Coalition for Home Repair Launches Survey to Capture Funding Impacts to Home Preservation
The Coalition for Home Repair is launching a survey to better understand how federal funding cuts have affected your organization and the communities you serve. We want to hear from you – whether your organization has been directly impacted by these cuts and/or if you’ve felt the ripple effects in the operational capacity of your programs through any of the current and proposed actions.
Your input matters – by completing this survey, you contribute to a collective voice that will inform decision-makers about the urgent need for action to address the impacts of federal funding cuts. Your responses also help raise awareness about how these cuts are affecting individuals, communities, and organizations.
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Estimated time of completion: Approximately 10 minutes.
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Who should complete the survey? We invite responses from:
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Organizations: Home repair program staff who work with federally funded housing programs
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Individuals: Residents who were set to receive home repair assistance but are now facing delays or uncertainty due to funding cuts or community members/advocates who are witnessing the ripple effects of these cuts and are concerned about the short and long-term impacts
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How often should this survey be completed?
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We want to capture the ongoing effects, so this survey is a recurring tool that should be filled out whenever there are further impacts to your home repair program(s) and operational capacity.
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If there are changes related to additional funding cuts or their consequences, we encourage you to complete the survey again to keep us informed.
- For your convenience, Google doc versions of the surveys are available to download.
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Survey for Organizations Survey for Individuals
Programs Impacted by Funding Cuts
The threats to federally funded housing programs only widens the already limited resources available to help households with low-incomes receive essential repairs and modifications. These programs are more than just funding—they’re lifelines for low- and moderate-income communities. They don’t just provide direct support; they help build stronger, more resilient neighborhoods by expanding operational capacity, offering technical assistance, empowering local organizations to create lasting change and so much more. Some of these essential programs include:
- Contract Cancellations: Section 4 Capacity Building Grants: The Capacity Building for Affordable Housing and Community Development Program, known as Section 4, provides grants to support the creation and preservation of affordable homes for low to moderate-income households. Since 1993, three organizations (and Advocacy Partners of ours)—Enterprise, LISC, and Habitat for Humanity—have helped distribute Section 4 funding to local groups working on affordable housing and community development. In the last two fiscal years alone, they received a total of $83 million to support these efforts.
- Excerpt from Enterprise, LISC, and Habitat for Humanity Petition: “Section 4 strengthens low-income rural, Native, suburban, and urban communities across the nation by providing flexible support to local nonprofit organizations so they can address the most pressing concerns in their communities. Section 4 has also been used to assist communities affected by federally declared disasters by rebuilding homes and neighborhood facilities.”
- Termination of the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP): With nearly $840 billion in initial funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, this program has invested $1.5 billion to retrofit HUD-assisted multifamily housing in low-income communities, improving energy efficiency, climate resilience, and reducing emissions. It has helped retrofit nearly 25,000 homes across the country.
- The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund: President Trump’s executive order on 3/14 included threats to the CDFI Fund. However, a 4/3 update from the Housing Assistance Council notes that the CDFI Fund’s report to OMB confirms all its programs and functions are operating as required by law.
- Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) is a designation by the U.S. Treasury for financial institutions dedicated to promoting community development. The CDFI Fund supports these institutions through grants, investments, tax credits, and bond guarantees. With over 1,400 nationwide, CDFIs help finance affordable housing, minority-owned small businesses, green energy initiatives, disaster recovery, and other essential projects in underserved communities. Some CDFIs have developed programs to finance home repairs using low-cost, deferred, and forgivable loans.
- Elimination of Administration for Community Living (ACL): The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is a government agency that was established in 2012 and oversees programs that help people with disabilities and older adults access services, advocating for their needs across the federal government. It currently funds and collaborates with over 2,500 community organizations nationwide. Many of the programs ACL oversees, including Area Agencies on Aging, Centers for Independent Living, and fall prevention initiatives, are funded through the Older Americans Act. According to an article, dismantling ACL won’t stop funding for Older Americans Act programs, but Congress may still cut their budgets later this year as part of a broader push to cut domestic spending.
Cuts to funding for programs such as these have profound consequences, making it more important than ever to come together and ensure that our voices are heard. By sharing your experiences and concerns through this survey, you’re helping to highlight this urgent issue and ensure it gets the attention it deserves.
For any questions, please contact Emma Carrasco, the Coalition for Home Repair's Stategic Partnership and Research Director at emma@coalitionforhomerepair.org.
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