Temporary government funding would force cuts to Section 8 vouchers

More than 100,000 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers could be lost if Congress does not pass a new spending bill for this year.

Congress is currently in the appropriations phase, which means that funding levels for each program in the spending bills are being determined. The House of Representatives already passed the spending bills for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, and now the Senate is in the middle of debating those numbers.

Some Republican senators have proposed putting aside the budget fight in an election year.

Instead, they propose adopting a Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the government at last year’s level through the rest of this fiscal year. This typically keeps federal programs going at the same funding level as the year before.

Although this is being sold as a reasonable compromise, it is actually a sneaky way to make budget cuts across the board. Affordable housing programs will find themselves short of funds, and low-income renters will lose out on assistance.

The latest CR extends federal funding through March 18th. Congress must pass the FY 2022 spending bills or another CR before then. If they do not, there will be a government shutdown. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has looked at how level funding will impact housing vouchers. They estimate that if Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers received level funding for the rest of the year, public housing agencies would lose well over 100,000 vouchers.

In a conversation with Will Fischer, Senior Director for Housing Policy and Research at CBPP, he explains how they got to their estimate. 

CBPP looked at 2021 renewal funding for housing vouchers compared with the amount currently in the Senate appropriations bill for FY 2022. The gap would fund more than 100,000 vouchers, which each cost about $10,000 annually on average.

Housing costs rise every year. Most years, Congress makes sure that there is enough money to cover increased rents and renew all current vouchers. But if funding is kept level, local programs will find themselves short when faced with higher rents and utilities.

When one household no longer needs rental assistance, the local Public Housing Agency (PHA) then reissues the voucher to the next household on the waiting list. When funds are short, the PHA cannot reissue every voucher. This means that it can't help as many low-income renters on the waiting list as they could in previous years.

When this goes on for just a short time, it is an inconvenience. But level funding for a year will mean that hundreds of thousands of low-income renters will lose out on affordable housing.