The federal FY 2022 spending bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11 with an increase of $4 billion for affordable housing and community development. The roughly $1.5 trillion in federal spending allocates $53.7 billion for HUD programs. Despite the increase, this is less than levels proposed by the President, the House, and Senate budget requests.
Nearly all HUD programs received moderate funding increases and renewed all existing Housing Choice Vouchers and Project-Based Rental Assistance Vouchers according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). The bill, “provides $200 million to expand rental assistance vouchers to an additional 25,000 households, including individuals and families at risk of or experiencing homelessness, veterans, and survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.”
We can also celebrate Congress reauthorized the “Violence Against Women Act” (VAWA), which supports comprehensive responses and services for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking.
While the FY22 spending bill provides meaningful increases for HUD programs, far more resources are needed to address the nation’s growing affordable housing and homelessness crises. Congress missed an opportunity to pass the “Build Back Better Act” approved by the House in November 2021, which had included Housing Choice Vouchers for an additional 125,000 households.
Housing Oregon continues to urge Oregon’s Congressional delegation to support NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign priorities for the BBB Act including $25 billion to expand housing vouchers to an additional 300,000 households; $65 billion to preserve public housing and improve living conditions for the nation’s more than 2 million public housing residents; and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to build, preserve, and operate an estimated 150,000 units of deeply affordable, accessible housing.
NLIHC estimated Oregon would have received 3,900 additional housing vouchers as part of the proposed BBB Act and an additional $208 million from the Housing Trust Fund to create or preserve rental homes affordable to households with extremely low incomes.
Faced with an ongoing affordable housing crisis in Oregon and nationwide, we will continue to advocate for these targeted housing investments in any future budget reconciliation package to help bring down housing costs for America’s lowest-income and most marginalized households.
Read NLIHC’s full analysis of the FY22 spending bill at: https://tinyurl.com/3m33e8j4
View NLIHC’s updated budget chart covering selected HUD and USDA programs at: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5xhf