The Public Housing Program is home to over 1.1 million low-income families and is a multibillion dollar public asset for local communities. Along with the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, which houses another 2.2 million low-income families, public housing and Section 8 are the foundation of the affordable housing market. Between these two programs, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), over forty percent of the individuals served are children, and approximately half of the households are headed by seniors and persons with disabilities.
For many families, the public housing and housing voucher programs are the gateway to housing stability, self-sufficiency, and economic independence. To accomplish these objectives, housing authorities are developing transformational partnerships with important and committed stakeholders to benefit children, seniors, persons with disabilities, veterans, and homeless persons. For many housing authorities, this means coordinating with the education, workforce development, health care, transportation, and social services systems at the local level to provide supports and opportunities to residents.
In addition, the nation’s investment of more than $100 billion in the public housing portfolio is at risk due to a lack of funds for capital improvement and replacement needs, as well as the cost and effect of excessive federal regulation. Consequently, transformation of the public housing portfolio to a more stable funding platform, such as Section 8, coupled with infrastructure spending, such as tax credits, capital funds, etc., is necessary to preserve public housing as a viable resource.
On December 20, 2017, the U.S. Congress passed the joint House-Senate conference committee agreement on HR 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. HR 1 is the most far-reaching tax reform legislation in over three decades. For affordable housing providers the bill fully preserves private...
HUD’s one-size-fits-all regulatory approach often inhibits PHAs from effectively tailoring federal programs to local community needs. PHAs have been successful when they are able to tailor their policies according their agency’s individual local goals, housing market conditions, and community priorities. This flexibility provides housing authorities the necessary tools to best serve their low-income residents. HUD should allow housing authorities to focus on innovation, ...
RAD was initially authorized with a unit cap of 60,000 in the FY12 appropriations bill, which has since been lifted to 455,000 in the FY18 appropriations bill. In order to meet the demand for RAD, CLPHA strongly supports eliminating the RAD cap.