Win, New York City’s main provider of family shelter and supportive housing, sounded the alarm Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s expanded budget proposal, which seeks massive cuts to federal housing programs and assistance.
The administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 includes a plan to axe 43% of federal rental assistance and cap federal support for “able-bodied adults” to two years before ending benefits. The New York City Housing Authority has predicted in an internal report that the proposed time cap could displace more than 300,000 NYC residents, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx) told THE CITY last week.
Trump’s proposal also aims to end the Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8.
Win, founded originally as Women in Need, which is the largest shelter and housing support organization in the nation, reiterated its concern with the budget — an updated version of which was published Friday — after condemning initial plans to cut housing assistance in May.
The proposed cuts would hit especially hard in NYC, which administers the largest Section 8 program in the country. As part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1978, Section 8 provides housing assistance and vouchers to low- and moderate-income families renting housing in the private market.
“Make no mistake, if Donald Trump’s federal housing proposal becomes a reality, we will see massive spikes in homelessness nationwide that will overwhelm shelter systems and destabilize our communities,” said Christine Quinn, President and CEO of Win and former City Council speaker, in a statement Wednesday. “We can’t allow the Trump administration to eliminate Section 8 for the lowest-income Americans, one of the most effective evidence-based tools to end homelessness, to offset tax cuts for billionaires.”
The HUD is facing the seventh-largest workforce cuts of any federal department in the spending bill, with about 26% of the department’s employees set to be let go if the proposal gets approved. The Department of Education is facing the brunt of Trump’s proposed cuts, with 38% of jobs at risk.
Under her leadership, the organization launched Project Hope, a response to a slew of far-right political plans laid out by the Heritage Foundation in Project 2025. Though Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail, several of his administration’s policy aims align with the plan.
The policy report presented in Win’s Project Hope showed that 130,000 people slept in NYC shelters in 2024, with 70% of the total population in NYC shelters are families with children. Additionally, 123,000 NYC households receive Section 8 support.
“We are facing a dire housing shortage paired with an affordability crisis and the federal government is committed to making it even worse,” Quinn said. “This is why we fought to pass a statewide housing voucher in New York and why we’re been urging our state and local leaders to combat harmful federal policies with a bold agenda that protects those most at risk. Lives are on the line. We need our leaders to find the courage to act.”
After passing through the House of Representatives last month by a razor-thin margin almost entirely along party lines, Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill headed to the Senate this week for approval, where every Democrat is expected to vote against the bill and a handful of Republicans are expressing concern with its contents.
Win has called on local and state officials in New York to oppose the legislation and “combat the violent and inhumane policy proposals in Project 2025.”
