House Committee Releases Final FY26 HUD Appropriations Bill

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, which includes funding legislation for the Defense; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations titles. The bill is the product of bicameral negotiations between House and Senate appropriators and leadership. With Monday’s announcement, Congress has now released all 12 full-year Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) appropriations bills before federal funding lapses on January 30.

The legislation would provide $77.3 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is a 12.5 percent increase over the FY25 enacted level of $68.7 billion. Funding levels for programs of interest include:

• $1.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, level funding with the FY25 enacted level
• $38.4 billion for Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, nearly $2.4 billion or seven percent higher than the FY25 enacted level
• $18.543 billion for Project-Based Rental Assistance, a nearly $2.1 billion or 12 percent increase over the FY25 enacted level
• $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) formula grant program, level with FY25 funding. An additional $3.6 billion that was not included in FY25 appropriations would be appropriated under the CDBG program for “Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending.”
• $4.417 billion for Homelessness Assistance Grants, $366 million or nine percent higher than the FY25 enacted level
• $1.031 billion for the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program, a $100 million or 11 percent increase over the FY25 enacted level
• $287 million for the Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, $30 million or 12 percent higher than the FY25 enacted level

HOME

The $1.25 billion provided for HOME is a major success for NCSHA and other HOME advocates. Early in 2025, the House Appropriations Committee had zeroed out funding for HOME, in keeping with the administration’s budget request.

Continuum of Care

In a victory for NCSHA and other homelessness program advocacy groups, the legislation directs HUD to use Continuum of Care (CoC) funding appropriated for FY25 to renew contracts for all permanent supportive housing (PSH) projects for 12 months.

As NCSHA has previously reported, HUD published a notice of funding opportunity late in 2025 that would have limited funding for renewals to no more than 30 percent of the total available under the CoC program for FY25 and used the remaining funds for a competition prioritizing transitional and other housing with rules consistent with administration policy positions related to sobriety, work requirements, gender issues, and other priorities. This approach would have resulted in the loss of rental, operating, and services assistance for many PSH projects and has been the subject of ongoing litigation. In recent years, PSH project renewals have taken up 80 to 90 percent of CoC annual funding.

The bill provides just over $4 billion for FY26 CoC funding and directs HUD to use at least 60 percent of those funds for PSH project renewals. Assuming HUD provides only the minimum required by the FY26 THUD bill for renewals, some PSH projects will lose out on renewal funding beginning in 2027 when the contracts funded with the FY25 dollars expire.

Rental Assistance Contract Administration

The bill includes legislative language prohibiting HUD from issuing a solicitation for new project-based rental assistance contract administrators that is substantially equivalent to the procurement proposal HUD issued in 2022 and subsequently cancelled. This likely means HUD this year will continue to renew existing contracts with current contract administrators before those contracts expire, while Congress continues to consider legislation authorizing HUD to issue a new contract administration solicitation.

National Flood Insurance Program

The legislation would extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) beyond its current January 30 expiration date to September 30, 2026. If the funding measure is passed after January 30, the NFIP will be retroactively authorized as of January 30.

The House hopes to pass the bill this week, before it recesses for a scheduled district work period next week. Of the 12 full-year FY26 appropriations bills Congress has released, three (Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA, and the Legislative Branch) have been signed by President Trump, three (Interior-Environment, Energy-Water, and Commerce-Justice-Science) have been passed in both chambers and await the president’s signature, two (Treasury and State) have passed the House and await a vote in the Senate, and four (Defense, Homeland Security, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development) await votes in both chambers. The Senate is out of session this week, setting up votes for potentially six appropriations bills in the final week before federal funding is set to lapse on January 30.

A summary of the bill may be found here; information on Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending included in the CBDG program funding is available here.

NCSHA’s blog on FY26 appropriations for U.S. Department of Agriculture housing programs is available here.