Press Release: UNRESCUED! documentary adds to efforts to save Emergency Housing Voucher program from termination, prevent possible homelessness for 60,000 households

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For Immediate Release, April 20, 2026
UNRESCUED! documentary adds to efforts to save Emergency Housing Voucher program from termination, prevent possible homelessness for 60,000 households

Contact:
Jeff Weinberger, Founder/Organizer
October 22nd Alliance to End Homelessness
browardhomeless@gmail.com; (954) 839-5376

Link to documentary:
https://october22alliance.wordpress.com/2026/03/22/unrescued-how-an-experiment-in-subsidized-housing-went-from-temporary-to-terminated-4-years-ahead-of-schedule/

Summary:

In March, 2025, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the premature termination of the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, a scion of the COVID-era American Rescue Plan, which had been funded in 2021 to the tune of $5B with the expectation that the appropriation would last until 2030.

The early evaporation of the funding, according to nonprofits including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), has been due to the unchecked ability of landlords to increase rents to whatever the market would bear, an especially prevalent phenomenon in the early COVID years. In Florida, for example, where rent control laws have been prohibited thanks to state statute, rent increases of over 30, 40 and even 60% became common.

“UNRESCUED!,” sub-headed “How an experiment in subsidized housing went from temporary to terminated 4 years ahead of schedule,” was made with the aim of both saving the program and transforming it into a permanent feature of the subsidized housing landscape, in line with other Housing Choice Voucher programs like Section 8. Currently, owing to HUD’s recapturing of some funding, housing authorities across the U.S., the entities which administer the program at the local level, have been advised that funding will likely last through the current calendar year. There is no sign that the federal government has any intention to extend the program into 2027 and beyond.
To the contrary, in addition to the pending EHV termination, the president, through HUD, has also attempted to dismember those more traditional subsidy programs, an effort that has been met with litigation that to date has been successful, though no final rulings have been issued. Furthermore, as stated in a CBPP fact sheet, “Congress largely rejected the proposed Trump budget which would have cut funding for rental assistance by 43%, imposed harmful policy changes like harsh time limits on assistance, slashing and consolidating homeless assistance grants, and wholesale elimination of other important housing development and civil rights programs. But we need the budget to go further to ensure families don’t face eviction or homelessness in the coming year.”

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“UNRESCUED!” is the only document we’re aware of which features the voices of individuals who will directly be harmed by the program’s termination. Beyond the heartfelt narratives presented by the two women we interviewed, Briana and Kathleen, each of whom has turned a house into a wonderful home, the documentary raises a challenge to government’s decades’ long abdication of responsibility to guarantee that one of the most fundamental human needs, housing, is met.
We aver that decent public or social housing for all who need it, as opposed to a housing voucher lottery which has benefited only a small minority of low income renters for over 50 years, is the only bona fide solution to homelessness and housing instability.

Jeff Weinberger
October 22nd Alliance to End Homelessness
South Florida Street Outreach Survey (SOS)
Shelter Accountability (SHACC) Project Broward
https://www.facebook.com/Shelter-Accountability-Project-Broward-106214968842004
http://october22alliance.wordpress.com
954-839-5376 (Cell)

“Without community, there is no liberation.”
― Audre Lorde