The Biden-Harris Administration has released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 [1], significantly investing in building affordable housing, expanding access to homeownership, redressing housing discrimination, enhancing household mobility, and ending homelessness.
“The President's 2024 Budget directly supports this historic Administration's goal of building a better America for all. For those of us at HUD, that means addressing homelessness with urgency and ensuring everyone in this country has access to quality affordable housing," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge [2]. “The Budget invests in Americans at every station in life–from those seeking to purchase a home, to those who receive HUD rental assistance–and will ensure families across the country can live in communities that are safe, affordable, and resilient.”
Under the President’s leadership, the economy has added more than 12 million jobs—including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.4%, the lowest in 54 years, with Black and Hispanic unemployment rates near record lows.
Biden’s Budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes.
The Budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come.
At HUD, the Budget will:
- Reduce Costs for New Homeowners and Expand Access to Homeownership: To make homeownership more affordable for underserved borrowers, including first-time, low- to moderate-income and minority homebuyers, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is reducing the annual mortgage insurance premiums new borrowers will pay by about one-third. This action, effective in 2023, will save the average FHA borrower approximately $800 in the first year and provide continued savings for the duration of their loan. In addition, the Budget reflects a reduction in mortgage insurance fees for Native American borrowers in the Indian Housing Loan Guarantee Program, which will save borrowers over $500 on average in their first year. The Budget also includes $100 million for a HOME down payment assistance pilot to expand homeownership opportunities for first-generation and/or low wealth first-time homebuyers and $15 million to increase the availability of FHA small balance mortgages.
- Expand the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program and Enhance Household Mobility: The Budget provides $32.7 billion, an increase of $2.4 billion over the 2023 enacted level, to maintain services for all currently assisted families and to expand assistance to an additional 50,000 households. In addition, the budget anticipates funding from the HCV program reserves will expands assistance to another 130,000 households. The budget also provides $25 million for mobility-related supportive services to provide low-income families with greater options to provide low-income families with greater options to advance true housing choice.
- Increase Affordable Housing Supply to Reduce Costs: To address the shortage of affordable housing in communities throughout the nation, the Budget provides $1.8 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), an increase of $300 million over the 2023 enacted level, to construct and rehabilitate affordable rental housing and provide homeownership opportunities. In addition, the Budget provides $258 million to support 2,200 units of new permanently affordable housing specifically for the elderly and persons with disabilities, supporting the Administration’s priority to maximize independent living for people with disabilities.
- Supports Economic Development and Removes Barriers to the Development of Affordable Housing: The Budget provides $3.4 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program to help communities modernize infrastructure, invest in economic development, create parks and other public amenities, and provide social services. The Budget includes $85 million within this total for a competitive program to reward State, local, and regional jurisdictions that make progress in removing barriers to affordable housing developments.
- Advance Efforts to End Homelessness: To prevent and reduce homelessness, the Budget provides $3.7 billion, an increase of $116 million over the 2023 enacted level, for Homeless Assistance Grants to meet renewal needs and expand assistance to approximately 25,000 additional households, including survivors of domestic violence and homeless youth. These targeted resources would support the Administration’s recently released Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. The Budget also provides $505 million for Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, serving a population with a disproportionately high rate of homelessness and providing a critical link to services.
- Advance Equity by Preventing and Redressing Housing Discrimination: The Budget provides $90 million to support state and local fair housing enforcement organizations and to further education, outreach, and training on rights and responsibilities under federal fair housing laws.
In addition, the Budget requests $104 billion for new mandatory affordable housing investments, including $60 billion directly related to HUD. Together, this suite of funding and tax credits aims to tackle the nation’s housing affordability crisis by making an investment in curbing housing cost growth to further the Administration’s commitment to rebuilding America from the bottom up and middle out.