Federal housing aid redirected toward poorest cities and single mothers
H.R. 6623 — Community Development Block Grant Equity Act of 2025 · Filed by Steve Cohen (D-TN) · Introduced Dec 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill revises how Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds are distributed to cities, counties, and states by changing the formula to weight poverty (counted 5 times), female-headed households with children (counted 3 times), old housing in poor condition, and housing overcrowding equally across all four factors. It authorizes $3.425 billion for fiscal 2026, adjusted annually for inflation through 2029. The change redirects federal housing and community development money toward areas with greater concentrations of poverty and family hardship.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to amend the statutory formula governing how federal CDBG funds are distributed among eligible jurisdictions, with explicit emphasis on poverty and family hardship as allocation drivers.
What the text implies
- Jurisdictions currently receiving CDBG funds based on older formulas (e.g., those with lower poverty rates or older housing stock) may see allocations decline, potentially affecting municipal budgets and community projects in those areas.
- The five-fold weighting of poverty rates and three-fold weighting of female-headed households creates a strong incentive for accurate Census data collection and reporting; areas with undercount risk losing funding.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
low-income households in high-poverty metropolitan areas; female-headed households with children; residents of pre-1950 housing stock in poverty