HUD Awards $40 Million to Prevent Evictions and Homelessness

The funding will deliver legal assistance to tenants facing eviction.

WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $40 million in funding to 21 recipients to help support housing stability and prevent evictions and homelessness through the Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP), a first-of-its-kind federal program designed to expand the reach of legal services to tenants at risk of, or subject to, eviction.

“This latest round of funding builds on this program’s success in helping over 44,000 households mitigate the negative consequences of eviction,” said HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman. “Legal experts supported by this funding help provide housing stability across the country.”

Millions of families face eviction each year, whether through formal court processes or through extra-legal evictions. Evicted tenants, especially children, face significant long-term consequences. Yet, most tenants do not have access to legal assistance that may help them reach more mutually beneficial resolutions with landlords or defend against illegal evictions. The Eviction Protection Grant Program aims to help fill this gap and to increase housing stability for tenants through:

• Prevention: helping tenants avert eviction and prevent eviction filings.
• Justice: helping tenants exercise and enforce their housing and civil rights and ensure the legal process during eviction is fair.
• Diversion: increasing tenant access to, and participation in, non-adversarial resolutions outside the court system.
• Relief: helping tenants avoid the harmful consequences of eviction and gain access to stabilizing resources.

In 2021, HUD launched the Eviction Protection Grant Program (EPGP) as part of HUD’s continued work and broader whole-of government approach to support families recovering from the public health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the end of the pandemic-era emergency rental assistance and most federal, state, and local eviction moratoria, eviction filings by landlords have rebounded and, in some places, exceed pre-pandemic levels. With rising rents, persistent inflation, and a shortage of affordable housing, the legal assistance services provided through EPGP come at a critical time for families across the country.

“Given the tremendous demand for these services and programs early grantee successes in reaching tenants most in need of eviction legal assistance services, HUD is excited to grow the reach of the program through these awards,” said Solomon Greene, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. “We are proud to partner with grantees across the country who are working tirelessly to expand access to legal assistance and ensure housing stability for those who need it most.”

With its initial $40 million in FY 2021 and FY 2022 appropriations, HUD funded a total of 21 EPGP grantees that provided no-cost legal assistance to prevent or divert eviction and mitigate the consequences of eviction across 19 states. Funding has helped meet the needs of households facing or at risk of eviction in target service areas by enabling grant recipients to scale up existing activities, expand the range of services offered, and strengthen partnerships with other organizations and service providers.

Through EPGP, HUD is not only helping to assist tenants facing evictions with essential legal services but also helping to fill key knowledge gaps and support evidence-based approaches to eviction prevention and diversion programs more generally. In December 2024, PD&R published an interim report with early implementation findings, including the characteristics of households served as of June 2023. The study found that tenant households receiving legal assistance through EPGP reflect demographic characteristics similar to groups identified as experiencing a higher risk of eviction nationally, including women. More than one-half of the households served had at least one child, 18 percent had limited English proficiency, 29 percent had a disability, and 7 percent resided in rural areas. The forthcoming Eviction Protection Grant Program Final Report will present an analysis of the implementation experiences of grantees, subrecipients, and HUD staff; document program outcomes; and discuss associations between household characteristics, services provided, and outcomes.

New grants will support the following non-profit and governmental recipients to provide legal services to tenants across 16 states, including statewide programs and single- or multi-county local or regional programs.

For more information, visit the Eviction Protection Grant Program page on HUD User here.