How Agencies Are Racing to Prevent Displacement as Federal Funding Expires
Public housing agencies are finding creative ways to make sure some voucher holders don’t lose their homes as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to reshuffle the deck on homeless services, according to a new issue brief.
Earlier this year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the Emergency Voucher Program would run out of money by early 2026. The Biden administration created the more than $5 billion program to combat the sharp rise in homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around 70,000 people received EHVs, and the program was initially expected to sunset in 2030. But the program faces a financial cliff due to rising rents and lawmakers’ refusal to reauthorize additional funding to cover the gap.
How Housing Agencies Are Trying to Prevent Displacement
A new policy brief from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation found that several public housing agencies (PHAs) are experimenting with ways to prevent EHV holders from returning to the streets next year.
“This isn’t business as usual, funding getting reduced in one way and shifted in another,” Ryan Finnigan, deputy director of research at the Terner Center, told Invisible People in an interview. “There are massive human stakes at play here.”
One solution is to shift EHV holders to project-based vouchers, as outlined in the brief. PHAs can allocate up to 20% of their Housing Choice Vouchers for project-based vouchers, which ties the voucher to a unit rather than the tenant.
PHAs typically use project-based vouchers to help vulnerable people access units in new developments or rehabilitation projects where developers are concerned about generating a predictable revenue stream that enables deep affordability.
There are also some PHAs that have enough housing vouchers to transition all their EHV-holders to other vouchers. However, this situation is rare, according to the brief. For example, one PHA told researchers at the Terner Center that it could take them 8 years to serve anyone new if they transferred their EHV holders to another voucher program.
This strategy also relies on finding an available unit for a voucher holder, which is becoming increasingly difficult as home prices continue to rise nationwide. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of 7.1 million homes in America that are affordable to the lowest income earners, many of whom need housing vouchers to afford a home.
Another solution some PHAs are experimenting with is forming new partnerships with CoCs to help voucher holders enter other housing programs as vacancies arise. That could mean being placed in rapid rehousing or a permanent supportive housing program.
However, the Trump administration is attempting to finalize significant revisions to the CoC grant program, which is the primary source of funding for these housing programs. Those changes include decreasing the amount of money that can be spent on permanent supportive housing from 90% to 30%, requiring more grants to be awarded to faith-based organizations, and prohibiting CoCs from using Housing First principles.
Why Emergency Housing Vouchers Work
EHVs may seem like just another acronym in the housing world, but the program has been shown to be one of the most impactful methods of ending homelessness for many hard-to-reach populations.
EHVs differ from more traditional housing vouchers in several important ways. For instance, EHVs include a $3,500 service fee that can be used to negotiate with landlords, pay for deposits, or purchase furniture. Voucher holders can receive EHVs directly from Continuums of Care rather than a public housing agency, and the vouchers carry a payment standard higher than that of traditional vouchers. The higher payment standard creates more housing opportunities for voucher holders by allowing them to move into a more expensive home that they may not otherwise be able to afford.
One PHA leader told the Terner Center that the EHV program “cut down search times considerably” for families experiencing homelessness by giving them resources to negotiate with landlords and pay for housing applications.
But the financial cliff for the EHV program is putting public housing agencies in a bind. There has already been some attrition from the EHV program, as 55,000 vouchers remain in use, down from the 70,000 initially issued, according to Christi Economy, a research associate at The Terner Center. That means there are likely people who have fallen through the cracks and are living unsheltered again.
Not only does it represent a significant risk to the people they serve, but winding down the EHV program could create significant administrative burdens and disrupt relationships between PHAs and landlords, the brief warns.
What it Would Take to Stabilize the Program
The Terner Center’s brief estimates that the EHV program needs an immediate cash infusion of around $1 billion to stabilize the program for the next year. That represents a 3.3% increase from current funding levels.
While that funding seems nominal compared to the $900 billion defense spending package Congress is debating, it is unlikely to be approved, given the gridlock on Capitol Hill.
“We are probably going to see EHV holders lose their assistance if there isn’t any other federal action on this,” Economy told Invisible People.
There are also steps local governments can take to better support EHV holders as the funding cliff looms, according to the brief. That includes expanding rental assistance with “varying levels of intensity” and strategically targeting resources to communities with the greatest need.
“What we need are the resources to bridge that gap between what people’s incomes are and what the private market rate rents are,” Economy said.
How to Take Action
The pandemic proved that we need to rethink housing in the U.S. It also showed that aid programs work when agencies and service organizations are provided with sufficient funds and clear guidance on how to spend aid dollars.
Contact your officials and representatives. Tell them you support keeping many of the pandemic-related aid programs in place for future use. They have proven effective at keeping people housed, which is the first step to ending homelessness.