By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press/Report for America
The Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
The action is part of a slew of cuts and funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, largely at the direction of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, that have rattled the affordable-housing industry.
Preserving these units gets less attention than ribbon-cuttings, but it’s a centerpiece of efforts to address the nation’s housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of low-rent apartments, many of them aging and in need of urgent repair, are at risk of being yanked out from under poor Americans.
The program has already awarded the money to projects that would upgrade at least 25,000 affordable units across the country, and details of how it will be wound down remain unclear.
A spokesperson for HUD did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But an internal document reviewed by the AP said that the program is being “terminated” at the direction of DOGE. Two HUD workers, who have knowledge of the program and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, confirmed the directive to shutter it.
On its face, the over $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, passed by Congress in 2022, is intended for energy-efficiency improvements. It is distributed in grants and loans to owners of affordable housing in need of updating, including replacing or repairing heating and cooling systems, leaky roofs, aging insulation or windows, or undertaking floodproofing.
But the money plays a much larger role in preserving affordable units.
Projects that use the funds are required to keep their buildings affordable for up to 25 years. The money is also leveraged to pull in other investments for major repairs and renovations needed to keep the buildings livable.
It’s like building a Jenga tower, where one of the program’s grants or loans — which range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — is a bottom block and each new block is another investment, experts said.
This money “was essential in order for the project to come together,” said Mike Essian, vice president at American Community Developers, Inc., which received funding for several affordable housing projects. “Projects will fail and these are projects that are already difficult to finance.”
