CLPHA Advocacy

The disinvestment in housing and supportive services is a disinvestment in our nation’s most vulnerable populations.

WASHINGTON (March 12, 2019) - Sunia Zaterman, Executive Director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, issued the following statement today in response to President Trump’s FY 2020 Budget proposal, which would slash funding for the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development by more than 16 percent, including a $4.6 billion cut to the public housing capital and operating funds.

“This budget is a study in contradiction. While the administration is promising safer, healthier, more affordable housing, this budget proposes a 16 percent cut to HUD funding.  

“While promoting HUD’s efforts to end homelessness and reduce home health and safety hazards, this budget slashes the public housing operating fund and zeroes out the capital fund.

“While rightly raising the cap on RAD conversions and requesting $100 million for the program, this budget renders the program effectively unusable with the proposed funding cuts.  

“It is not possible for public housing authorities to dedicate resources to meeting capital needs when there is no capital fund, or to house the homeless without the resources to operate housing.

“The administration wants us to think beyond investing in bricks and mortar, and instead think about investing in people. This budget does neither of those things. The disinvestment in housing and supportive services is a disinvestment in our nation’s most vulnerable populations, including the 2.2 million low- and very low-income families, children, elderly, and persons with disabilities who are served by public housing.

“Congress has previously rejected draconian budgets that shred our safety net, and we call on them to do so again.”

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 insect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.

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 DHA CEO Anthony Scott Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee on Behalf of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities: Aggressive Action is Needed to Undertake Affordable Housing Production and Preservation

WASHINGTON (March 7, 2019) – This morning, Durham Housing Authority CEO Anthony Scott testified on behalf of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies during its hearing, “Stakeholder Perspectives: Affordable Housing Production.” Scott emphasized the critical need for reinvestment in the nation’s Public Housing and Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher programs, which are the foundation of the affordable housing market.

“As a nation, we are now at a critical stage for needing aggressive action to undertake affordable housing production and preservation,” testified Scott.

In addition to calling for increased appropriations to the public housing capital and operating funds, Scott urged Congress to combat the affordable housing shortage by providing housing authorities greater flexibility to preserve and transform public housing through the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, the Moving to Work program, and with selected and targeted flexibilities through a defined statutory process.

“Fundamentally, the RAD program allows DHA to create mixed-use and mixed-income communities that allow a more diverse socio-economic living environment,” testified Scott. “Our barriers are a RAD program that doesn’t allow enough flexibility to fully leverage development opportunities with private sector development… The private market moves at a faster pace and waiting on a RAD approval to transfer units could result in a missed opportunity.”

Scott also recommended Congress eliminate the Faircloth Amendment, which prohibits the development of new public housing units; invest in broad place-based solutions such as the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to address neighborhood and community development needs; encourage greater interdepartmental collaboration to facilitate cross-sector partnerships with housing; and distinguish public and affordable housing as an integral part of the national infrastructure.   

 “We thank Chairman Price for inviting CLPHA and Mr. Scott to participate in today’s hearing, and for recognizing that public housing authorities are essential to local housing markets as the owners and operators of most of the assisted housing that serves extremely low-income households while generating wide reaching economic impacts,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “We look forward to working with the committee to increase support for public and affordable housing programs that provide decent housing to the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, connect low-income workers to economic opportunities, and spur regional job creation and economic growth.”

Along with Scott, representatives from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and National Housing Trust were invited to participate in the Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.

The testimony is posted to the Committee website and the live-stream recording of the hearing can be viewed on the Committee's YouTube channel.

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 insect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.

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Durham Housing Authority CEO Anthony Scott testified on behalf of CLPHA today before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies during a hearing titled, “Stakeholder Perspectives: Affordable Housing Production.” In his written statement and prepared remarks, Scott emphasized the critical need for reinvestment in the nation’s Public Housing and Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher programs, which are the foundation of the affordable housing market.

“As a nation, we are now at a critical stage for needing aggressive action to undertake affordable housing production and preservation,” said Scott.

In addition to calling for increased appropriations to the public housing capital and operating funds, Scott urged Congress to combat the affordable housing shortage by providing housing authorities greater flexibility to preserve and transform public housing through the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, the Moving to Work program, and with selected and targeted flexibilities through a defined statutory process.

Along with Scott, representatives from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and National Housing Trust were invited to participate in the Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.

Subcommittee Chairman David Price (D-NC) opened the hearing by underscoring the broad scope of people who are impacted by the nation’s affordable housing crisis. “Amazingly, only one in four people eligible for federal rental assistance can receive it because of funding constraints,” he said.  “This is not written in the stars; it is a political failing. At a time when housing should be a front-burner issue, we seem to be falling farther behind.”

Price was joined on the dais by Ranking Member Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and subcommittee members Reps. Mike Quigley (D-IL), Katherine Clark (D-MA), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Norma Torres (D-CA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Will Hurd (R-TX) and Steve Womack (R-AR) who all engaged Scott and the two other witnesses in multiple rounds of questions about the specific barriers to affordable housing production and preservation, and requested additional recommendations to Congress and the federal government for addressing those challenges.

Among his recommendations, Scott suggested changes to the RAD program to increase its effectiveness. “Fundamentally, the RAD program allows DHA to create mixed-use and mixed-income communities that allow a more diverse socio-economic living environment,” testified Scott. “Our barriers are a RAD program that doesn’t allow enough flexibility to fully leverage development opportunities with private sector development… The private market moves at a faster pace and waiting on a RAD approval to transfer units could result in a missed opportunity.”

Scott added that public housing authorities are interested in creating financial stability for their communities over the long-term, and that RAD helps to achieve that.

In response to a question from Rep. Womack about the types of local partnerships that contribute to housing successes, Scott explained that supportive city and municipal governments are instrumental to achieving the overarching goals of the housing authority.

“We are not just focused on bricks and mortar, but on how we can create an environment that helps families move up and out of public housing, so that other families desperately in need of that housing can move in,” said Scott.

A live-stream recording of the hearing can be viewed on the Committee's YouTube channel and CLPHA’s press release announcing Scott’s testimony is available on CLPHA.org.