’s future staffing levels: losing more employees in the long understaffed department would further slow down administration of local projects, Webb says. And if HUD staffers are laid off or quit en masse, the loss of institutional knowledge could kneecap affordable housing providers, and the repercussions could be felt for years, Webb warns. “We are certainly concerned that any of those staff members could leave,” he says, “particularly in an environment where staffing for the HUD headquarters is so low, when they have decades of institutional knowledge.”
Those disruptions to payments could negatively impact a housing authority’s ability to respond to health and safety issues . . .”
Michael D. Webb, Public Housing Authorities Directors Association
“On the public housing side, those disruptions to payments could negatively impact a housing authority’s ability to respond to health and safety issues—if a boiler goes out in a public housing building, do you have the money there to pay a contractor to fix it?” Webb explains. “It can even result in you stiffing your local contractors for work that’s already ongoing if you can’t have access to payments. And if you’re in a small town and there’s only X number of contractors available to you, you don’t want to have a reputation for stiffing your contractors.”
In Idaho, Watson worries that HUD staffing cuts could leave BCACHA legal counsel responsible for making decisions that could come back to haunt the housing authority years down the road. BCACHA leans heavily on HUD expertise when administering complicated deals, such as when a building that’s been kept affordable by the LIHTC (low income housing tax credit) program is losing its affordability protections. Watson calls HUD to make sure they’re following the rules when setting rents, for example. Absent HUD’s guidance, they must decide internally and hope they’re interpreting the rules correctly.
“So it makes us live in a much more vulnerable space of either not being able to make decisions that have repercussions,” she says, “or making the decisions we think are the best ones only to have that be pointed to as an ineptitude.”
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to identify Michael Kane as the current director at Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants.
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11 thoughts on “Section 8 Under Trump: How Policy Uncertainty Is Affecting Affordable Housing”
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I don’t know how they can say social security is an entitlement? I paid into social security all my life. It’s not an entitlement it’s my right to have those monthly payments since it is my money. I don’t understand how people like Nancy Pelosi can come in take our social security to pay for their legal battles. That should never be allowed. I depend on social security, if I didn’t have it I’d be dead in a gutter somewhere.
Hello ,my name is Dean Stanton Smalley I’m a disabled person born with spina bifida and I’m wheel chair bound I get social security disability I live under section 8 without it I will be homeless I don’t make enough money to to pay for rent section 8 is a God sent to me other than section 8 I’m a very independent person as I can be with my disability I didn’t get a proper education growing up because of being in the hospital so many times and getting so many infections in my feet I’m also a double amputee of both legs and on too of all that I was also homeless many times because I lived with my father my mother had legal custody of me but she let my father raise me most of the time and he wasn’t a very good and responsible person sometimes the only time I had a comfortable bed to sleep in was when I was in the hospital the system never knew how my personal life was filled with mental abuse and so much verbal so to tell the truth I didn’t mind the times I was on the hospital because I was excepted for who I was I apologize I’m going into my whole life but I just wanted who ever is reading this to understand why section 8 is so vital for my own personal survival I don’t want to be homeless ever again so please don’t cut my social security or I my as well just lay down and die because that is what’s going to happen if I’m homeless I wear depend under garments because of not be able to control my bladder do to my spina bifida so being homeless I would be able to get those and my life would be horrible and I would just lay down and want to die please don’t cut my social security and my section 8 apartment this is for the first time in my life I’ve actually felt safe because I can actually afford my rent. I want to thank who ever is going to read this God bless and I wish everyone well .
I’ve been a disabled single mom of 2 boys since they were 1 and 5 years old. There was no way I could have gotten my kids out of the bad situation we were in had it not been for section 8 hoisting. you can’t tent in the woods. You can’t sleep in ur car…if that hasn’t been remodeling yet. Shelters are a scary place for kids. So please leave section 8 housing in place!
Pierce county is having the worst luck… LINHI/FORGING PATH’S Tiny House Community on Pacific Ave SE is having too close it’s doors by May 7, 2025 (hard date)
I’ve been actively accepted into an apartment at The Heron since November 4-7, 2024 … Hospitalization created me losing my housing all too start over again now too NO AVAIL … Housing Authority doesn’t have my file or it’s missing over half my verification documentation.
Thank you for this article and sharing information. Knowledge is power. Please continue to report, suggest and help people on vouchers or and any affordable housing regardless of living situation if people was not in need seriously would use. We all as human beings want to be able to live rent, food other necessities bills paid . Today’s living wage condition high prices makes it impossible. Thank you to all shelterforce whoever else who understands. It’s scary.
I have been watching
all of the reporting regarding the many cuts that are being done. I do not remember anything about HUD being in that group. I, like many other people, depend on HUD housing. If I could, I would work. I want to work and did until 2020 when I became sick and have not been Cured. I live in Ohio and don’t know what we will do. If there is a way for me to speak out publicly to express the valid need for this entity.
Regards,
Nirma Duncan
” I don’t understand how people like Nancy Pelosi can come in take our social security to pay for their legal battles.” Nancy Pelosi has never touched (nor could she) anyone’s Social Security benefit.
Hi My Name is Angela Geels, I waited 2 long Years paying high Rents just to get on Section 8, Low Income Housing, and still waiting for a Senior Apartment after 5 1/2 Years. I actually had found a beautiful low Income brand new Duplex in Missouri for $600.00 per Month. Two Bedroom, Garage, Bath and a Walk in Shower in other Bathroom in Master. New Appliances with even a Washer and Dryer. Then I had a break in with damages. Management blamed Me for calling the Police and would NOT renew My Lease for another Year! I just had received approval for Section 8 three Months before that but passed it up because Mt new 2 Bedroom Duplex was where I thought I’d be forever! I had not for seen that I would lose My Lease over something I had Zero to do with!
So immediately I was faced with finding a Place quickly. I was close to getting My Credit up high again but also paying all small Credit Card Debt off right before this happened. I found the only Place for $650 per Month but with Electric that goes up to $400 in the Winter Months now. Thank God I found some help. My Disability is eaten up with Rent, Electric, Cell, Internet to work part Time at Home due to Injuries from an Accident in 2002 when I owned. Restaurant. It’s not easy and with the Economy so low now My Hours on My Work at Home Job has dropped to 2.5 per Week. I got another Part Time Job with Door Dash when I was laid off last Year but it cost Me Money to work it most of the Time. So I applied for Spark even though it’s physical and not always easy. I manage to do what I can but My Injuries have become even worse when I was hit again by a Tourist in Branson, MO with no Insurance. She totalled My SUV out causing even more Medical Issues and injuries that I already had before.
I’ve worked at Home for 8 1/2 Yrs because getting any low Income, Senior, or Section 8 is so rare to find. One had come available but if You seen it You wouldn’t have wanted to live there either! That was still over $550 per Month! Id been better to buy a Camper!! I almost did two and a half Years ago but I have to be hard lined into the Modem and no Wifi with a solid permanent Address. Finding Someone with a Camper Sewer and Electric Post was hard. So I didn’t get to do that but I’d been buying something not paying almost ALL My Disability for Rent and Utilities ECT!
Now I’m waiting again for Section 8 struggling for 2 1/2 Years again. Some Places in NW AR where I am from will not accept an Application due to backlogs of 8-9 Years waiting Period! If Your Lucky it’s around 2 Years not being picky what City/County You live in around that area.
I’ve missed at least five big Funerals I should’ve been at in AR living in MO and another one Tomorrow I don’t know yet if I can go financially.
I’ve got a big huge Theft problem from Homeless Druggies where I live and that makes it even worse. It’s disgusting to not feel safe in Your House (Not a “Home” haven’t had a Home since 2012 but I have a Federal Case now because that was some of the same People in AR damaging My Home and also breaking in with Theft. That’s how I ended up in MO! Inheritance from My Parents is why They came for Me and everything I received from My Mom and Dad trying to make sure I had a good comfortable Life. I’m one Check from Homeless and with Trump pulling Funds and I hear Social Security cuts may come Who’s “FOR” the Seniors? That’s what Biden originally said that He would help the Seniors.
We NEED DESPERATELY more Options for Low Income and Senior Housing! The Government is Your Apartments are built to Their Codes pay the Owner the difference in the lower Rent! Why isn’t more People doing this?! If I had My previous Inheritance I’d do it and I had looked into building a few Loft Apartments out of a Shop in My Property. I was scared out of those alone and physically Disabled to where I couldn’t run and catch Them so They abused that to steal My Inheritance one way or another. That’s why I have a Federal Case but so far no Arrests yet…20 Years later and 1.5 Million with My Home on a bottomed Real Estate Market in 2011 appraisals!
I couldn’t pick up and move far away I owned Rental Houses that were occupied in 2012.
So Trumps not helping if He’s going to not fund even Section 8 to anyone!
I am just another Person caught in the Political Trap of low Income with very limited options! They say for a Senior Apt someone has to die or go into a Nursing Home! How can Anyone even think of having to deal with “Oh so no so died or went into a Nursing Home so I got Her Apartment!”
THIS IS NOT HUMANE….DIE OR A NURSING HOME? So if I was to move into one of those very limited Apartments They would say the same about ME!!!
This is America, We work, We are supposed to be proud, and have a peaceful, joyful, Life.
Then the Illegals come in….there goes what Housing Someone may have needed that’s American! We didn’t have that in AR or MO as an option already. I’m not sure about other States
Thank You for reading My Story. I’ve felt like the Cat trying to climb up a Screen over and over that keeps falling back down. If I get a good start then something pulls Me back down.
Now I’m positive and optimistic but Congress and Trump needs to be aware of how limited this is in real Life!
I was laid off in 2024 for 8 Months on My work at Home Job! It’s the Economy, then new Laptop to pass the new requirements and got a little run in for the Holidays and since January it’s been 2.5 Hours a week! I’ve been there 8 1/2 Years and I like My Job and that’s why I have picked up other part Time Jobs delivering.
Hopefully, and I pray about it a lot. God has saved Me many Times going through uncontrollable situations. I’d love to have a part time Food Trailer. My Restaurant was the best!! I’ve heard People won’t come if Your not open just a few Days or just at Lunch. Then I’ve got challenges Physically but that doesn’t mean I would t want to try! I’ve always been the Underdog. Someday I hope because now They are everywhere!
Even though this situation is not just Me it needs to be aware of!!
I was curious if anyone knows about Arizona section 8? All of a sudden I cannot get a hold of section 8 representative that was assigned to me. I have been on section 8 for 15 years for disability and I hope I haven’t been abandoned. I paid my portion of the rent for this month but I don’t know if section 8 has done their part. I’m a little bit in limbo because no one at the housing authority is answering my calls or is answering the calls from my landlord. Wondered if anybody knows anything about this?
It’s sad how these writings are all doom and gloom. Every, and I mean every gov. Agency has people hired to do the work of those hired before them. Glorified paid babysitters, that then watch Luther’s do the work while they play their golf games or rub noses with the next step I’m line, taking credit for the steps taken and heavy work load of the so called aid. When the aid is the one that should be glorified, not the head man looking to his next big bonus.
This is where cuts are being targeted. And these earthquakes so to speak should be felt by you the leader not the grunt, because the grunt has the knowledge, you just have a title.
The uncertainty concerning HUD and its Section program clearly is palpable and problematic. While there is much we do not know about precisely how and when cuts to HUD staffing and programs will unfold, we do know, as your article points out, that HUD leadership to date has aggressively followed the Project 2025 playbook (framework).
Assuming this approach continues, it is not too soon for PHAs and their stakeholders to begin reprioritizing and planning for how they would respond when – not if – they face certain scenarios outlined in that framework – such as, new tenant work requirements; maximum term limits on household eligibility for residents in both project-based (PBRA) and tenant-based (TBRA) programs; or the directed (forced) sales of existing PHA land and housing stock. Additionally, private equity behemoth Pretium Partners’ planned entry into Section 8 housing as a strategic growth segment (as reported by Bloomberg, “Pretium Raises Fund to Purchase Affordable Rental Homes,” March 10, 2025), also makes now a prudent time for PHAs and their municipal governments or land bank authorities to proactively prepare for the potential impacts on their already limited Section 8 housing inventories.