Housing advocates are scrambling to figure out just how much their constituencies will be affected by the federal funding freeze the Trump administration is pursuing.
Millions of people rely on the more than $70 billion that is funneled through the Department of Housing and Urban Development — including through grants that provide Section 8 housing vouchers, homelessness assistance and much more — and how dramatic the shakeup could be after the Trump administration reviews federal spending is unclear.
The freeze was temporarily blocked by a federal judge just as it was set to go into effect Tuesday, but its future is still uncertain. The White House also tried on Tuesday to walk back the extent of the freeze by arguing that aid “provided directly to individuals” would not be affected. But that provided little assurance to Democrats, who say HUD assistance is rarely so straightforward.