Nonprofit housing providers say federal cuts and voucher shortfalls threaten development and tenant stability

Nonprofit housing providers told the joint House General and Housing Committee and the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs that federal funding cuts and program uncertainty are already affecting the pipeline for affordable housing and the operations that keep existing units habitable.

Nancy Owen, president of Evernorth, said the loss or reduction of project-based Section 8 vouchers can directly reduce the debt capacity for a development, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Project based vouchers really can unlock an entire capital stack," Owen said, describing a predevelopment example in Hinesburg called Riggs Meadow: a proposed 36-unit project that originally included a contract for 12 project-based vouchers and was scheduled to start construction in April 2026. Owen said that, at a 6% mortgage rate over 20 years, the voucher-backed revenue allowed lenders to underwrite roughly $2,850,000 in debt versus about $2,000,000 without the vouchers — an $850,000 permanent financing gap.

The financing shortfall has knock-on effects for private investment. Owen said Evernorth has raised and deployed roughly…