The president’s fiscal year 2027 budget for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requested a roughly 1 percent increase for contract renewals under HUD’s tenant-based rental assistance programs—vastly insufficient to cover the full cost of renewals—proposed work requirements of at least 20 hours per week, and a five-year time limit on assisted households. If enacted, these proposals would cause households to lose their assistance, leaving more people at risk of housing insecurity and homelessness.
Rental assistance is a vital tool that helps families afford housing by covering the gap between 30 percent of household income and the cost of rent. By capping rent at 30 percent of a family’s gross income, rental assistance helps ensure families have more resources for other necessities, such as food, medical care, school supplies, and transportation costs, and can save for emergencies and long-term goals.
Nationally, over 10 million people in more than 5 million households rely on federal rental assistance programs to keep a roof over their heads.
Rental assistance can be a godsend for beneficiaries, but an estimated 16 million eligible households—more than three times the number receiving rental assistance—are left out, leaving millions to languish on waitlists that, in some communities, can last years (if they are open at all).
The result: Millions of families nationwide spend more than half of their income on housing, leaving little to cover other necessities and keeping them on the constant precipice of falling behind on rent and facing eviction, or, in the worst cases, homelessness.
Barriers to Aid
Vouchers and other HUD rental assistance programs receive funding through the annual appropriations process. Because rent costs rise every year, funding increases must keep pace with inflation to maintain the number of households currently served. Flat funding or insufficient increases act as a cut, reducing the amount of assistance available. Steep enough cuts put assisted households at risk of losing the assistance they rely on to remain housed.
[RELATED ARTICLE: Breaking Down the Numbers: The 2027 White House Budget Proposal Explained]
Last year’s budget battle is a prime example of the potential effects of underfunding rental assistance. In FY 2026, neither the House nor the Senate HUD spending bills provided enough funding to renew all existing voucher contracts. If enacted, the FY 2026 House bill, which provided level funding for contract renewals from the previous year, would have resulted in about 411,000 fewer people being served. The Senate bill, which provided a slight but insufficient funding increase for voucher renewals, would have resulted in about 243,000 fewer people being served by the voucher program.
Advocates around the country urged Congress to ensure the full renewal of existing rental assistance contracts. Thanks to their hard work, HUD’s final FY 2026 spending bill protected existing investments and provided significantly more funding than either the House or Senate proposals, including sufficient funding to renew all housing choice voucher contracts and to help avoid—for now—an anticipated funding cliff for the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program.
The EHV program was created in 2021. At its peak, it provided lifesaving assistance to nearly 70,000 households experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness. Despite the program’s success, EHV funding was depleted by the sharp rise in rent costs. Now, additional investments are needed to ensure that families who still rely on the EHV program for stable housing continue to receive assistance.
Advocates also pushed to ensure that harmful work requirements and time limits on HUD assistance included in the president’s FY 2026 budget request were not adopted, protecting more than 3 million people who would have been at risk of losing their assistance had Congress taken up the president’s proposal.
The Fight for Full Voucher Funding
The president’s FY 2027 budget request for HUD makes clear that the fight to fully fund rental assistance programs—without harmful bureaucratic barriers—continues.
The good news is that advocates clearly have power in this fight: Congress resoundingly rejected the harmful, untenable proposals in last year’s HUD spending bill.
Advocate pressure can help ensure the same outcome this year. At the National Low Income Housing Coalition, we are calling not only for fully funding existing rental assistance contracts but also for a sufficient increase to help ensure that the more than 46,800 households who currently rely on the EHV program for stable, affordable housing continue to receive assistance.
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