Section 8 Housing Assistance in Jeopardy From Proposed Cuts and Restrictions

More than 5 million people rely on Section 8, the nation’s largest housing assistance program, to help pay their rent. Without it, many low-income families would be priced out of Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City and other expensive housing markets.

But tenants across the nation stand to lose access to Section 8 vouchers under proposals by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that would slash funding, limit the number of people who could receive assistance and, critics say, fuel the homelessness and housing crisis. 

One proposal by House Republicans, which would fund the Section 8 program at 2025 levels with no increase to account for rising rents, could result in more than 400,000 fewer people receiving Section 8 vouchers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive-leaning think tank. Another proposal by Senate Republicans would provide more funding than the House bill, but not enough to keep up with rent hikes, and could still result in 250,000 fewer people receiving Section 8 assistance. Earlier this year the Trump Administration proposed a more draconian plan to slash the program’s funding by 43%. 

Congress has until Jan. 30, when the November stopgap measure to reopen the government expires, to determine whether or how deeply to cut the Section 8 program.

Under the Section 8 program, voucher holders pay about a third of their income to rent market-rate apartments and the government covers the rest. That assistance can be life-changing, especially in cities like L.A. where a renter needs to make more than $74,000 per year to comfortably afford the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment, according to apartmentlist.com. About 85,000 households in Los Angeles County receive rent subsidies. 

Theresa Winkler. Photo: Robin Urevich.

Among those receiving subsidies is Theresa Winkler, 62, who counts herself lucky to have used her voucher to rent a modern, one-bedroom apartment in downtown L.A. two years ago. 

“How can you not love this building?” Winkler said as she showed off the washer-dryer, kitchen appliances and a sunny spot where two large pet turtles swim in an aquarium. “It’s quiet and there’s security.”

Safety is important for Winkler, who used to live in a building for formerly homeless individuals. About a year after moving in, she said she was hospitalized after a neighbor with mental health and substance use issues wandered into the room where she’d lived previously and attacked her. Now, she said, she enjoys peace and quiet.

*   *   *

Nationwide, only about a quarter of households whose incomes are low enough to qualify for Section 8 can participate because funding has long been insufficient, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Another longstanding issue: Despite anti-discrimination laws in California, Washington, D.C., and 23 other states, many landlords won’t accept housing vouchers, often because they’re wary of government bureaucracy or because of the stigma associated with government assistance. 

A Capital & Main investigation of 65 properties owned by some of LA’s largest landlords found that many flout anti-discrimination laws, including a 2024 California measure that prohibits rejecting tenants with housing assistance solely based on credit history. Only one company’s leasing agents categorically rejected people seeking Section 8 housing in many of its buildings. But many others said they would deny rentals to people with housing assistance solely based on credit history. 

Cutting back on federal Section 8 spending would only add to the obstacles, making it harder for families to obtain vouchers.  

Either the House or Senate proposals would represent “one of the most severe funding shortfalls in history” for the Section 8 program, said Eric Oberdorfer, director of policy and legislative affairs at the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, a trade group for housing authorities and community development agencies. 

*   *   *

Regardless of what Congress does, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed its own massive changes to Section 8 eligibility.

In July, the agency, led by Secretary Scott Turner, proposed federal rules changes that could imperil housing for millions of people who currently receive assistance, according to Will Fischer, deputy director of housing policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

The largest reduction would come from a proposal to allow local housing authorities to limit the amount of time a family could receive aid and require able-bodied recipients to work in exchange for housing assistance. Another new rule would bar families with undocumented members from receiving housing aid.  

Deborah Thrope, deputy director of the San Francisco-based National Housing Law Project, a tenant advocacy group, fears the new rules would cause people to lose their homes. 

“The administration is gutting the federal housing programs,” Thrope said. 

HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement that “time limits will encourage work and self-sufficiency for able-bodied residents and help expand the number of eligible families who can be served through HUD rental assistance.” 

The new requirements would “put an end to the cycle of dependence on government handouts,” Lovett said. “Government subsidies were never meant to be a hammock. Instead, they are designed to be a trampoline that restores dignity and pride.” 

President Donald Trump greets HUD Secretary Scott Turner during an event at the Museum of the Bible on Sept. 8 in Washington, DC. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Secretary Turner is a Baptist minister and former professional football player who has signaled a shift in HUD’s focus from aid programs for Americans to self-help and faith in God. His agenda mirrors elements of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump term that criticized HUD programs that “tend to perpetuate the notion of bureaucratically provided housing as a basic life need” and housing assistance that “too often” has led to “intergenerational poverty traps.” 

That new approach to housing under the Trump administration is apparently front and center on the HUD website, where the home page features a Turner quote set against the backdrop of a suburban cul de sac. “God blessed us with this great nation, and together we can increase self-sufficiency and empower Americans to climb the economic ladder toward a brighter future,” the quote reads.

Last year, during the Biden administration, the most prominent language on HUD’s homepage was “Helping you meet your housing needs. HUD provides housing support and uplifts communities. Let us guide your next steps to the right place.” That was followed by a link to the agency’s housing programs.  

*   *   *

Data is scant on the effects of work requirements on people who depend on housing assistance, said Claudia Aiken, director of new research partnerships at New York University’s Furman Center. But such requirements “drastically reduce program participation” in food assistance, Medicaid and welfare programs, she said on a webinar in September. 

Thrope, with the National Housing Law Project, said the other HUD proposal to bar undocumented family members from sharing subsidized apartments with U.S. citizens or permanent resident relatives could cause some 20,000 households to lose their homes.

The idea of the current rule is to “keep families together,” Thrope said, adding that the administration’s proposal could disproportionately affect cities like Los Angeles and New York with large immigrant populations.

Under existing rules, undocumented people — who are ineligible for housing assistance — are allowed to live with family members who are eligible. But, if for example, a family of five includes one undocumented member, the family’s aid is reduced by one-fifth.  

The HUD spokesperson didn’t respond to Capital & Main’s questions about whether the rule might increase homelessness in areas where many immigrants live, saying only that “illegals should not be in public housing. HUD-funded housing is for American citizens.”

Back in downtown L.A., Winkler is a longtime member of a group of formerly unhoused people who lobby on issues of housing and homelessness. She worries that budget cuts would only make the city’s housing problems worse.

The years she spent on the streets still haunt her, she said, as she recalled that recent rains brought back frightening memories of surviving outdoors during wet weather.

“I have severe PTSD. When the storm was coming in, I almost had a breakdown,” she said. Budget cuts, she said, “wouldn’t solve anything.”

Copyright 2025 Capital & Main.

This reporting was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. 

This story is the fourth in a series:

Part 1: This Big L.A. Landlord Turned Away People Seeking Section 8 Housing

Part 2: How Some of L.A.’s Biggest Apartment Owners Avoid Section 8 Tenants

Part 3: Credit History Remains an Obstacle for Section 8 Tenants, Despite Anti-Discrimination Law