Department of Housing and Urban Development

HUD's primary mission is ensuring access to affordable housing. Its largest program, Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), helps approximately 2.3 million low-income families afford rent in the private market. HUD also oversees public housing for 900,000 households, FHA mortgage insurance (which has helped millions of first-time and lower-income buyers obtain home loans), Community Development Block Grants that fund local infrastructure and services, and programs to combat homelessness. Despite its broad mandate, HUD has one of the smaller cabinet-level budgets.