The House Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for setting and overseeing HUD’s annual funding released its FY 2020 draft spending bill yesterday. The House has thankfully once again ignored the President’s request to drastically cut HUD funding and has instead proposed to increase HUD funding by $5.9 billion above FY 2019 funding levels. While this proposed increase in funding is a step in the right direction, it is still insufficient when compared to the affordable housing resource need across the country. For pubic housing, this modest increase may be the best that can be expected in in this political environment but it is woefully inadequate to pay for NYCHA’s capital repairs. In this bill, Section 8 is fully funded with promise of some new vouchers coming to NY, which will be put to good use towards homeless priorities.

Below is a summary of some key proposed changes in HUD funding levels compared to FY 2019:

  • Public Housing Capital: $80 Million Increase
  • Public Housing Operating: $100 Million Increase
  • Tenant-Based Section 8: $1.21 Billion Increase
  • Project-Based Section 8: $843 Million Increase
  • HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME): $500 Million Increase
  • Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $300 Million Increase
  • Housing for the Elderly (Section 202): $125 Million Increase
  • Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811): $75 Million Increase
  • Choice Neighborhoods Initiative: $150 Million Increase
  • Homeless Assistance Grants: $164 Million Increase
  • Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS): $20 Million Increase
  • Healthy Homes & Lead Hazard Control: $11 Million Increase

In addition, this draft spending bill rejects the President’s dangerous proposals of rent increases, time limits, and work requirements that have been proposed by his administration in current and prior year’s budgets. To further distance the House from the Administration’s newest malevolent housing proposals, the bill also included language that would prohibit HUD from enacting its recent proposal to prohibit “mixed status families” from living in public and other HUD-assisted housing. Earlier this week, Rachel Fee discussed the implications of this cruel HUD proposal in interview linked below on Verizon FiOS News/RNN TV.


If that was not enough, House appropriators also included language to prevent HUD from moving forward with its latest proposal to weaken protections for LGBTQ persons at federally funded shelters by giving shelters the freedom to: deny access on religious grounds and force transgender individuals to sleep in quarters and use bathrooms based on their sex not their gender identity. Appropriators reinforced LGBTQ persons’ right to fair and equal access to single-sex emergency shelters and other federally funded facilities that match their gender identity in the spending bill.


It is important to note that this increased funding is still dependent on Congress reaching a budget agreement for FY 2020 with raised spending caps. If a spending cap deal is not reached, HUD funding could actually face an estimated cut of 10%. Also, this bill must still be voted on by the Subcommittee and full Appropriations Committee before it can move to the House Floor for a vote and could still be amended during this process. YHC will be monitoring this spending bill, its projected impact on NY and will keep you updated as it and the budget discussions move forward. For more information on specific HUD program funding levels, please see NLIHC’s budget chart.