Welcome to CLPHA's Press Room
CLPHA experts welcome interview requests from print, radio, television, and online reporters and are happy to provide their insights on issues of public housing and related legislation and policy.
For media inquiries, please contact:
David Greer
Director of Communications
During the COVID-19 quarantine, David can be reached at (202) 550-1381 or dgreer@clpha.org.
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Congresswoman Donna Shalala (D-FL) To Discuss Importance of Cross-Sector Collaboration
(Washington, D.C.) June 2, 2020 -- The COVID-19 global pandemic has laid bare the systemic inequities in our fractured social safety net, which creates barriers for low-income individuals and families. The CLPHA 2020 Housing Is Virtual Summit on June 4 and 5 spotlights how critical collaboration at the intersection of housing, education, and health is the most effective community response to the pandemic.
Congresswoman Donna Shalala (D-FL), who also served as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1993-2001, will bring her deep knowledge from a career in leadership positions in housing, health and education to her keynote session. “Improving health outcomes has been my life’s work. This won’t happen without a holistic approach including integrating housing and education with health. This why I am honored to be the keynote speaker at the 2020 Housing Is Virtual Summit,” said Congresswoman Shalala.
Spanning two days and featuring over 20 online sessions, CLPHA's 2020 Housing Is Summit is the nation’s pre-eminent cross-sector gathering sharing lessons learned in cross-sector collaboration, including deep dives into systems change, embedding equity practices, and the evolving impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our work and lives.
What CLPHA 2020 Housing Is Virtual Summit
When: June 4 (12:00 PM ET Start) and 5 (11:00 AM ET Start)
Where: Virtual. Register: bit.ly/HousingIs2020registration
RSVP: David Greer, dgreer@clpha.org
(Media, please RSVP and register so CLPHA can help set up interviews with conference speakers.)
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
New Funds Will Develop and Sustain Public Housing Authority Initiatives to Improve Postsecondary Achievement for Low-Income Households
WASHINGTON (November 25, 2019) – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, a housing advocacy organization and leader in efforts to improve life outcomes for low-income individuals and families, announced today that it has been awarded $300,000 from The Kresge Foundation to deepen connections between public housing authorities and their postsecondary education partners.
The three-year grant enables CLPHA to build on work that began last year, in partnership with The Kresge Foundation, to convene cross-sector housing and education partners who are collaborating to improve postsecondary achievement for students served by public housing authorities, including residents and housing insecure college students.
“Last year we showcased how these two sectors are working together to improve educational outcomes for low-income households. With generous funding from The Kresge Foundation, we will help more cross-sector partners develop and sustain their work,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “As a national organization representing 70 of the largest public housing authorities in the country, CLPHA is well-positioned to identify promising innovations and facilitate peer-learning among those doing the work with the goal to scale successful initiatives that can be replicated nationally. We are very grateful to The Kresge Foundation for its multi-year support of our work.”
With the funds, CLPHA, through its Housing Is Initiative, will establish a leadership institute for a cohort of public housing authority staff and their partners who demonstrate the experience and capacity for postsecondary collaboration. In addition to virtual meetings aimed at institutionalizing their cross-sector work, members of the cohort will travel for in-person site visits to learn about the different projects in the field.
“By supporting stronger partnerships between housing authorities and postsecondary stakeholders, CLPHA’s leadership institute will help increase college access and success for both public housing residents who have postsecondary aspirations but need support to realize their dreams, and current college students, whose housing insecurity threatens to derail their educational progress," said Bethany Miller, program officer with the Kresge Education Program.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA.
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative
The Housing Is Initiative, led by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, helps build a future where sectors work together to improve life outcomes. Housing stability is a critical first step to improve life outcomes for low-income children, families, and seniors; CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative is based on the premise that sectors can better meet needs when they work together. Housing Is establishes, broadens, and deepens efforts to align affordable housing, education, and health systems to produce positive, long-term results. Learn more at housingis.org and on Twitter @housing_is.
About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
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CLPHA Submits Public Comments Opposing HUD’s Dangerous Non-Citizen Proposal
HUD’s cruel proposal would force mixed-status families to decide between a roof for some, or homelessness for all.
WASHINGTON (July 9, 2019) – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) today submitted public comments strongly opposing a proposal from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that seeks to eliminate mixed-status immigrant families from HUD-assisted housing, including 55,000 children who are either U.S. citizens or otherwise eligible for HUD assistance.
HUD’s proposal, published in the Federal Register on May 10 for a 60-day comment period, would reinterpret Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act to disallow anyone who cannot verify their immigration status from living in public housing or living in a market-rate apartment with a federal rental subsidy, even if their child or other family members are eligible for assistance. Under current law, rental assistance to these households is prorated and those ineligible for a subsidy pay their portion of the rent unassisted, often at market rates.
“HUD’s cruel proposal would force mixed-status families to decide between a roof for some, or homelessness for all,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “This reversal of long-standing policy is antithetical to the mission of public housing, which is to provide safe, affordable housing to very low-income families.”
“We know that stable housing is a platform for improving life outcomes and a foundation for healthy communities. Yet, this proposal instills fear and distrust, and would divert scarce resources, exacerbate the already crisis levels of homelessness, and, in the end, would do nothing to make our communities safer or better off,” said Zaterman.
“HUD’s proposal is contrary to our mission. Our members feel strongly that this re-interpreted regulation is bad public policy and our comments on the proposed rule reflect this,” said Zaterman.
Read CLPHA’s public comments and previous statements on HUD’s non-citizen rule on the CLPHA website, clpha.org.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
August 10, 2020
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better intersect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.
Pew Charitable Trust's state policy news outlet Stateline quoted CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman and CLPHA member executive directors in an article about the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on public housing authorities.
Zaterman told Stateline that PHAs need $5 billion in emergency supplemental funding due to several challenges PHAs are facing during this crisis, including a "significant reduction" in rental income, a dramatically reduced workforce, massive cleaning-related expenses, and communications challenges with residents while PHAs' physical offices are closed. PHAs also need a further $3.5 billion in emergency supplemental funds for the for the Housing Choice Voucher program.
“I’m worried,” Emilio Salas, acting executive director of the Los Angeles County Development Authority, told Stateline. “Tremendously.”
Douglas Guthrie, president and CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, told Stateline that his PHA is working hard to address his city's homelesssness crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We can't wait for waivers from HUD to do what needs to be done today,” Guthrie said. “Shelter is the most important thing right now.”
Andrew Lofton, executive director of the Seattle Housing Authority, told Stateline that PHAs are also preparing for the inevitable surge of residents who test positive for COVID-19: "It’s just a matter of time."
Read Stateline's article "Public Housing Authorities Hit Hard by the Pandemic."
As of January 1, 2020, California has a state-wide law prohibiting landlords from rejecting potential tenants solely on their use of a housing voucher. The law, known as Source of Income (SOI) protection, replaces SOI ordinances that were previously in place in several California cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Clara County to cover voucher holders across the state.
A recent HUD-commissioned study on landlord acceptance of voucher holders in five cities found that those cities with an existing SOI law protecting voucher holders had higher rates of landlord acceptance compared to those cities without SOI protection. While cities with SOI laws devote varying amounts of resources to enforcement, HUD’s study suggests awareness of local SOI protections meaningfully deter discrimination by landlords. The Poverty & Race Research Action Council maintains an updated list of all SOI laws in place across the country.
In an effort to call attention to the affordable housing crisis during the 2020 election cycle and to spur presidential debate moderators to ask candidates about their affordable housing plans, the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 campaign placed a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times on December 16 & 17. The ad featured OHOV: 2020’s letter urging PBS NewsHour, Politico, and debate moderators to ask presidential candidates how they would address the nation’s affordable housing crisis during the next debate, which will be held on December 19 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. CLPHA joined more than 1,000 organizations as co-signers to OHOV: 2020’s letter.
Following the devastating November fire at the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s (MPHA) Cedar High apartments, Minneapolis’s Star Tribune reported on the chronic federal underfunding of public housing that contributes to the massive, nationwide capital needs backlog at public housing communities and requires PHAs to make tough choices about building maintenance and repairs.
“Our priority is to make sure that life and safety are always taken care of,” said MPHA Interim Executive Director/CEO Tracey Scott in an October interview with the paper. “Quite simply that’s the hard choice you have to make because you would like to replace a kitchen cabinet but that has to come second to life and safety. We have to make choices.” MPHA estimates that its properties need an estimated $152 million in maintenance and renovations.
New York City Housing Authority Chair & CEO and CLPHA Board Member Greg Russ, MPHA’s former Executive Director/CEO, underscored the difficult choices housing authorities have to make when it comes to prioritizing maintenance and renovation projects: “We don’t have enough funding to keep basic systems in place nationally and have to pick and choose when we do get the capital money.” Russ added that inadequate federal funding is why MPHA and other agencies employ the RAD program to diversify and their funding sources so that they can afford the important and expensive rehabilitation of their properties.
CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman said that more “organized political will and bipartisan support” is needed in Congress in order to increase funding and fully address PHAs’ capital needs. “We are at the turning point in part because the affordable housing crisis is so heightened in our communities,” Zaterman said. “This is such an essential resource, the understanding that we have to invest is more pervasive and people are beginning to understand that ... but we haven’t had the reflection in our funding yet.”
Scott further stressed the effects that insufficient federal funding has on her agency’s ability to house and serve their low-income residents. “We’re a public agency and the mission is that we provide quality, well maintained homes for families to thrive and these are members of our community that need support and that helping hand,” she said, “We are providing a roof today, but if we don’t maintain it there would not be a roof tomorrow.”
CLPHA Members Elm City Communities, Miami-Dade Public Housing & Community Development Also Featured
Affordable Housing News magazine featured Executive Director Sunia Zaterman in its Fall 2019 issue, where Zaterman discussed CLPHA’s priorities, goals, and strategies for preserving and improving public and affordable housing. “We are very focused on appropriations and polices that support public housing authorities and the people they serve,” said Zaterman, adding that “[f]rom the beginning, we’ve been very focused on supporting the most innovative housing authorities in the country.” She cited programs like the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and Moving to Work (MTW) as flexible, locally-oriented policies that innovative housing authorities are using to improve their housing stock and resident outcomes. Zaterman also emphasized the public housing portfolio’s capital needs backlog of more than $50 billion and the chronic underfunding of public housing programs, issues that are at the center of CLPHA’s advocacy efforts.
The article also highlights CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative, which seeks to broaden and deepen efforts to align housing, education, and health organizations to produce positive long-term outcomes for low-income individuals and families. Zaterman discussed some of the Housing Is Initiative’s work, including the Housing Is Summit, an annual convening dedicated to collaboration among the housing, education, and health sectors, and the creation of a data sharing agreement template for housing authorities and school systems so that they can identify shared issues and interests and develop evidence-based interventions. “We understand that housing is absolutely essential and foundational, but often, for families and special needs populations, is not sufficient in and of itself,” Zaterman said. “Our goal with the Housing Is Initiative is to improve and enhance our partnerships in healthcare, education, and workforce development to improve life outcomes for families, seniors, and persons with disabilities who reside in assisted housing.”
Read Affordable Housing News' article (on pages 20 and 21).
CLPHA members Miami-Dade Public Housing & Community Development (Miami-Dade PCHD) and Elm City Communities (ECC) were also featured in Affordable Housing News’ Fall 2019 issue. Read about Miami-Dade PCHD’s RAD-assisted Liberty Square redevelopment on pages 34-36 and about ECC’s employment of MTW flexibilities to create innovative resident programming and redevelop its public housing portfolio on pages 64-65.
A year into the project, the renovation of Milwaukee Soldiers Home is moving along! In September 2019, the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee and developer The Alexander Company broke ground on the rehabilitation and restoration of the Milwaukee Soldiers Home, a National Historic Landmark District originally built in 1867 to house Civil War soldiers and help them transition back to civilian life. The revitalized Milwaukee Soldiers Home will continue the property’s original mission of helping and housing soldiers – when completed, the community will offer 101 units of housing alongside supportive services for veterans and their families who are, or are at risk of, experiencing homelessness. The Department of Veterans Affairs has also been a crucial partner in this transformation.
Last month, the partners released a video celebrating the project’s one-year milestone and sharing what the renovation and preservation of this historic site will mean not only for the city of Milwaukee, but for the low-income veterans the property will serve. The project is expected to be completed in Spring 2021.
Congratulations to CLPHA members Elm City Communities (the Housing Authority of New Haven) and INLIVIAN (the Charlotte Housing Authority) for being selected as inaugural members of The Bridges Collaborative, a nationwide initiative to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in education.
The Bridges Collaborative, an initiative of The Century Foundation, is a first-of-its kind grassroots initiative to advance racial and socioeconomic integration and equity in America’s schools. Members of the inaugural cohort include 27 school districts, 17 charter schools and charter management organizations, and 12 housing organizations. The collaborative spans more than 20 states and includes representatives from three of the five largest school districts in the country, along with other organizations of varying size, geographies, and student demographics. Over the next two years, the collaborative will serve as a hub for practitioners from across the country, providing school and housing leaders the opportunity to learn from one another, build grassroots momentum, and develop successful approaches for integration.
"Often, people see housing and public education as separate and unrelated entities—but this is not the case. Our agency has always recognized the intersectionality and fought to desegregate both to create equitable opportunities and outcomes,” said ECC President and CLPHA Board Member Karen DuBois-Walton in a press release. “Joining this innovative collaborative with [New Haven Public Schools] and other districts/agencies in Connecticut could very well be the beginning of a bridge that will connect and create a statewide impact that catalyzes the change that has been needed for far too long."
CLPHA congratulates ECC and INLIVIAN for taking part in this groundbreaking initiative and seeking creative approaches to increasing racial and socioeconomic integration and equality in their communities.
As Kent, Wash. public schools opened virtually in September due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local families faced the complicated problems parents across the country are navigating: how to facilitate remote schooling for their children while working remotely themselves, or finding supervision for their kids while they continue to work out of the house. Kent’s school district also worried about how the pandemic would affect enrollment numbers – the fewer students enrolled in school, the less funding the school district receives.
The King County Housing Authority (KCHA) jumped into action to offer one solution to the problems virtual school creates by adapting the on-site youth center at its Birch Creek subsidized housing community to offer remote learning opportunities for Birch Creek resident kids during the school day. This learning hub currently hosts nearly 25 kids, from kindergarteners to high schoolers, with on-site staffers helping them log into school and stay on task. While parents benefit from the supervision the center provides, the students receive guidance as well as physical/recreational and social connection opportunities. Birch Creek programming runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for school five days a week, and three days a week the center remains open until 8:00 p.m. for additional supports and programs.
Photo Credit: Ellen M. Banner for The Seattle Times
Some older students are even charged with mentoring younger ones, like Abdul Mir, the site’s assistant supervisor who grew up in Birch Creek and now works part time at the center while attending the University of Washington. “These kids can see this guy who grew up in this same community, and he’s giving back to Birch Creek,” Ken Nsimbi, the KCHA’s youth program coordinator told the Seattle Times. “I’m very proud of this team. I look at him as a friend, brother, mentor.”
KCHA partners with the nonprofit Kent Youth and Family Services (KYFS)to run the center -- KCHA owns the building, covers costs for much of the programming, and helps with grant-writing. While the partners are currently operating the learning hub with a tight budget, they are seeking grants to bring in more funding and help serve more kids.
KCHA has two other sites in Kent in addition to Birch Creek that serve kids from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In addition, six KCHA service provider partners are running in-person programming at 13 KCHA after-school sites during the school day. Three of these partners (KYFS, Boys & Girls Club Bellevue, and Boys & Girls Club King County) from about 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., while the others offer different variations of hours based on staffing capacity. With the help of these partners, KCHA is providing a lifeline for families who may not have the time, space, or resources available to ensure their children are successfully taking part in virtual school.
CLPHA commends KCHA for using existing resources and creative solutions to help address the challenges of virtual learning for its low-income families. Read more about KCHA’s Birch Creek Youth Center in the Seattle Times’ article “How some Washington nonprofits are trying to make pandemic ‘learning pods’ accessible for all.”
From the Sacramento Bee:
The Sacramento City Council allocated $2.7 million of its $89 million in federal coronavirus stimulus funding and $2 million in additional federal funding toward rental assistance for low-income residents.
Renters can receive up to $4,000 in assistance, paid directly to their landlords, according to a news release from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which is administering the program.
Read the Sacramento Bee's article "Sacramento offering $4.7 million in COVID-19 rental assistance. Here’s how to apply," featuring the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency.
From the Marin Independent Journal:
A big mixed-use development on the eastern side of downtown San Jose is headed for a possible makeover because the government agency slated to occupy the site might wind up at another location in the city.
The Santa Clara County Housing Authority has been working toward a dramatic redevelopment of a vacant lot on E. Santa Clara Street where the agency would be the anchor office tenant — but now it’s possible the government entity will establish its main offices elsewhere.
Regardless of the Housing Authority’s decision, a redevelopment of what is now a blighted, vacant parcel is deemed to be a major upgrade for the property.
“We are hoping our development will enliven the neighborhood,” said Katherine Harasz, executive director of the Santa Clara County Housing Authority. “It’s an area that’s been a grassy field for a little too long a time.”
Read the Marin Independent Journal's article "Remake eyed for big downtown San Jose project," featuring the Santa Clara County Housing Authority.