Housing for All Act Proposes Billions for Affordable Housing, Expands Vouchers, Funds New Homelessness Solutions

The Housing for All Act of 2025 lays out a sweeping plan to tackle the nation's housing shortage and homelessness crisis. At its core, this legislation aims to significantly boost the supply of affordable housing and provide more direct support to those without stable shelter. It proposes injecting tens of billions of dollars annually into established federal housing programs and creating several new initiatives designed to address specific challenges like eviction, safe shelter alternatives, and coordinating care.

Opening the Funding Floodgates

This bill doesn't tinker around the edges; it proposes major financial commitments across multiple existing programs. Key funding authorizations include:

• Housing Trust Fund (HTF): A hefty $45 billion per year from FY2025 through FY2034 (Sec. 101) is proposed for the HTF, which states use to build and preserve affordable rental housing, primarily for extremely low-income households.
• Supportive Housing: Significant funds are earmarked for housing linked with services, including $2.5 billion for the Section 202 program supporting elderly individuals (Sec. 102) and $900 million for the Section 811 program aiding people with disabilities (Sec. 103).
• HOME Program: The HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a flexible block grant states and localities use for various affordable housing activities, would receive $40 billion (Sec. 104).
• Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA): $14.5 billion is proposed to fund contracts attached to specific buildings, ensuring long-term affordability (Sec. 202).
• Homelessness Grants: The Emergency Solutions Grant program gets $5 billion (Sec. 203), while the Continuum of Care program, which funds coordinated community responses to homelessness, receives $15 billion (Sec. 204).

These funding levels, available over roughly a decade, represent a substantial potential increase in resources aimed directly at creating and maintaining affordable places to live.

Vouchers for More Folks: A Potential Game-Changer

One of the most significant shifts proposed is the expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program (Sec. 201). The bill aims to add 500,000 new vouchers in 2025, ramping up to 1 million incremental vouchers per year from 2026-2028. Eligibility is expanded to include families earning at or below 50% of the extremely low-income limit (a threshold set by HUD based on area income, often very low) or those receiving SSI benefits.

Crucially, the bill states that five years after enactment, any family meeting the eligibility criteria would be entitled to receive a voucher, moving it from a lottery-style system to something more like an entitlement program, assuming they remain eligible. This could fundamentally change housing assistance, guaranteeing help for qualifying households rather than leaving them on long waiting lists.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Testing New Ideas

Title III focuses on innovative, community-level approaches:

• Safe Parking: A new $25 million annual grant program (capped at $5M per entity over 5 years) would help localities or nonprofits establish safe places for people living in their vehicles to park overnight, while also connecting them to services and housing (Sec. 301).
• Hotel/Motel Conversions: $500 million is proposed to help acquire and convert properties like hotels, motels, or commercial buildings into non-congregate shelters or permanent supportive housing (Sec. 302).
• Eviction Protection: An $800 million grant program aims to fund legal services for low-income tenants facing eviction (Sec. 303).
• Mobile Crisis Teams: $50 million annually for 10 years would support mobile crisis intervention teams as an alternative to law enforcement for situations involving individuals experiencing homelessness (Sec. 304).
• Library Support: A $10 million annual pilot program would help libraries connect homeless individuals with resources (Sec. 305).
• Behavioral Health Coordination: A $20 million annual grant program aims to improve coordination between healthcare (including mental health and substance use) and homelessness services (Sec. 309).

These programs recognize that addressing homelessness requires more than just housing units; it involves legal support, safe alternatives, healthcare coordination, and meeting people where they are.

Keeping Tabs and Looking Ahead

The bill also includes measures for oversight and future planning. It permanently authorizes the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and establishes a Commission on Racial Equity in Housing within it to study and report on racial disparities (Sec. 106). It mandates a GAO report analyzing eviction data, particularly trends during the pandemic moratoriums (Sec. 206). Additionally, it pushes for integrating housing with transportation and climate goals, requiring reports on transit-oriented development (Sec. 306) and allowing certain transportation funds (Carbon Reduction Program, RAISE grants) to be used for infill housing and projects that reduce driving (Sec. 307, 308).

Overall, the Housing for All Act represents a massive proposed investment aimed at fundamentally reshaping the federal government's role in addressing housing affordability and homelessness through increased funding, expanded access, and support for innovative local strategies.