Trump’s proposed 2026 discretionary budget would completely eliminate three U.S. Department of Agriculture rural housing programs widely used by Wyomingites.

“The 502 direct program, which is a mortgage loan program for rural families; the self-help program, which is a mortgage program that helps families build their own homes using sweat equity; and rural vouchers, which helps rural renters bridge the gap between their income and the cost of rent,” said Samantha Booth, the government relations manager with the Housing Assistance Council, a national nonprofit that supports affordable housing efforts throughout rural America.

Booth said some 230 Wyoming families wouldn’t have homes without the mortgage loan program. She agrees these programs need to eliminate red tape, but said there’s a better way to fix them than zeroing them out.

“ I think we need a much more kind of targeted and thoughtful approach,” Boorth said.

Booth said the cuts could worsen Wyoming’s housing crisis. There’s a shortage of some 7,300 affordable housing units in the state. She said policy makers justify such cuts by pointing out the smaller numbers of participants in rural places.

But she added, “There really is a housing affordability crisis in rural America. Even though the cost of a mortgage or rent might not be quite as high as it is in New York City or San Francisco, the rent or the incomes in those communities are also really low. So a lot of people in rural places have a big affordability gap there.”

Booth said there was bipartisan pushback in Congress against eliminating these programs in Trump’s first term and she hoped the same happens this time around.

But Booth was glad to see that Trump’s budget includes an increase in funding for a multifamily rental unit assistance program. Over 1,300 families in Wyoming currently rely on that program.