Sponsor
Stephen Cohen
Representative · D-TN
Representative · D-TN
The bill directs larger, inflation-protected housing and CDBG resources toward high-poverty renters and communities and simplifies eligibility rules—improving targeting and preserving purchasing power—while reallocating funds away from some jurisdictions, narrowing eligibility definitions, and locking in automatic spending increases that reduce congressional flexibility and could strain local capacity.
Low-income renters and families will receive increased housing assistance funding starting at $3.425 billion in FY2026, with future amounts indexed to inflation to help preserve program value.
Local and state governments that administer HUD programs will get more predictable, inflation-adjusted funding year-to-year, improving planning and program stability.
Communities with concentrated housing hardship (high poverty, pre‑1950 housing stock, female‑headed households, and overcrowding) will, in many cases, receive a larger share of CDBG funds because allocations are tied to measurable local hardship.
Local governments and low-income residents in jurisdictions that previously qualified under broader criteria could lose CDBG funding if their communities rank better on the new ratios, reducing services they rely on.
Low-income groups previously covered by older statutory definitions could be excluded because the bill removes multiple existing eligibility paragraphs, narrowing who counts as eligible.
Local governments may see an overemphasis on the poverty ratio (weighted heavily), which can reduce responsiveness to other important local housing needs and distort allocations.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Revises CDBG allocation formulas and statutory definitions and authorizes $3.425B for FY2026 with CPI–U indexing for future years.
Official title: To amend the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to revise the formula for allocation of community development block grant funds, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress December 11, 2025
Changes how Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds are allocated, revises several statutory definitions related to eligibility, and authorizes a new dollar amount for CDBG funding in FY2026 with automatic annual increases tied to CPI–U. The allocation formula for metropolitan cities, urban counties, and state nonentitlement areas is replaced with an average of four local-to-national ratios (poverty, female‑headed households with children, pre‑1950 housing occupied by a household in poverty, and housing overcrowding) with heavier weighting on poverty and pre‑1950 housing measures.