The recent Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 includes a Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 spending bill for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with measures protecting permanent supportive housing (PSH) and other housing and homelessness funding. This advocacy win reflects contributions from aging and disability advocates, who helped urge lawmakers to save PSH and other programs for older adults.
Over 170,000 people in PSH – the vast majority of whom are older adults and people with disabilities – were at risk of losing their homes this year under HUD’s plans to gut funding for PSH and other permanent housing in its Continuum of Care (CoC) homeless assistance program. CoC funding provides around $3.7 billion annually for communities’ homeless response systems nationwide.
Why is PSH important for older adults?
PSH primarily serves people with disabilities who were formerly chronically homeless and have the most complex needs. For many older adults who are unhoused, access to PSH provides a roof over their heads and services, such as behavioral health care, to stabilize their health and lives. As a proven solution for homelessness, PSH has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades.
Older adults are the fastest-growing group among people experiencing homelessness and an increasingly larger share of people in PSH. In 2022, seniors age 55 and over comprised 40% of PSH residents.
How was HUD trying to undermine PSH and the CoC program?
HUD has sought to upend the CoC program’s funding policies and priorities. Currently, around 87% of CoC funding supports PSH and other permanent housing. In late 2025, however, HUD released a CoC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that proposed slashing that number to 30% to shift funds to temporary and less effective forms of assistance, such as transitional housing. These unprecedented cuts would have taken away housing from PSH residents, who would have been forced back into homelessness and trying to survive on the streets.
HUD’s new CoC funding criteria also included other harmful changes. For example, HUD aimed to prioritize awarding funds to states that criminalize homelessness and use measures such as involuntary commitment against people who are unhoused.
Two lawsuits challenging HUD’s FY25 CoC NOFO remain ongoing, with the NOFO temporarily blocked due to a court order.
How Does the FY26 HUD Spending Bill Support PSH and Older Adults at Risk of or Experiencing Homelessness?
The FY26 HUD spending bill includes provisions to reduce disruptions in funding for PSH and other forms of housing and homeless assistance.
CoC Funding
The bill establishes a timeline for HUD to automatically renew current CoC grants to promote continuity in funding, without the draconian cuts proposed by HUD. HUD must immediately renew CoC grants expiring in quarter one (January through March) of 2026 for a 12-month period.
Throughout the year, HUD must continue to renew expiring CoC grants for another 12-month period if the agency has not already issued new funding awards. Although some uncertainty still exists given the pending CoC litigation, the bill’s renewal provisions likely protect PSH funding for this year.
The bill also provides more stability for CoC funding that will be released next year. Under a future FY26 CoC NOFO, HUD must renew funding for each community’s CoC (which then distributes funding to individual CoC grantees, including PSH projects) at a minimum of 60% of current funding levels. (Under the FY25 NOFO, HUD had attempted to drastically lower each community’s yearly protected renewal funding from 90% to 30% of current levels.) Additionally, to prevent funding delays that could destabilize CoC projects, HUD must timely issue any new FY26 CoC NOFO by June and make awards by December 2026.
Funding to Help Households with Emergency Housing Vouchers
Other provisions in the bill are designed to help the almost 50,000 households who are currently using Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs), which are set to expire this year. EHVs were created during the COVID pandemic to support people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Many EHV recipients are older adults and people with disabilities, who use these vouchers to bridge the gap between their incomes and rents.
Although the bill does not extend funding for EHVs, the bill includes new flexibilities for Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to use Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) to help EHV households transition to other rental assistance programs. Congress also increased funding for the TPV program by $264 million, for a total of $600 million, to account for the needs of EHV households.
Other HUD Funding
Further, Congress provided funding increases for other key federal rental assistance programs, such as Housing Choice (“Section 8”) Vouchers and the Section 202 senior housing program. These investments will allow these programs to keep pace with inflation and maintain current levels of assistance for low-income households.
What Threats Still Exist?
Congressional intervention (and litigation by states and advocates) has so far significantly restricted HUD’s plans to overhaul the CoC program. However, the Trump Administration has signaled that it will continue pursuing its punitive approach to homelessness.
Instead of investing in evidence-based PSH that provides long-term housing with services, HUD will likely persist in trying to shift resources towards short-term homeless assistance and long-term institutionalization. HUD may, for example, renew its attempts to severely limit the percentage of CoC funding that communities can use for PSH. The result will be continual threats to community-based housing for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, a disproportionate number of whom are older adults and people with disabilities.
Aging and disability advocates must stay engaged on issues around housing and homelessness. Policymakers must understand that HUD’s CoC and other programs help older adults stay housed, and that federal rental assistance is an essential part of the safety net for seniors. By uplifting the needs of older adults, advocates can successfully push back against harmful proposals and defend vital programs older adults rely on.
