Statement by USICH Director Olivet on the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget
Budget Would Advance Efforts to End Homelessness, Lower Housing Costs, Expand Housing Supply, and Improve Rental Access
The Biden-Harris administration recently released the president’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes.
The president’s budget targets $10.3 billion in discretionary federal funding for homelessness assistance—a significant increase overall and in several programs: 64% for HHS’ Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, 23% for HHS’ Health Care for the Homeless, and 90% for DOJ’s Transitional Housing Assistance Grants to Victims of Sexual Assault.
“This budget request proves the Biden-Harris administration is committed to reaching our ambitious goal to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025 and to realizing our vision of a country where no one experiences the tragedy and indignity of homelessness—and everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home,” said USICH Director Jeff Olivet. “The increased funding for homelessness assistance and prevention will help USICH and the federal government as we implement All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness to get people off the streets, out of shelters, and into homes—and to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place.”
The president’s budget includes a historic investment to advance efforts to end homelessness, lower housing costs, expand housing supply, and improve access to affordable rental options. The budget includes both mandatory and discretionary housing investments, totaling more than $175 billion, that would:
- Advance Efforts to Prevent Evictions and End Homelessness: The budget provides funding to build on the Biden administration’s unprecedented eviction prevention, diversion, and rent relief programs; advance efforts to end homelessness; and make progress toward President Biden’s goal of reducing homelessness by 25% by 2025. Key highlights include:
- $3 billion to build on the eviction prevention infrastructure stood up during the pandemic, with a focus on upstream prevention and eviction diversion, improving renters’ access to resources, and making the legal process for renters fairer.
- $3.7 billion, an increase of $116 million over the 2023 enacted level, for homeless assistance grants to meet renewal needs and expand assistance to approximately 25,000 additional households, including survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking and homeless youth.
- $505 million for the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Program, serving a population with a disproportionately high rate of homelessness and providing a critical link to services.
- $4.8 million for USICH, which catalyzes the implementation of All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.
- Promote Rental Affordability and Fairness, and Make Progress Toward Universal Housing Vouchers for Extremely Low-Income Households: The budget makes a long-term commitment to housing accessibility and affordability for youth aging out of foster care and veterans. This support—targeted to extremely low-income populations that are vulnerable to homelessness—is a historic down payment on the president’s goal of providing universal housing vouchers for low-income households. Key highlights include:
- $32.7 billion, an increase of $2.4 billion (including emergency funding) over the 2023 enacted level, to maintain services for all currently assisted families and to expand assistance to an additional 50,000 households.
- A newly-created housing voucher guarantee for youth aging out of foster care and extremely low-income veterans. Between discretionary funding, program reserves, and these mandatory proposals, these vouchers would serve well over an additional 200,000 households.
- Build and Preserve Affordable Housing: The budget invests in building and preserving millions of affordable homes for rent and ownership, and reducing barriers to housing production—from restrictive land use policies to practices that foster discrimination and disparate treatment in the housing market. Key highlights include:
- $28 billion to expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the largest federal incentive for affordable housing construction and rehabilitation, in order to boost the supply of housing for low-income renters.
- $7.5 billion for new project-based rental assistance (PBRA) contracts, which are long-term contracts with private for-profit or non-profit owners to rent new affordable housing units.
- $1.8 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which in 2022 helped create more than 15,000 units of housing and assisted nearly 17,000 households with tenant based rental assistance.
Building on the president’s strong record of fiscal responsibility, the budget more than fully pays for all of its investments—reducing deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade by asking the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share.
For more information on how president’s FY 2024 budget will address homelessness, read the full White House fact sheet at whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.