DOGE Kills Funding Program Vital To Affordable Housing Preservation
The Trump administration is eliminating a $1B federal housing program aimed at preserving affordable housing as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to drop the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program that offers grants and loans to affordable housing owners, The Associated Press reports, citing internal HUD documents.
The program was designed to keep housing units livable for low-income households. Passed by Congress in 2022, the program has already outlaid more than $1.4B to help landlords fix leaky roofs, update cooling and heating systems, add new windows and improve floodproofing. In exchange, landlords are required to preserve unit affordability for up to 25 years.
HUD’s final round of funding for the program occurred in November and provided grants and loans to more than 40 projects, including $1.5M to Standard Communities for Forest Cove apartments in Chesapeake, Virginia, a $750K grant to Preservation Partners for the Second St. Andrews Apartments in Los Angeles, and nearly $750K to Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement Inc. for its Victory One affordable apartment complex in New York City, according to a HUD release.
Despite already having awarded funds to projects in 42 states, it was unclear how the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program will be terminated and wound down. Two dozen projects are still expected to receive funding, one unnamed HUD employee told the AP. The fate of the other loans remains uncertain, according to the AP.
“Projects will fail, and these are projects that are already difficult to finance,” American Community Developers Inc. Vice President Mike Essian told the AP.
DOGE's plan to kill the affordable housing retrofit program is just one in an array of cuts to HUD, which provides affordable housing options and services to 4.3 million low-income households. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to cut 50% of HUD's workforce, closing dozens of its field offices.
The House of Representatives also passed a bill this week that would cut 32,000 HUD-administered housing vouchers, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The cuts come as the U.S. remains mired in an affordable housing crisis.
NLIHC on Thursday reported a shortage of 7.1 million affordable rental units for almost 11 million extremely low-income U.S. renters. Put another way, there are only 35 units available for every 100 households with incomes at or below the federal poverty level.
