Federal government funds homeless shelters with $500 million per year.
S. 5534 — Building and Maintaining Homeless Shelters Act · Filed by Tina Smith (D-MN) · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill gives money to states, cities, tribes, groups, and housing offices from 2027 to 2031. The money helps build new shelters and housing, or fix up old ones. Projects must pay workers fair wages and use materials made in the U.S. At least 40 percent of money goes to rural areas. At least 5 percent goes to tribal governments.
Who it affects
People without homes get more shelter and housing. Construction workers and material makers benefit from fair-wage rules and U.S.-made material rules. States, cities, tribes, groups, and housing offices get grants to build shelters.
One thing to notice
The bill lets groups pick LGBTQ+ people and people of color for housing first. Faith-based groups can get grants but cannot treat people unfairly based on sexual orientation or gender.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- fair wages — The standard pay rate for workers in a specific job and area.
- grant — Money the government gives to states, cities, or groups for a specific purpose.
- tribal governments — The governments of Native American nations and tribes.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,216 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal government funds homeless shelters with $500 million per year.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5534/simple Report an error
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