Will HUD Cuts Include Section 8?

According to a recent article in USA Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may have as many as 4300 of its 8300 employees cut as part of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Services efforts to cut federal spending.

Last year HUD spent $32.8 billion on Section 8 housing vouchers; roughly half of its budget. Even if funding for the rental assistance is not cut, there is projected to be a 51.8% cut in the staff distributing funds to 2.3 million households nationwide.

There are 164,676 Minnesotans who receive Section 8 vouchers.

What happens if funding for payments is slashed? According to HUD’s Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contract, if Public Housing Assistance determines the program no longer has sufficient funds to support continued assistance to the resident, the HAP contract terminates automatically.

Every congressional district in Minnesota has residents who benefit from Section 8 vouchers.

According to urban.org, Minnesota’s 5th congressional district has 40,378 people or 21,621 households that receive some form of rental assistance from HUD. District 5 includes eastern Hennepin County, parts of Anoka and Ramsey counties, as well as the cities of Brooklyn Center, Crystal, Fridley Golden Valley, New Hope Robbinsdale, St Louis Park, and a small part of Edina.

Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district, which includes Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Minnetonka and Wayzata has the second most beneficiaries of the program. HUD provides $93,586,878 in housing assistance to 17,720 people in 7461 households.

Remember, in 2017 the city of Minneapolis passed an ordinance that prohibits housing providers from refusing to rent to tenants who receive housing assistance.

As of now, it is unclear as to whether federal funding for Section 8 vouchers will be cut, or the focus will be more on staffing. In the event rental assistance is reduced, both residents and housing providers could be hurt.