Vice President Announces $5.5B to Boost Affordable Housing and Address Homelessness
This month, Vice President Kamala Harris announced $5.5 billion in federal funding for 1,200 communities to build and preserve homes, lower housing costs, support renters and homeowners, and aid people experiencing homelessness, among other things.
This announcement supports All In: The Federal Strategy to Prevent and End Homelessness as well as the White House Housing Supply Action Plan and the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights. President Biden and Vice President Harris are working to address the large shortage of affordable homes they inherited from their predecessor while investing historic resources to prevent and end homelessness. In President Biden’s State of the Union address, he called on Congress to support the construction and rehabilitation of 2 million additional homes and lower costs for renters.
Here are some highlights of the $5.5 billion, which is provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
- $1.3 billion to 668 grantees to build affordable housing — The HOME Investment Partnerships Program helps state and local governments fund a wide range of activities, including building, buying, and/or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people. In 2023, the program helped create over 13,000 units of housing and provided more than 13,000 households with tenant-based rental assistance.
- $214 million to every state to increase affordable housing supply – The Housing Trust Fund complements existing federal, state, and local efforts to increase and preserve the supply of decent, safe, and sanitary affordable housing for extremely low- and very low-income households, including families experiencing homelessness. In 2023, the program helped create more than 1,681 units of affordable rental housing for extremely low-income households.
- $290 million to 357 grantees to address homelessness — Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) may be used for street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, and rapid rehousing assistance. Annually, ESG connects over 350,000 people to emergency shelter as they transition to permanent housing.
- $30 million to 23 States and the District of Columbia to support recovery from substance use disorder — The Recovery Housing Program allows states and the District of Columbia to provide stable, transitional housing for individuals in recovery from a substance-use disorder.