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David Greer
Director of Communications
(202) 550-1381 or dgreer@clpha.org.
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
December 11, 2020 |
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) December 11, 2020 – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) called on the incoming Biden-Harris administration to address poverty, homelessness, and racial injustice by investing in public and affordable housing. These recommendations are among 52 proposals that CLPHA provided in a transition document to the incoming Biden-Harris administration.
“The Biden-Harris ticket’s decisive victory is a moral mandate to address the chronic problems of poverty, racial inequity, and housing insecurity,” said Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities. “CLPHA’s 52 recommendations are a roadmap to achieve these goals.”
Expanding the Housing Choice Voucher program is one of CLPHA’s top-line recommendations and a key plank in the Biden-Harris plan. Currently only one in four low-income households that are eligible receive housing assistance due to limited funding. We know that housing stability is central to economic mobility for low-income Americans, even more so during the pandemic and economic downturn.
Recapitalizing the public housing portfolio is also a top priority for CLPHA. "A capital backlog of $70 billion is putting the health and wellness of low-income seniors and children at risk," Zaterman said. “We call on the Biden administration to develop and implement a 10-year roadmap to ensure the long-term sustainability of this public asset.”
CLPHA also calls for expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and increasing operational flexibilities to better meet local housing needs. “These recommendations would result in significant investment in eradicating poverty and dismantling systemic racism,” said Zaterman.
CLPHA founded the Housing Is initiative to develop cross-sector resources of education and health five years ago. The Housing Is Initiative is calling for expanded coordination between federal agencies including the departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development, and increased funding for research and data sharing.
Over the past four years, the Trump administration has proposed or enacted egregious rules that disenfranchised marginalized people, such as immigrants and transgender Americans. CLPHA urges swift reversals of these dangerous rules.
“The Biden-Harris administration has a real opportunity to improve the lives of low-income Americans. CLPHA looks forward to working with the administration to make it happen," Zaterman concluded.
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
December 10, 2020 |
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(Washington, D.C.) December 10, 2020 – The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) is proud to support the nomination of Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) to be the 17th Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department. CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman released the following statement:
"Congresswoman Fudge is a longtime champion of affordable housing, urban revitalization, and infrastructure investment. She has demonstrated her leadership as a mayor, as a Member of Congress, and as the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. She understands that racial and economic inequities are deeply rooted, particularly in our housing systems, and that working across sectors is imperative. Her many years of work on economic justice issues such as food insecurity and education access can bring much-needed leadership to aligning systems and services to better meet the needs of low-income Americans. We look forward to working with Congresswoman Fudge in her role as HUD Secretary to address the growing need for COVID emergency rental assistance and safe, affordable housing."
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities |
(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
November 9, 2020 |
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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.
The Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Martin Luther King Branch opened this month in Columbus’s Near East Side neighborhood. The new library is a result of Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT), a partnership between Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, Ohio State University, and other local stakeholders created in 2010 to transform and revitalize 800 acres of Near East Side.
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) broke ground on Oso Apartments, a 48-unit apartment complex in Chicago’s Albany Park. Financed with help from $10 million in CHA RAD funds, 100 percent of Oso Apartments’ units will be affordable rental housing for individuals and families.
The Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and partners cut the ribbon on The Lindley, a 200-unit high-rise in Chevy Chase, MD. The opening of The Lindley constitutes a net increase of 22 units of affordable housing in the neighborhood. You can watch a time-lapse video of The Lindley’s construction here.
The long-awaited Opportunity Atlas, published today by the Census Bureau in collaboration with researchers at Harvard and Brown, got top billing on today’s homepage of the New York Times’ data-driven digital property The Upshot. “Detailed New National Maps Show How Neighborhoods Shape Children for Life,” includes the new interactive mapping tool, some of the project’s main findings, and examples of the mobility work that public housing authorities are currently doing, and plan to do, with the data. In addition to quoting Raj Chetty, one of the project’s researchers, authors Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui feature quotes and examples from CLPHA members Greg Russ, Executive Director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Andrew Lofton, Executive Director of the Seattle Housing Authority and Andria Lazaga also of SHA who each discussed how PHAs are using the data as part of their Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) work.
Additional news coverage of the Opportunity Atlas includes an NPR segment during today’s Morning Edition broadcast that features interviews with Chetty and local officials in Charlotte, NC, who intend to use the data to shape future policy decisions.
Read the article and use the interactive maps on the NYT website and listen to the Morning Edition story on NPR’s site.
On August 9, HUD sent the 2017 Worst Case Housing Needs Report to Congress, providing national data and analysis of critical problems facing low-income renting families throughout the nation. The report, which is HUD's 16th in a longstanding series, chronicles an increase in severe housing problems, with the number of households considered to have worst case housing needs jumping from 7.72 million in 2013 to 8.3 million in 2015. HUD also reports that, since 2007, the U.S. has seen a 41 percent increase in severe housing problems, and a 66 percent increase since 2001. The Worst Case Housing Needs Report defines households with worst case needs as very low-income renters who do not receive government housing assistance and who paid more than one-half of their income for rent, lived in severely inadequate conditions, or both.
Using data from the 2015 American Housing Survey, HUD found that the economic benefits of an improving national economy are not reaching the lowest-income renter households and that overall severe housing problems are on the rise. The report acknowledges a large shift from homeownership to renting as playing a major role in the increase of worst case housing needs, noting that, "modest gains in household incomes were met with rising rents, shrinking the supply of affordable rental housing stock in an increasingly competitive market."
You can view the 2017 Worst Case Housing Needs Report by clicking here.
From the Columbian:
Local housing officials gathered Thursday to celebrate progress on the construction of a new low-income senior living facility in Vancouver’s Bagley Downs neighborhood.
Laurel Manor, 3333 N.E. 66th Ave., is a four-story apartment building with 82 one-bedroom units next door to Columbia River Mental Health Services.
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All of the units will qualify for rental subsidies, so none of the residents will pay more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. While all the units are built with accessibility in mind, DeRenzo said a handful will also be outfitted for residents who are visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, or have other ability levels.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child,” DeRenzo said. “I say it takes a village to raise a building.”
Officials broke ground on the project in September, and it’s slated to be finished by the end of the year.
Those involved in the project marveled at the facility that some said they hadn’t seen since the roof was installed. The building had dry wall Thursday, and electrical work was coming along.
Victor Caesar, executive director of Columbia Non-profit Housing, lauded the progress after the project initially struggled to get funding in 2019.
“At that same time, when we found out that we weren’t selected for funding, Columbia River Mental Health … approached us and said, ‘Hey, we want to do something mission-driven with the extra land that we own,’” Caesar said. “And it sort of worked out for the best. Instead of 40 units of senior housing, we doubled that.”
It’s rewarding, Caesar said, to see years of work coming to fruition. He hopes to begin welcoming residents at the beginning of next year.
Representatives on behalf of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, expressed the elected officials’ support and hailed the difference it will make in people’s lives to have this kind of affordable housing.
Development Manager Josh Ollinger said sustainability was top of mind, in addition to accessibility and affordability.
The facility will feature high-efficiency heat pumps and water heaters and be Vancouver Housing Authority’s first project with solar panels on the roof.
Read the Columbian's article "Officials Say New Vancouver Low-income Senior Housing Will Improve Lives."
From the San Jose Spotlight:
More than 100 Santa Clara County seniors struggling with the cost of living will have a place to call home in downtown San Jose within the next few years.
The San Jose City Council unanimously approved a roughly $15.2 million loan Tuesday for Hawthorn Senior Apartments, a 100% affordable housing development with 101 homes for low-income and formerly unhoused older adults and two managers’ apartments. The four-story project, developed by the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, will sit on 1.1 acres at 118 and 124 N. 15th St.
The project will house older adults ages 55 and up making between 30% and 50% of Santa Clara County’s median income — roughly $126,900 for one person in 2023, according to state housing department data. Approximately 47 apartments will receive federal rental assistance vouchers for at least 20 years, with 21 reserved for older adults facing chronic homelessness.
The development is a collaboration between San Jose, the county, housing authority and supportive housing providers LifeSTEPS and Abode Services. It is estimated to cost roughly $88.9 million and receive funding from affordable housing measures A and E, federal tax credits, loans, the housing authority and Prop. 63, also known as Santa Clara County’s No Place Like Home program. Construction is anticipated to start at the end of this year and finish in mid-2026.
Flaherty Ward, housing authority director of real estate, said the project furthers the housing authority’s goal to address the affordability crisis for the county’s most vulnerable residents, including the growing older adult population.
“I think a lot of folks know us for administering the Section 8 program, but the reality is we need to do more,” Ward told San José Spotlight. “That is why we have such a heavy focus on affordable housing development work.”
Read the San Jose Spotlight's article "San Jose affordable apartments a plus for senior housing crisis."
From Multi-Housing News:
Related Urban Development Group—the affordable and workforce housing arm of Related Group—and Miami-Dade County’s Public Housing and Community Development have opened Residences at SoMi Parc, a 172-unit mixed-income housing community in South Miami.
A total of 80 percent of Residences at SoMi’s units are reserved for households earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income, with 58 of the units being under the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. The remaining 20 percent of the apartments will be market-rate.
The financing for the project included 9 percent in low-income housing tax credits awarded by the Florida Housing Finance Corp. and more than $6 million provided by Miami-Dade County from a combination of sources including Surtax, AHTF, CDBG and DIAF. The Huntington National Bank provided a $44 million construction loan, according to Yardi Matrix data. The construction financing also included a $2 million loan from the Miami-Dade County, $1.6 million from Related Group and $1.2 million from Jones Lang LaSalle.
Designed by CIVICA Architecture, Residences at SoMi Parc comprises three buildings with one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom floorplans ranging between 404 and 1,088 square feet. The common-area amenities at the mixed-use development include a fitness center, a swimming pool, a business center, a clubroom, a courtyard, a gazebo, a dog park, bike storage, electric vehicle parking stations, controlled access and approximately 215 parking spaces. Units feature washer and dryers, kitchen appliances, private balconies and walk-in closets. The property will also comprise 10,000 square feet of community-oriented commercial space on the ground floor.
Read Multi-Housing News' article "Related Group Opens Miami Mixed-Use Development."
From NBC 15 News Mobile:
On Thursday, May 2, the City of Mobile will join Aletheia House and the Morrow Companies to break ground on a $19.8 million affordable housing community for local seniors.
Announced in 2023, Live Oak Trace will be located on Overlook Rd. and will create 56 new affordable housing units dedicated to residents 55 and older. The $19.8 million housing community is being financed through a public private partnership with the City of Mobile, Regions Bank, theAlabama Housing Finance Authority and Hope Credit Union and is scheduled to open next spring. The Mobile Housing Authority will also be providing rental assistance for some of the future residents.
Read NBC 15 News Mobile's article "Mobile Breaking Ground on New Senior Apartment Homes."
From the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles' press release:
On March 28, 2024, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) closed on the acquisition of a 120-unit market-rate apartment building at 349 S. La Fayette Park Place in central Los Angeles. HACLA will restrict 90 of the units in the property to occupancy by families with incomes not exceeding 80% of the median income in Los Angeles – equivalent to $70,640 per year for a single person household – over the long term. The affordability will be achieved over time as units naturally turn over. No existing residents will be required to move as a result of the purchase, and residents with qualifying incomes will be eligible to receive rent reductions.
The $43.4 million acquisition was accomplished with $19.5 million of federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding awarded by the City of Los Angeles through its Community Investment for Families Department (CIFD).
“CIFD is proud to serve as the administrator of the Consolidated Plan, which includes the oversight of the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). CDBG plays a crucial role in supporting housing acquisition initiatives aimed at providing affordable housing. By investing CDBG resources in projects such as Lafayette, we are helping communities secure assets that will promote economic growth and foster housing stability for hundreds of Angelenos,” said Abigail R. Marquez, CIFD General Manager.
HACLA also borrowed $23.4 million from its line of credit with City National Bank to close on the purchase.
“HACLA is committed to using every available tool to the greatest extent possible to increase the supply of affordable housing in the City of Los Angeles,” said Doug Guthrie, HACLA’s President and CEO. “We are thrilled that this property, with access to jobs, schools, transit, parks and shopping, will provide a welcoming and affordable home for hundreds of Angelenos for decades to come.”
“HACLA is deeply gratified for the unwavering support and dedication of our partners at the City of Los Angeles, including Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez (D-CD1), the Community Investment for Families Department, and the leadership of Mayor Karen Bass,” said Cielo Castro, Chair of the HACLA Board of Commissioners.
“Los Angeles is in dire need of more affordable and dignified housing to confront our housing and homelessness crisis,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. “This acquisition moves us closer to that goal and I am grateful for the steadfast support of HACLA, CIFD, and all our partners who work tirelessly to increase the supply of affordable housing in the City of Los Angeles.”
“The Mayor’s declaration of emergency on homelessness created a renewed urgency to bring unhoused Angelenos and connect them to homes they can afford. And we are making steady progress,” said Chief Housing and Homelessness Officer, Lourdes Castro Ramirez. “With today's announcement, HACLA is delivering the kind of vision we need to meet this housing and homelessness crisis head on, creating new covenanted affordable homes that will support Angeleno families for decades. Kudos to Doug Guthrie and the HACLA team for this success!”
Since 2020, HACLA has purchased more than 2,000 units to provide affordable housing for families in Los Angeles, totaling nearly $900 million of acquisitions. HACLA is the largest owner of affordable housing in the City of Los Angeles, with a portfolio of more than 11,000 units of housing restricted to or targeted for occupancy by lower-income families and people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
For more information about HACLA and its initiatives, please visit www.hacla.org.