The FY19 Budget & Appropriations process is ongoing. CLPHA will continue to engage in the legislative process and advocate for funding for HUD and for public and affordable housing programs.
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...
Washington, DC – Members of the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) hosted a national call with over 2,200 registrants yesterday, January 15, about the effects of the partial government shutdown on low-income people and communities and the affordable housing programs that serve them.
Experts from multiple affordable housing organizations shared information on the shutdown’s impact on federal affordable housing and community development programs and emphasized that the longer the shutdown continues, the more negatively it will impact people with the lowest incomes – seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children. Panelists spoke about the shutdown’s effects on public housing, project-based rental assistance, housing vouchers, rural housing, and housing and services for seniors, people with disabilities, the homeless, and those at risk of homelessness.
The panel encouraged listeners to contact their members of Congress and tell them to vote now—before residents in federally assisted housing experience rent hikes and evictions—to reopen the federal government and pass clean fiscal year 2019 spending bills. Listeners were also urged to encourage their members of Congress to sign onto a “dear colleague” letter led by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Marc Veasey (D-TX) to be sent to President Trump on the shutdown’s severe consequences for affordable housing.
“Nearly 700 property owners that have HUD contracts to operate housing affordable to the lowest-income seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children have seen those contracts expire due to the shutdown, and more will expire this month and next,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “These contract suspensions put the homes of nearly 70,000 low-income renters at risk of serious rent hikes and evictions. HUD has asked owners of these properties to dip into their savings, if they have any, to cover the costs. Some will be able to do so, but not forever, and some have already communicated to their tenants that rent hikes are coming. The longer the shutdown goes on, the more untenable it will become for properties owners to keep scraping by without their federal contracts - and the more the lowest-income renters will suffer.”
“Public housing authorities, which are responsible for housing over 3 million low-income households nationwide, are doing everything they can to keep things running during this period of tremendous uncertainty, but it is unclear how long they can continue with business as usual for residents and landlords,” said Council of Large Public Housing Authorities Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “Without a guarantee from HUD that funding will be available in March, many PHAs will need to notify landlords and residents next month that delayed payments are a possibility. Anxious residents and landlords fearful of missed payments, combined with other cascading impacts due to lack of staffing at HUD, including program grants not being renewed and affordable housing development deals not being approved, amount to an unmitigated disaster for millions of low-income families.”
“As the budget stalemate continues, the impact on small towns and rural families grows more severe. Everyday Americans are losing out on billions of dollars’ worth of affordable housing, clean drinking water, and community facilities, like town halls, fire stations and hospitals,” said Housing Assistance Council CEO David Lipsetz.
“HUD has made clear already, in December, [it has] not renewed 224 contracts for rental assistance in Section 202 Housing for the Elderly communities, and more are set to expire in January,” said LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan.“LeadingAge’s members, all nonprofits, rely on regular and adequate funding to provide quality affordable housing to some of the nation’s lowest-income older adults. The average older adult in HUD’s Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program has an annual income of $13,300, an income far too little to make ends meet in any private housing market. More than 400,000 older adults rely on the Section 202 program, while another 1.2 million rely on other HUD programs for housing assistance. We urge Congress and the White House to end the shutdown so that . . . these 1.6 million older adults have the stable housing they need to age with dignity.”
“The shutdown’s impacts range far beyond Washington, DC,” said National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials CEO Adrianne Todman. “It’s hurting workers, small businesses, farmers, and housing providers across the country. Housing providers are struggling with contingency plans to make repairs to units and to pay landlords in the voucher program. And guess who will suffer the most? The low-income families and seniors who rely on a functioning federal government. They are at risk now and will be at even greater risk as the shutdown continues. If any of these families are harmed by the shutdown, the blame lays squarely at the feet of the White House and the Congress.”
“Every day that it drags on, the needless government shutdown threatens more low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and seniors who rely on critically important federally assisted affordable housing,” said National Housing Trust Federal Policy Director Ellen Lurie Hoffman. “Private rental housing owners are scrambling to cover operating costs for which the federal government is contractually responsible, with no end in sight.”
Listen to the CHCDF national call on the impacts of the shutdown on affordable housing programs and community development at: https://bit.ly/2DersVM
Read NLIHC’s latest update on the shutdown at: https://bit.ly/2AzHoju
Check out NLIHC’s interactive map and a state-by-state breakdown of how the shutdown is impacting some HUD-assisted housing.
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA): 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.
About National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC): Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.
About Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF): An education, strategy and action hub led by NLIHC. The coalition of more than 70 national organizations works to ensure the highest allocation of resources possible to support affordable housing and community development. CHCDF’s members represent a full continuum of national housing and community development organizations, including faith-based, private sector, financial/intermediary, public sector and advocacy groups.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development today issued additional information about HUD’s contingency plan so that PHAs administering the HCV program may access their HUD-held Housing Assistance Payment Reserves (HHR) under certain circumstances due the lapse in appropriations.
According to the letter, HAP renewal funds and Administrative Fees are scheduled to be paid on time for February, but HUD recognizes that the funds may not cover the monthly HAP needs as a result of additional leasing or costs.
HUD will allow access to HHR funds in situations where the failure to act “would result in an imminent threat to the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
PHAs may request HAP reserves from HUD under the following circumstances:
- To protect families that are imminent risk of termination of assistance; and/or
- PHAs that were eligible to receive a payment for January 2019 and did not receive it (e.g. first time RAD payments for a project) and need reserves to ensure that the property owner(s) receive(s) a HAP payment to continue assistance and protect the residents at the property.
Read the letter for instructions to request an additional payment covered by the HHR.
For more information on the shutdown’s impact on public and affordable housing, join today’s national conference call at 4:00 pm ET for insights from CLPHA and other housing industry experts. Click here to register.
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While the nation continues to cope under the partial federal government shutdown, Congress continues to work towards normalcy as it conducts its business. The Senate recently announced the makeup of its standing committees for the first session of the new 116th Congress. For the Senate committees of primacy to CLPHA, the members are: |
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Senate Appropriations Committee
Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
Senate Finance Committee
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Given the change in control in the House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat, some committee selections are expected to take a bit longer as members jockey for subcommittee chairmanships and committee assignments. Consequently, full membership for the House Financial Services Committee and Ways and Means Committee have not yet been announced. While most members of the House Appropriations Committee have been selected, the Democrats are expected to add additional members to their roster. The current membership is as follows: |
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House Appropriations Committee
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CLPHA will continue to monitor the committee process in Congress and will update its members as the committee selections are finalized.
For further information, contact CLPHA Legislative Director Gerard Holder at gholder@clpha.org. |
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As the partial government shutdown continues and creates more uncertainty for public housing authorities, CLPHA is collecting information on the impacts and effects of the government shutdown on housing authorities and residents.
We are particularly interested in examples regarding landlord willingness to accept new vouchers from HCV participants, and PHA decisions around issuing new vouchers.
We will be sharing your feedback with our media contacts and coalition partners (please let us know if you do not want your PHA’s name identified).
Please send any information to Emily Warren at ewarren@clpha.org as soon as possible.
CHCDF National Call to Learn About the Impacts of the Government Shutdown
CLPHA, as a member of the steering committee of the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding, will be participating in a national conference call on January 15 at 4:00 PM ET to provide updates on the latest information and guidance on how advocates can engage lawmakers to help end the shutdown.
Today, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman was quoted in Affordable Housing Finance discussing how the shutdown threatens the stability of low-income households. Though HUD has prepared payments for housing vouchers and the public housing operating subsidy through February, Zaterman notes that the “existential threat” for voucher holders looms given the uncertainty of when the shutdown will end. If housing authorities cannot utilize HUD funding after February, there is a risk that that they will not be able to pay landlords and that landlords will subsequently begin to evict voucher-holding tenants.
Zaterman added that as HUD funding remains suspended due to the shutdown, local housing authorities are growing increasingly concerned about how they will maintain properties, make repairs, and pay employees.
CLPHA will continue our advocacy in support of PHAs and will provide members with additional news about the shutdown as we learn it.
The bipartisan Congressional Public Housing Caucus, is still seeking new Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to join the Caucus.
CLPHA conceived and helped establish the Caucus and we remain strongly committed to building its membership. The goal of the Caucus is to connect Members of Congress and their staff with key stakeholders of public and affordable housing, as well as educate them on the latest policy developments.
ACTION:
We need your help in promoting the Caucus to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Please reach out to your Representatives and encourage them to join the bipartisan Congressional Public Housing Caucus.
To join, Members of Congress should contact Mark Gilbride of Rep. Stivers’ staff (225-2015; mark.gilbride@mail.house.gov) or Jennifer Shapiro of Rep. Cleaver's staff (225-4535; jennifer.shapiro@mail.house.gov).
Congress is due to return to Washington, D.C., on November 13, one week after the 2018 mid-term elections. In addition to Senate consideration of judicial and administration nominees, and the expected finalizing of FY2019 funding for departments and agencies currently operating under a continuing resolution, a strong possibility exists that Congress will consider tax extension legislation. This presents a new window of opportunity for CLPHA members to advocate for two tax credit provisions that are very important to the preservation and development of public and affordable housing: the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act.
Tax Extenders
According to the ACTION Campaign—CLPHA is a member of its Steering Committee—House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has indicated that House tax leaders are speaking with their Senate counterparts about tax extenders legislation that Congress could consider during the lame duck session. This is significant since Senate leadership had earlier revealed interest in taking up tax extenders this year, while House leadership was previously unclear.
The ACTION Campaign asserts, “Should tax extenders advance as part of larger tax legislation this fall, which may also include technical provisions and other tax provisions, it may present an opportunity to advance provisions from the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (S. 548/H.R. 1661). To position the Housing Credit as strongly as possible going into any potential negotiations in the lame duck session, ACTION encourages all stakeholders to continue conducting outreach to your elected officials to both urge them to sign on if they haven't already, and thank current co-sponsors for their continued support.” The ACTION Campaign also developed a website with advocacy materials for meeting with elected officials, including state and district level fact sheets along with other materials.
New Markets Tax Credit
In addition to the Housing Credit legislation, Reps. Steve Stivers (R-OH) and José Serrano (D-NY) are asking colleagues to join them on a Dear Colleague letter urging Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) to include a permanent extension of the New Markets Tax Credit Program in any tax legislation considered during the lame duck session. H.R. 1098, the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act, which would prevent the expiration of a tax credit that draws investment to low-income communities, has already garnered 102 bi-partisan co-sponsors. The deadline for House members to sign onto the letter is November 9.
ACTION:
- CLPHA strongly encourages members to contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to sign-on to H.R. 1661 in the House and S.548 in the Senate, if they have not already added their name to the list of co-sponsors. Here is a list of current House and Senate co-sponsors.
- When asking your Members of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 1661 or S. 548, also ask them to support adding provisions from the legislation to any tax extender legislation during the lame duck session.
- Ask your House members to sign onto the Dear Colleague letter urging H.R. 1098 be included in any tax legislation during the lame duck session.
Last week, members of the House and Senate were named to an appropriations conference committee on HR 6157, the third package of FY19 appropriations bills. This third “minibus” includes funding for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; Financial Services and General Government; Agriculture; Rural Development; Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. The committee conferees will hold their first formal meeting on Thursday, September 13.
Committee staff from the House and Senate majority and minority—the four corners—have been in informal discussions over the summer striving to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the several subcommittee bills included in the minibus. Having the conferees meet signifies real progress has been made towards a final agreement.
Despite six scheduled legislative days remaining before the end of the fiscal year, conference committee action on the third minibus suggests there is a real possibility the FY19 THUD appropriations may be enacted before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. This would enable THUD appropriations to avoid becoming victim to a continuing resolution (CR) for funding. Any CR is expected to last at least until after the November elections for those federal agencies missing the September 30 deadline.
Members of the Conference Committee include:
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ACTION:
We strongly encourage CLPHA members to communicate with the Washington, DC offices of the conferees before 1:00 pm tomorrow, September 13, especially CLPHA members whose congressional members are on the conference committee, and urge them to:
- Support the higher Senate funding levels for public housing-related programs,
- Oppose any poison pill provisions, such as the Heller amendment, and
- Support the HCV Mobility Demonstration provision in the House THUD bill.
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.