(From left to right) Housing Opportunities Made Equal Director Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick, U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, and Virginia Housing Alliance Policy Director Isabel McClain discuss policy in McClellan’s district office in Richmond on June 2, 2025. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

By Charlotte Rene Woods

(VM) – As budget talks heat up in Washington, Southside Richmond resident Dana Wyatt is bracing for impact. After years of waiting for a housing choice voucher — a federally-funded program that operates like a rent coupon for qualifying tenants —  she now fears she could lose it and once again become rent-burdened..

This is because a series of White House budget requests sent to Congress in May proposes deep cuts for housing programs that Virginia has long relied on to help struggling renters, first-time homebuyers, and those who are unhoused and in need of shelter. Federal housing funds also support organizations that fight housing discrimination.

“It’s like a smack in the face,” Wyatt said.

Even after finally receiving her voucher last year, Wyatt found it didn’t offer much “choice” at all. She said multiple landlords turned her away, highlighting what she called the irony of the program’s name.  Her case is now being investigated by Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), a Richmond-based housing advocacy organization.

She worries not just for herself but for others who could lose critical safety nets if the federal government slashes its housing support to state and local agencies.

That’s a concern that U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, plans to raise with her congressional colleagues.

If enacted, the Trump administration’s budget would eliminate or reduce funding streams from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including Community Development Block Grants, the Fair Housing Initiative Program, and the vouchers that people like Wyatt depend on.

The housing cuts are among other proposed changes to federal agencies like HUD, as Congress also explores cuts to Medicaid — which supports health insurance for low-income and disabled residents. The wishes from the White House are part of President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce taxes across all income levels.

McClellan emphasized that while Trump and his Republican allies in Congress may celebrate the tax cuts for the “wealthiest few at the federal level,” states and localities will be forced to make up for lost federal funds — often by raising taxes themselves.

“It’s all just going to flow downhill,” McClellan said. “States and localities are going to have to raise taxes.”

The budget proposals are moving on parallel tracks in Congress. While Trump’s “big beautiful bill” —  a reconciliation package that includes Medicaid cuts — has passed the House and awaits Senate deliberation, his formal request, which includes housing aid cuts, is already under review in the Senate.

During his 2024 reelection campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, a sweeping policy blueprint published by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Still, the Foundation had praised  Trump’s first-term record and many of the current budget proposals mirror the project’s recommendations.

Chapter 15 of the project, which focuses on housing, calls for  Congress to “consider a wholesale overhaul of HUD that contemplates devolving many HUD functions to states and localities with any remaining federal functions consolidated to other federal agencies.”

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) spokesman Lance Warren called the requests from the Trump administration a “radical reshaping of the social safety net.”

In practical terms, Warren said, it would leave localities holding the bag on “promises made” — from vouchers and downpayment assistance to homelessness services.

“The federal government is pulling the rug out from communities like ours even as they claim to be setting the table,” he said.

Nearly 200,000 homes in Virginia receive some form of support from HUD, according to an analysis from the Virginia Housing Alliance. About 50,000 of those residents use vouchers like Wyatt’s.

Beyond programs for renters or first-time homebuyers, localities in Virginia also rely on federal funding to meet the temporary housing needs of residents.  Nearly 6,000 Virginians receive housing and support in HUD-funded shelters. In the 2024 fiscal year, HUD allocated nearly $60 million for homelessness services in Virginia, while the state contributed about $30 million.

Other streams of federal housing funding also enable housing organizations to work with vulnerable populations. Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick, director of HOME, expressed concerns about the long-term viability of some of them.

“HOME will be around to fight the fight, but we have partners around the country that are unsure what their outcomes are going to look like,” he said.

To offset the $550,000 cut his organization is facing, Fitzpatrick explained that HOME has scaled back some office operations to trim costs.

Laura Dobbs, a policy director with HOME, also shared anecdotes of clients served by the organization — assistance that could be jeopardized for others like them if HUD cuts come to fruition. For instance, she explained how HOME and Commonwealth Catholic Charities advocated for an unhoused military veteran who had been denied housing vouchers. From sleeping in a tent behind a movie theater to his legal battle to obtain a voucher, he’s now celebrating a year living in his Richmond apartment, Dobbs said.

Likewise, a Community Development Block Grant supported a fund through HOME that helped with downpayment assistance for a Black first-time home owner. Reports have indicated disparities in homeownership for people of color due to a variety of factors, including the lingering impact of historically racist housing policies. Though the individual was able to afford her monthly mortgage payments, the upfront cost required to purchase a home had been a barrier until she was able to access down payment assistance through HOME.

This is because HOME’s Investment Partnership program both supports first-time homebuyers and  localities’ efforts to build or preserve affordable housing units. Localities also utilize Community Development Block Grants for a variety of infrastructure projects, ranging from maintaining existing public housing units to creating other types of affordable housing.

While federal lawmakers like McClellan continue to push for or against the Trump administration’s proposed funding cuts, Virginia’s state lawmakers are bracing for the potential fallout.

Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin carved out $900 million from Virginia’s budget surplus as a “cushion” for uncertainties at the federal level. Meanwhile, members of the legislature’s appropriations committees have pondered whether they will need to reconvene for a special session later this year to address federal funding shortfalls — or if those issues will dominate the 2026 legislative session.

It’s possible lawmakers will focus on how to allocate the surplus Youngking withheld during negotiations over the most recent state budget.

A member of the House of Delegates Appropriations committee, Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, is working to determine what he and his colleagues might need to address.

“What’s troubling is that even before this potential cut was announced, we were in a housing crisis at all levels,” he added.

Though local governments have direct influence over housing supply and affordability through tools like zoning codes and development approvals, state lawmakers from both parties have explored what levers they can pull to support or encourage local efforts. Many of those proposals, however, did not survive this legislative session — either failing in committee or falling to Youngkin’s veto pen.

Wyatt, the Richmond resident, is flustered by the proposal from the White House but remains hopeful that her state and local officials can keep their promises to constituents like herself.

“I just hope that everything turns out okay,” she said.