Unless Congress Acts, 59,000 Additional Households at Risk of Homelessness

Funding for the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program is expected to start running out later this year due to unexpectedly high market rental costs since the program was created in 2021. Without additional funding from Congress, close to 60,000 households are at risk of losing assistance, undoing years of progress in their lives and possibly increasing homelessness across the country by as much as 10 percent on average, and by even higher rates in some states. (See map.)

Housing vouchers are a proven, research-backed tool to help people with low incomes avoid homelessness and afford a stable home — something we all deserve. Housing vouchers and other rental assistance bridge the gap between rents and incomes. This provides a stable home, which makes finding and keeping a job easier, improves health, reduces the use of emergency services, and improves educational and long-term income outcomes for children.

However, the Trump Administration’s budget for fiscal year 2026 — which begins on October 1, 2025 — proposes extreme cuts to rental assistance and fails to address the funding cliff for EHVs. This would worsen the already unacceptable homelessness crisis. Congress should instead build toward a rental assistance guarantee by making EHVs permanent and incorporating important lessons learned from their implementation into other rental assistance programs to make them even more effective.

Most urgently, to avoid directly causing a spike in homelessness, any fiscal year 2026 funding measure should include enough funding to assist at least the same number of families currently served by the Housing Choice Voucher program as well as the 59,000 families at risk of losing their EHV.

Since its creation in May 2021, the EHV program has provided life-saving assistance to households at risk of or experiencing homelessness or fleeing domestic violence and trafficking. These vouchers helped house people more quickly than any other new HUD voucher program, even in a period of income uncertainty for families, skyrocketing rents, and competitive local markets. Families who received EHVs had some of the greatest needs; data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2022 reported that the average annual income for a household with an EHV was only $11,349.

However, the program has used up its fixed pot of funding faster than housing agencies expected, largely because rents increased drastically by 22 percent between April 2021 and April 2023. Rents have continued to increase due to inflation, but that rapid increase shortly after the EHV program began used up substantial resources. HUD sent a letter in early March 2025 notifying housing agencies that they would receive the remainder of their EHV funding in late April. HUD estimates these funds should be sufficient to continue helping families already receiving assistance partway through calendar year 2026, although some agencies report that their funds are likely to run out even before the end of 2025.

The stories of people who have used EHVs demonstrate the impact of these vouchers and what is at stake if they are cut off.

• A mom and her kids who had been living in a motel in Texas following her husband’s death were able to move into an apartment near a school and public transportation.
• A mother was able to settle debts and move with her children into a new home after leaving a controlling, violent husband.
• A dad and his daughter in New York City were able to move out of a homeless shelter and into a stable home.
• A trafficking survivor was able to settle in a new home that “finally brought [their] family stability and calm.”

While the largest number of EHVs are in the most populous states, the loss of EHVs would have the greatest proportional impact on homelessness in Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Louisiana. (See map.) Already, over 770,000 people in the U.S. were unhoused on a single night in the most recent national count, in January 2024. This was the highest level of homelessness since reporting of such data began in 2007.

At the state and local level, many housing agencies and communities lack the resources to transition families with EHVs to another form of assistance because of stretched budgets. Even if housing agencies were able to transition some people to other programs, the limited supply of rental assistance means someone else in need would continue waiting for help, after already waiting years. Moreover, the Trump Administration’s budget proposed cutting funding for rental assistance programs by $27 billion (43 percent) and eliminating the main program that funds long-term homelessness solutions, which would not only make it impossible for communities to help households with EHVs but put millions more at risk of homelessness.

Failing to fully fund rental assistance, including EHVs, will increase homelessness across the country, leaving more people to deal with the increased risks of health problems, additional barriers to job stability, and other harms to individuals and communities that come with allowing people to experience housing instability. To make housing more affordable and attainable for all people, Congress should instead ensure any fiscal year 2026 funding measure includes enough funding for at least the same number of families, including the 59,000 at risk of losing their EHV, continue to receive housing vouchers. And looking forward, policymakers should expand rental assistance to help all low-income households who need it and fund additional supports, like those included in the EHV program, to help people stay stably housed and end homelessness.