The following press release was sent out by Leaders and Organizers for Tenant Empowerment in response to the Trump Administration's FY27 budget.

For release:  April 7, 2026

HUD tenants from across the US today demanded that Congress reject President Trump’s proposal to cut $10.7 billion, or 13%, from HUD housing programs.   Overall, Trump proposes to decrease spending on domestic needs by $73 billion, while shifting discretionary funds to expanded ICE operations and the Pentagon.  The Pentagon is slated to receive $1.5 trillion, a 50% increase over current levels, in Trump’s budget plan. 

For HUD, Trump proposes to cut $3.3 billion from Community Development Block Grants and $1.1 billion in HOME Grants to cities, as well as ‘zeroing out’ funds for Fair Housing and Housing Counseling Grants and Housing for People with AIDS.  “We urge Congress to reject Trump’s budget proposals and instead invest in housing and other human needs,’ says Mari Temmer from the Big Thompson Manor II Tenants Union in Loveland, Colorado and a Board Member-Elect to the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT). “There is no part of the US not facing an acute shortage of housing affordable to poor and working people and the elderly.  Our communities desperately need more, not less, funds for affordable housing.”

Last year, Congress rejected Trump’s proposed abolition of Section 8 and Public Housing, to be replaced by Block Grants to the States with 44% less funding.  Instead, Section 8 was increased by $7 billion to keep up with inflation.  

For 2027, the Administration proposes to ‘level fund’ Section 8 and Public Housing Operating funds.  But level funding will effectively cut people off the program, unless subsidies increase to keep up with rent inflation.  Already, funds for FY 2026, have fallen short by more than $700 million dollars, causing housing authorities to freeze wait lists and trim Voucher rolls.  HUD’s 2027 proposal would make the freeze permanent and allow time limits and work requirements for housing assistance, subject to rule-making by HUD.   

“Only one in four people like me who need federal rent assistance can get it today—a major cause of the nation’s housing and homelessness crisis,” says Venus Little, President of the Tyler House Tenants Association in Washington, DC and Vice President of NAHT.  Adds Alice Robinson, a Voucher tenant, Executive Director of Vision for Families in Dallas and Board member of the Texas Tenants Union, “I’ve been homeless before, and don’t want to be homeless again.  We need more, not less, Section 8 assistance to meet the nation’s housing needs.” 

The proposed $73 billion cuts to domestic programs are in addition to the $1.5 trillion in 10 year cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP already voted by Congressional Republicans, to pay for an extension of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts to mostly high income individuals. 

“Public dollars should reflect housing and other basic needs, not shift funds to ICE prisons and an expanded war budget,” said Felicia Alston-Singleton, a public housing leader from the Greater Newark HUD Tenant Coalition and Co-Chair of Leaders and Organizers for Tenant Empowerment (LOFTE).  “We urge Congress to reject these harmful cuts and instead invest in housing, dignity and opportunity for all.”

Formed in 2022, Leaders and Organizers for Tenant Empowerment (LOFTE) is the national tenants organization representing 5.5 million families in privately-owned, federally-assisted multifamily housing.  LOFTE’s mission is to empower residents to save and improve their homes as affordable housing.  NAHT is the national tenant’s union representing tenants in HUD assisted housing.