Boston Council Says Federal Cuts Took $17.9 Million From Public Housing and Froze New Vouchers Since 2024

The Boston City Council has formally asked Congress to restore federal public housing money, saying in a resolution adopted Oct. 21 that the Boston Housing Authority is absorbing a $17.9 million cut in federal operating revenue this year and has been unable to issue any new federal housing vouchers since February 2024.

The resolution, Docket 2026-1973, was offered by Councilor Enrique Pepén, with Councilors Henry Santana and Liz Breadon added as original co-sponsors and the rest of the council listed as co-sponsors. It was adopted on a suspension of the rules on Wednesday, according to the council's Legistar record. It directs that a copy be sent to every member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

The resolution describes the Boston Housing Authority as the city's largest housing provider, supplying public housing and vouchers to more than 62,000 extremely low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. The authority owns 50 public housing developments, 37 of which are funded through the federal public housing operating budget and overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to the resolution.

The council's account of the operating-fund cut rests on a technical figure known as proration, the share of a housing authority's calculated need that HUD actually pays. According to the resolution, the federal public housing operating budget has been prorated at 86.7 percent since January 2026, compared with 102.6 percent in January 2025. The council says that reduction is compounded by "a flawed utility reimbursement calculation, based on national averages, inconsiderate of the unique utility needs and higher energy costs in New England."

Taken together, the resolution states, the authority is experiencing a $17.9 million cut in revenue from the federal operating budget in 2026, a 27.2 percent reduction from 2025. The council wrote that the cuts will affect the authority's ability to staff maintenance, management and security at its public housing sites and to complete repairs on units and critical building systems. The resolution does not identify specific developments or staffing reductions.

On vouchers, the resolution alleges that the federal housing voucher budget "is also being intentionally restrained by the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to shrink the voucher program," producing funding shortfalls that keep many housing authorities from issuing new vouchers. In response, the council says, the Boston Housing Authority has issued no new federal vouchers since February 2024 and is now also unable to award new federal Project-Based Voucher contracts to developments that would create deeply affordable housing, including supportive and senior units. The claim about the budget office's intent is the council's characterization; the resolution does not cite a document for it.

The resolution also points to two HUD actions. It says HUD is trying to limit housing authorities' statutory right to create new deeply affordable units under what is known as Faircloth or "Restore-Rebuild" authority, by retracting already-issued Notices of Anticipated RAD Rent this summer and preventing applications for more. And it says HUD proposed in February 2026 to end prorated housing assistance for mixed-status families, an arrangement under which ineligible members of a household pay a prorated share of market rent while eligible citizens and permanent residents in the same family receive regular subsidies. The council says that change "could end federal public housing assistance for hundreds of families in Boston."

The resolution concludes that the combined effect of the operating cuts, the restrained voucher funding, the rollback of new-unit authority and the proposed mixed-status rule "fundamentally compromises the production and preservation of housing assistance for Boston's low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities."

The council's requests to Congress are specific. It calls on Congress to restore the public housing operating budget to at least 100 percent and to raise the voucher budget enough to take housing authorities out of shortfall. It also asks that the next federal appropriations bill include language requiring the administration to reverse its rollback of the Restore-Rebuild program, to use a utility reimbursement formula that reflects real regional energy costs, and to continue support for existing, legally housed mixed-status families.

A council resolution has no binding effect on federal spending. Its figures come from the council's own findings and were not accompanied by a Boston Housing Authority or HUD document in the council's online file. The Boston Housing Authority and HUD were not asked for comment for this story.

The resolution arrives as Congress faces post-election work on government spending through Sept. 30, 2027, which Reuters reported this week will include appropriations bills lawmakers may use to press other policy disputes with the administration. Federal housing assistance is funded through those annual appropriations.