As the government shutdown on November 5, 2025 reached its 36th day, surpassing in duration all preceding lapses in government funding, we take a look at the impact. How does the halt of most appropriated funding and the furlough of roughly half of the federal workforce impact older adults and the nonprofit and mission-driven LeadingAge members who serve them in a range of care settings and community types nationwide?

The shutdown also impacts funding streams for programs like the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and federal support of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both of which are relied on by millions of Americans, including older adults.

Care in the Home and Community

Since the shutdown’s October 1, 2025 start, consider that:

• No new home health or hospice organizations are able to get Medicare certification/accreditation during the shutdown
• Due to the September 30, 2025 expiration of COVID-era telehealth flexibilities, and the inability of Congress to extend them:
  • Palliative care and other patients who are homebound and unable to go to a clinic or physician’s office are not able to receive telehealth visits.
  • Face-to-face visits required to initiate a home health episode of care cannot be conducted virtually, which limits access to care.
  • Face-to-face recertifications needed for hospice providers to recertify certain hospice patients eligibility cannot be done, impeding access to care.
• Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs with applications pending in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) review phase report that their progress toward opening and serving older adults in need of care is stalling. Members are not receiving communication from furloughed CMS staff. Providers are caught–unable to deliver care yet accruing significant day-over-day operational expenses, such as building rent and staff wages.
• In addition, PACE program participants receive SNAP benefits or LIHEAP resources for food and heating assistance, respectively. The federal government’s failure to pay these benefits to states for these programs will trickle down, impacting older adults’ wellbeing. The burden on PACE providers, who serve older adult SNAP and LIHEAP beneficiaries, will increase as they assess the impact of SNAP and LIHEAP absence.

Affordable Housing

Since the shutdown’s October 1, 2025 start, consider that:

• The vast majority of staff at both the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the two federal agencies responsible for administration and oversight of affordable housing programs, are not working during the shutdown. Reductions in Force (RIFs), in addition to shutdown-related furloughs, have created confusion and disruption.
• Rental Assistance payments from HUD’s project-based Section 8 program, which have to date continued without interruption due to contingency funds, are expected to begin to run out in early December.
• HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher program is already experiencing funding shortfalls, forcing many public housing authorities to freeze their waiting lists for vouchers and not serve new households. So far, currently assisted voucher households are not affected. About 34% of the nation’s 2.8 million voucher-assisted households have a head of household or their spouse who is 62 or older. Older adults are being prevented from getting affordable housing—even after they may have spent years on a waiting list.
• Routine program operations and transactions at rental assistance-related programs run by HUD and USDA are still on hold due to the federal government shutdown. These include processing of safety inspections at federally assisted housing and the administration of service coordinator grant programs. The longer the shutdown, the greater the work backlog that agency staff will have to complete upon their return. The anticipated result: disruptions in safety inspection results, delays to 2026 service coordinator grants administration and more.
• The lapse of SNAP benefits threatens food security for approximately 4.8 million older adults, including many affordable housing community residents who rely on SNAP for monthly food purchases. In addition, housing providers operating meal programs at their communities, some of which are supported by resident SNAP payments, are bracing for financial strain resulting from SNAP’s lapse.

Funding losses for other supports, beginning November 1, 2025:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): As the government shutdown continues into its second month and legal wrangling heats up over the Trump administration’s decision to let funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits lapse beginning November 1, uncertainty about the program’s near-term operations is mounting.
  Late in the day on October 31, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in contingency funds to at least partially fund the program, according to multiple news reports. On November 5, a White House spokesperson said administration will comply with the order, according to news reports. SNAP provides an average of $189 in monthly grocery assistance to 42 million people across the country, including approximately 4.8 million adults aged 60 or older who have low incomes. The monthly amount comes out to just over $6 per day on average and is credited with creating food security for families with children, veterans, and older adult households. Loss of SNAP benefits could impact aging services staff, particularly lower-wage earners such as those employed in direct care, housekeeping, maintenance. This could have a spiraling effect, as those staff may seek additional work with downstream impacts on their physical and mental health, and more. For more on the SNAP funding lapse, see this.
• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): One of the few federal initiatives that addresses the needs of Americans—including older adults—who are energy-cost burdened, the LIHEAP relies on monies derived via federal appropriations, which are currently stalled because of the shutdown. States typically start their LIHEAP programs in November, but programs will be delayed, at least until December, because of the shutdown. Around 2.4 million older adults access LIHEAP for energy assistance, mainly for help to pay home heating bills. The loss of housing support could have a spiraling effect on some aging services staff, particularly if combined with the loss of SNAP, as those staff may seek additional work with downstream impacts on their physical and mental health, and more. For more on the LIHEAP program and a lapse in funding, see this.