House Releases Fiscal Year 2026 Funding Proposals for Youth Homelessness Programs

On January 20, 2026, the House Appropriations Committee released their proposed Fiscal Year 2026 funding levels for a number of federal agencies and programs, including those that impact youth homelessness.

The newly-released bill package includes the last funding bills Congress needs to pass to finish the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations process:

• Defense​​​ Funds the Department of War (FKA Department of Defense).
• Homeland​​ Funds the Department of Homeland Security.
• Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies (LHHS)​ Funds the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education.
• Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Funds the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation.

The bill package has already been “conferenced,” which means that bipartisan, bicameral negotiations have already taken place and been approved—that means that Democrat and Republican Appropriators from the House and the Senate have already okayed these proposals.

The bills aren’t final yet. All Members of the House will vote on the package later this week. From there, it will go to the Senate for their vote. If the bill package passes through the House and Senate, then it will go to the President to sign into law. Since the bill has already been conferenced, it is likely to pass.

See this table to compare previous years’ funding levels for all the programs that impact youth, young adults, and young parent families experiencing homelessness.

The LHHS bill funds the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education. See the bill text here.

Children and Families Services is an account within the LHHS bill that funds many different programs, including Head Start and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) program. The proposed funding for the account as a whole is $14.92 billion (page 250), which is a $94 million increase from the previous year’s funding. Head Start would receive $12.35 billion (page 250)—an $85 million increase.

The exact funding level for RHYA is typically not included in the bill text, and this year is no exception. Instead, it’s usually specified in the accompanying bill report (also known as an explanatory statement), which contains more details such as justifications for funding levels, breakdowns of how much should be spent on particular programs, and other directives to federal agencies. The accompanying bill report for this bill package has not been released yet—we will update this blog post once it has been.

The exact funding level for RHYA is specified in the accompanying bill report (also known as an explanatory statement), which contains more details such as justifications for funding levels, breakdowns of how much should be spent on particular programs, and other directives to federal agencies. The bill report proposes:

• $125.28 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs​​ (page 194). This is funding for Basic Center Programs, Transitional Living Programs, and Maternity Group Homes. It is the same as last year’s funding.
• $21 million for Prevention Grants to Reduce Abuse of Runaway Youth​ (page 194). This is also the same funding level as last year and has historically funded the Street Outreach Program. In the upcoming cycle, it will either fund street outreach activities for the other RHYA grant opportunities or the Street Outreach Program will be restored as a standalone NOFO.
• $5 million for the Prevention Demonstration Program grants (page 61). This will fund new communities to implement measures to prevent youth homelessness.

The proposed funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is $7.39 billion (pages 234-239), a $6.8 million decrease from the previous year’s funding. The decrease comes from a cut to activities under Health Surveillance and Program Support.

Didn’t the Administration just attempt to cancel billions of dollars in SAMHSA grants? Yes, they did—however, this effort was reversed almost immediately thanks to bipartisan pushback from Members of Congress. This—along with all the other funding increases in this bill package—shows some misalignment between the Administration and even Republican Members of Congress, where the Administration wants to drastically cut federal spending on grants and Congress is more hesitant to (especially in an election year). However, the Administration still has the power to write grant applications and agreements—it’s likely they will attempt to make big shifts in SAMHSA policy using the next round of grant applications.

Despite the Administration’s priority to eliminate the Department of Education, Congress has proposed to increase funding for the programs that serve low-income students and students experiencing homelessness. This includes:

• $19.13 billion for Title I education programs (page 292), a $20 million increase. Title I programs include those that support low-income students and migrant students.
• $5.78 billion for School Improvement Programs (page 294), a $5 million increase. This includes $129 million for the McKinney-Vento education program (page 296).
  • The funding level for the McKinney-Vento education program is usually specified in the bill report, just like RHYA is. However, this year the funding level for McKinney-Vento education is included in the bill text—this is a huge win, as it will guarantee this level of funding for the program should the bill package pass as-is.

The THUD bill funds the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation. See the bill text here.

The bill proposes $4.01 billion for the Continuum of Care (CoC) program (page 659). This is a $47 million increase from the previous fiscal year’s funding. Of the CoC funding, there is:

• $52 million set aside for domestic violence grants (page 661).
• $107 million set aside for new Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) grants (page 662), of which up to $25 million can be used for new Youth Homelessness System Improvement grants and $10 million can be used for technical assistance.

Notably, the bill addresses the delayed FY 2025 CoC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process that is currently underway. The bill directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to automatically renew CoCs expiring grants in quarter one of 2026 for 12 months, including YHDP grants (page 720). If HUD has not issued awards by April 1, 2026, then it must automatically renew CoCs expiring in quarter two. And finally, if HUD has not issued awards by July 1, 2026, then it must automatically renew CoCs expiring in quarters three and four.

An additional win is that the bill specifies that the next CoC NOFO must be issued no later than June 1, 2026, and that awards from the NOFO must be made no later than December 1, 2026 (page 662). This would prevent a repeat of the delayed-NOFO drama that is currently playing out.

There is a new provision pertaining to YDHP funding (pages 661-662): If a CoC has consulted with their youth action board (YAB) and agreed that they do not want to renew their community’s YHDP, then that funding will be taken from the CoC and competitively awarded to another CoC as a new YHDP grant.

On the one hand, this is good—it keeps YHDP renewal funding within the YHDP bucket, preventing it from being shuffled to other subpopulations. One lingering question is how much weight the YAB feedback will have—if this language remains in the final bill package, then further clarification could be included in future CoC/YHDP NOFOs. NN4Y will also continue advocating to prevent YHDP funding from being reallocated to non-youth projects within the CoC.

The bill proposes $290 million for Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) (page 659). This maintains the current funding level for ESGs.

The bill reinstates USICH, which was dissolved by the Administration last January. It funds USICH at $3 million—the last funding level for USICH was $4 million (page 725).

Date​ Thursday, February 5, 2026
Time 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Central, 11:00 AM Mountain, 10:00 AM Pacific)

This webinar will provide the latest federal policy updates related to child, youth, and family homelessness. We’ll cover:

• The current status of federal funding for education, early childhood, homelessness, and housing programs
• The status of litigation related to homelessness, child care, and education
• Federal agency actions, including the plan to transfer federal education programs to the U.S.Department of Labor
• The outlook for federal policy more broadly in 2026

This webinar is co-hosted with SchoolHouse Connection.