Evictions, homelessness could soar under Trump housing cuts, advocates warn

“If you were to stop giving the money, that leaves tens of thousands of residents in limbo, full stop,” said English, who is Mayor Andre Dickens’ chief policy adviser. “It would thrust thousands of people in Atlanta, and millions of people across the country, into homelessness.”

According to Atlanta Housing Authority CEO Terri Lee, the agency relies on federal resources for almost 98% of its funding, underpinning affordable housing projects and the services it provides to vulnerable residents.

With a federal court halting the funding freeze and the Office of Management and Budget rescinding the order, officials were given a brief respite. But the housing authority is now confronting another unsettling reality: the prospect of deep cuts to major housing programs proposed under President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget request.

The proposal, which is far from final and needs congressional approval, is causing a “great deal of concern” in the mayor’s office, English said in an interview. It also means Dickens and the city will take a “federally agnostic” approach, especially as the mayor tries to make good on his goal to build or preserve 20,000 affordable homes by 2030.

In principle, that would mean becoming less reliant on federal funding sources and leaning more on other resources, he said.

“When we contemplate that worst-case scenario, we use that as a blueprint to say prepare for the worst but hope for the best,” English said.

It’s an approach shared in a draft of an internal city of Atlanta document, dated Feb. 26 and reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The document foreshadows the risk if there are severe cuts and the impact on the 40,000 low-income residents the city serves, estimating that the effect on local agencies from a federal funding freeze would be $1.4 billion, with housing and infrastructure absorbing the largest shocks.

The memo was written weeks before Trump’s budget proposal. English said the document was a direct response to the funding freeze, not to the more recent budget request, but that it could still provide a framework for assessing the fallout from any cuts.

Credit: Matt Reynolds

Credit: Matt Reynolds

What’s in the budget?

Like the January freeze, Trump’s budget request has the potential to upend the lives of people in Atlanta and Georgia who rely on federally funded programs, according to the Urban Institute’s Yonah Freemark, a housing policy researcher.

The D.C.-based public policy think tank’s analysis of the Trump administration’s May 2 “skinny budget” found that it would effectively cut funding for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development programs from $58.4 billion to $31.7 billion.

More details on the Trump budget request were released May 30. It asks Congress to combine funds for housing choice vouchers, public housing, project-based rental assistance and supportive housing for the elderly and people with disabilities into a new State Rental Assistance Program, a block grant administered by the states.

It says the budget would include $36.2 billion to create the program in place of HUD rental assistance, using a state-based formula grant. That would empower state governments to create their own rental assistance programs and tailor them to their residents, according to the Office of Management and Budget document.

“This program would promote self-sufficiency by instituting a two-year cap on rental assistance for able-bodied, working-age households, and would ensure the majority of assistance funded through the states would go to the elderly or disabled. This funding level also includes $25 million for Foster Youth to Independence grants for youth aging out of foster care,” the appendix states.

In addition to combining five programs into a block grant, the budget zeros out funding for two programs: HOME, which provides grants to local and state governments to create affordable housing; and the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program.

An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson did not directly respond to questions about the budget’s projected impact on cities, low-income renters and programs like HOME, CDBG and Section 8.

The spokesperson only said the budget “contains long overdue reforms to finally fix our broken federal housing policy and ensure that assistance goes to those who need it most.”

“The administration’s deregulatory agenda will drive down housing costs and increase supply, benefiting all Americans,” according to the Office of Management and Budget statement.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there are more than 340,000 renter households in Georgia that are extremely low income. Freemark said many of those who rely on assistance through HUD programs could be left vulnerable, making the state’s housing crisis worse.

“That means a gigantic cut in support for low-income households throughout the country and in Georgia,” Freemark said.

Michael Lucas, executive director of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, which provides pro bono services to families facing eviction, said cutting off federal funds would lead to a spike in evictions, forcing families out of safe and stable housing and into more dangerous conditions. It will worsen homelessness, he said.

“A family that gets evicted means a kid has to change schools in the middle of the school year,” Lucas said. “These things have ripple effects and very human impacts.”

The city’s February memo frames the impact of severe cuts as more like shock waves than ripples.

It found housing and infrastructure would be the hardest hit, with a federal funding freeze blowing a $224 million hole in the city’s 2025 budget for housing vouchers, capital projects and emergency shelters for the homeless.

According to the city briefing document, a freeze would impact up to $315 million in funding annually.

“Should the federal government retreat from their foundational investments in our community, our position will move from a proactive state of envisioning whole and healthy communities to one of triage and mitigating unprecedented strain on the basic needs of residents,” the memo states.

A funding freeze could destabilize the city’s economy, “jeopardize its financial performance and access to investment for capital projects” and slow momentum on existing projects, including conversion of the Two Peachtree office tower into affordable housing and the revitalization of affordable housing at the site of the Bowen Homes public housing project.

Hundreds of millions of federal dollars are at risk for infrastructure projects, including segments of the Southside Beltline Trail and The Stitch, the 14-acre green space project over the stretch of main highway connecting the north and south sides of the city, the memo states.

“Capital projects like Two Peachtree and other HUD-funded projects … would be stalled, disrupting our pipeline to 20,000 units,” the document adds.

Lee, the housing authority CEO, declined a request for an interview. But in a statement, she said the housing authority remained committed to protecting low-income residents in the city of Atlanta and their housing. She added the budget proposal was not final and expected alterations as lawmakers hammer out the details.

“We are actively working with national partners, other housing authorities and federal lawmakers to protect housing programs that work,” Lee said. “As conversations evolve at both the federal and state levels, we will continue to closely monitor the ongoing discussions and stand ready to make adjustments as needed.”

Georgia Department of Community Affairs spokesperson Justin Ving said the department had reviewed the proposed budget but said it was too early to “fully assess implications on any programs.” The state agency is responsible for administering Section 8 vouchers and other housing programs.