Over $261 Billion in Federal Housing Funds Misaligned: New Housing Governance System Launches
illi News/10298804

CHICAGO - illiNews -- The Apartment Lady Foundation announced today the launch of the Department of Workforce Housing™ (DWH™), a groundbreaking new governance system built to stabilize the U.S. Workforce housing market.

Between 2020 and 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated approximately $261.8 billion in housing budgets. Despite these historic funding levels, millions of renters received little to no direct relief. Communities continued to destabilize, and homelessness quietly spread.

Recent HUD budget reports show the following allocations for FY 2023 alone:

• Tenant-Based Rental Assistance: $32.1 billion
• Homeless Assistance: $3.5 billion
• Public Housing Fund: $8.7 billion
• Community Development Block Grants: $3.77 billion
• HOME Investment Partnerships: $1.95 billion

""Billions flowed into the system," said Lashondra Graves, Founder of The Apartment Lady Foundation, "but the governance was missing. HUD responded. Nonprofits delivered. But it all happened in the wrong lanes."

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The Misclassification That Changed Everything- Homelessness. The on-the-ground realities revealed massive gaps. In Chicago, community surveys conducted by The Apartment Lady Foundation showed that the vast majority of tenants received no direct housing assistance during the most critical period. They didn't separate the types of homelessness and put all of the funds under homelessness. Workforce owners and renters are sheltered homeless. Sheltered homeless isn't a new condition — it's a new classification. HUD has long used the terms sheltered and unsheltered homeless in their reporting — but they never separated the funding, programs, or protections in a way that acknowledged their distinct needs. Which is why Graves created this:

The Department of Workforce Housing™ (DWH™) introduces:

• Tenant stabilization systems
• Landlord partnerships and compliance tools
• Homeowner support programs
• Transparent rent inflation tracking

The DWH™ model is supported by the Apartment Lady Foundation, the National Tenant Union™ (NTU™), AI-driven programs including, PAL™ (Protection Alliance for Landlords™), Homefront™, and Tenant Alexis™, providing a full-spectrum housing stabilization network.

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"Today, we are not just advocating for change," Graves said. "We are governing it."

Learn more at www.theapartmentlady.org.

Contact:
Lashondra Graves
The Apartment Lady Foundation
Email: lgraves@theapartmentlady.org
Website: www.theapartmentlady.org