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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Honored to Be Only Housing Organization to Sign Commitment Letter (Washington, D.C.) December 7, 2021 — The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) applauds the Biden-Harris Administration’s Maternal Health Call to Action announced today, and CLPHA was honored to be the only housing organization to sign the letter of commitment to the action. This recognition speaks to CLPHA’s leadership in health equity and long-standing dedication to improving maternal health among residents of CLPHA’s member public housing authorities (PHAs). CLPHA launched its commitment to maternal health and many other health-related issues with the creation of the pioneering Housing Is Initiative in 2015. Housing Is helps broaden and launch efforts to align housing, education, and health organizations to produce positive long-term outcomes for those experiencing poverty. Collaboration across systems and sectors—through shared goals, focused resources, and coordinated efforts—strengthens our collective ability to serve the needs of low-income individuals and families effectively and efficiently, and our work’s focus includes young mothers who are disproportionally impacted by housing insecurity. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s decision to lift maternal health to a White House initiative reflects their continuing commitment to address issues impacting low-income families,” said Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities. “From the American Rescue Plan Act that contained an expansion of emergency rental assistance and the child tax credit to the Build Back Better Act that expands housing opportunities for low-income families, the Biden-Harris Administration is proposing a transformational investment in America’s low-income women and families." Maternal health is an issue embedded with racial, health, and housing disparities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related causes than white women. With the majority of PHA residents being Black, indigenous, or people of color, PHAs understand they play a critical role in addressing racial inequities through increased focus on maternal health. CLPHA’s members have been at the forefront of developing programs around maternal health for their residents. The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and CelebrateOne partnered to create Healthy Beginnings at Home, an initiative to reduce infant mortality through a housing intervention. The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority has partnered with the Full Term First Birthday Initiative to replicate the Healthy Beginnings at Home program. The Boston Housing Authority and Boston Public Health Commission created the Healthy Start in Housing Program that provides housing for homeless men and women with very small children with medical issues, as well as pregnant women experiencing homelessness. CLPHA looks forward to supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s Maternal Health Call to Action with its own activities, including a Martin Luther King Jr. Day virtual event on January 18, 2022 that will discuss how racial discrimination has jointly impacted housing inequities and maternal health outcomes and the interaction of these two disparities. During the 2022 Housing Is Summit on May 18-19, 2022, will also hold a leadership panel to discuss how different sectors can come together to create innovative solutions for the maternal health crisis in this country. ###
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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(Washington, D.C.) November 19, 2021 -- Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) Executive Director Sunia Zaterman released the following statement after the House passage of the Build Back Better Act today:
“The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of the $1.9 trillion Build Back Better Act. The $150 billion targeted to affordable housing is the single largest investment in public housing ever.
“Today represents a fundamental change in America’s approach to public and affordable housing. The Build Back Better Act is historic legislation that seeks to remedy two generations of chronic disinvestment that has left millions of public housing residents suffering and exacerbated health, safety, climate risks, and racial inequities. These long-term investments to public housing, along with significant expansion of rental and homeownership assistance, will increase housing stability, reduce poverty, provide substantial climate benefits, and spur economic activity that strengthens local communities.
“CLPHA is thankful the House continued to listen to housing advocates by re-inserting provisions that will strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit’s ability to better leverage the capital required to develop and redevelop aging public housing infrastructure.
“As the Act moves to the Senate, CLPHA will continue its work with Senators to ensure that the public and affordable housing funding levels remain intact in the Senate version.”
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(202) 550-1381
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
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(Washington, D.C.) October 28, 2021 -- Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) Executive Director Sunia Zaterman released the following statement applauding President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better announcement this morning: “The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds President Biden’s announcement of a $1.85 trillion reconciliation framework with $150 billion targeted to affordable housing, the single largest investment in public housing ever. “For decades, millions of public housing residents have suffered from chronic disinvestment in their neighborhoods, exacerbating health, safety, climate risks, and racial inequities. The Build Back Better Act is historic and transformational in its comprehensive long-term approach by making public housing safe and sustainable for generations to come and significantly expanding rental and homeownership assistance. Stable, affordable housing is foundational to the health and economic well-being of all Americans and to our nation as a whole. This unprecedented and long overdue investment in the preservation and expansion of affordable housing, coupled with the Build Back Better Act’s other investments such as universal prekindergarten, the child tax credit, and climate change remediation, will have an historic impact on reducing poverty and improving the climate. “The Biden administration is delivering on a promise that has been decades in the making. CLPHA strongly supports the Building Back Better Act as a history-making investment in public housing and expanding housing opportunities.”
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
October 28, 2021 |
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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In an interview with radio program Marketplace for its November 4 story "Apple pledges $2.5 billion to ease California’s housing crisis," CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman told reporter Jack Stewart that Apple's recent $2.5 billion Bay Area affordable housing pledge is an important starting point in addressing the nation's affordable housing shortage, but also noted that much more money is needed to help public housing authorities provide affordable housing for low-income individuals and families. Zaterman told Stewart that public housing needs an injection of $50 to 70 billion to address its massive capital needs backlog.
“The giving back here [by Apple] should be seen as necessary and required,” said Zaterman, “because these corporations are benefiting from the workforce, from the transportation systems, health systems, that are already in their communities.”
Read or listen to Marketplace's story.
In a new op-ed for The Hill, a prominent political newspaper widely read by policymakers, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman underscores the role of public housing authorities (PHAs) as essential partners in local efforts to house those who are particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity, including unsheltered families, veterans, people with disabilities, youth aging out of foster care, victims of domestic violence, and returning citizens. Programs like the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s Stable Homes Stable Schools and the Oakland Housing Authority’s Building Bridges are examples of how PHAs are leveraging their limited resources and local partnerships to create more opportunities for housing stability.
Yet, the President’s proposed FY2020 HUD budget would reduce the agency’s funding by more than 16 percent and slash the public housing operating and capital funds by $4.6 billion, which would seriously impede PHAs’ and their communities’ abilities to address the housing needs of low-income and housing-insecure people.
Though House and Senate appropriators propose modest funding increases in their FY20 spending bills, Zaterman argues that level funding is not enough to meet the growing and urgent demand for housing that is safe and affordable. “We can address the crisis of homelessness in America, and public housing authorities are prepared to help solve it with appropriate resources.”
Part two of Affordable Housing Finance’s special report “Turning Point for Public Housing,” explores tools such as the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that public housing authorities can use to recapitalize and redevelop properties for their residents and communities. In the face of unsustainable federal funding levels, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman tells the magazine that public housing is at a crossroads, but with the right tools, “we could have the portfolio totally recapitalized in 10 years.”
Zaterman was also featured in part one of the series to discuss the impact of the federal disinvestment in public housing. “We have lost about 10,000 units a year from underfunding,” she said. But, “the number of public housing units lost may have slowed to about 8,000 a year, thanks to RAD, in the last couple of years.”
Read the series, which includes interviews with housing advocates, policy experts, and policymakers, online here.
On May 21, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, testified before the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing entitled “Housing in America: Oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Development” where he received pointed questions from the committee Democrats on recent HUD proposals such as rent reform, the non-citizen rule, and HUD’s FY20 budget request which would slash funding for public housing.
After the hearing, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman was asked by USA TODAY reporter Nicholas Wu about the accuracy of Carson’s justification of the non-citizen rule – that, based on Section 214, the Secretary may not support housing for people who are not here legally. Zaterman told Wu that the law “explicitly authorizes both those with eligible and ineligible immigration status to occupy units in ‘covered housing programs.’”
“This is a punitive act,” she said. “Even HUD’s justification laid out the negative impacts of doing this on the households themselves which often include children that are eligible and parents and heads of household who are not.” Read the USA TODAY article.
NPR’s May 16 story, which also aired May 22 on NPR’s Morning Edition, “Trump Administration Wants To Cut Funding For Public Housing Repairs,” featuring District of Columbia Housing Authority Executive Director Tyrone Garrett and CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman, underscores the need to reinvest in public housing with funding for the capital needs backlog and more tools for recapitalization and redevelopment.
Of the Trump Administration’s proposal to slash funding for public housing, Garrett says, “Other housing authorities throughout the country are in the same boat. We're looking for opportunities to be able to improve the lives of our families, and it's becoming increasingly difficult with the funding cuts."
From Fox 26 Houston:
David Northern, President & CEO of Houston Housing Authority speaks with FOX 26's Nate Griffin to learn more ahead of an unveiling in Third Ward honoring Houston native George Floyd.
From the Austin Monitor:
An $82,000 Heritage Preservation Grant from the city’s Economic Development Department will allow the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, or HACA, to create and install five educational kiosks at Rosewood Courts. The historic, 80-year-old apartment complex, which was the first African American public housing project in the country, is currently under renovation and the kiosks will “serve as a valuable tool to educate the public about the history of Rosewood Courts and its legacy to the East Austin community,” according to HACA’s news release.
Read the Austin Monitor's article "Rosewood Courts gets kiosks."
From the Boston Globe:
After 25 years, isn’t it time for a change?
That’s what Kate Bennett, administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, asks herself as she prepares for the next chapter in her career. Bennett, who former mayor Martin J. Walsh tapped to lead the agency in 2020, announced Wednesday that she is stepping down after filling a variety of BHA roles since 1998.
Bennett’s departure comes as the city faces a grueling housing crisis, where a shortage of housing stock has left Boston residents scrambling to afford the few, overpriced units that remain.
In her years in office, she has seen what works, what doesn’t, and what could be. In light of Bennett’s upcoming departure, the Globe asked the BHA’s administrator about her legacy, the status of the city’s housing crunch, and where we can go from here.
From MinnPost:
A Minnesota Senate committee will take up a proposal on Friday to grant $45 million to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority to fix up hundreds of houses that the agency rents to some of the city’s lowest-income families.
Most of the families with children that MPHA serves live in one of these 700 “scattered site” family homes — which, as the name implies, are spread out all over Minneapolis.
With rent in these houses set at approximately 30% of household income, MPHA leaders say the “deeply affordable” units help stabilize vulnerable families. The agency’s research suggests most residents use these houses as launch-pads to get better-paying jobs — and nearly one out of every five families that leave these units go on to purchase homes of their own.
But more than half of these houses are in “poor” condition, according to MPHA’s ratings, with a backlog of more than $31 million in needed maintenance and repairs: roofs that leak, siding that’s deteriorating, furnaces or ventilation systems that need to be replaced. If unaddressed, the agency believes the cost to fix these problems would double over the next five years.
That’s why MPHA leaders want a cut of the state’s multi-billion dollar budget surplus: They want to slash through repairs on these homes — and knock out a significant chunk of an overall $210 million maintenance backlog on all of its properties.
Abdi Warsame, who stepped down from the Minneapolis City Council in 2020 to become MPHA’s executive director and CEO, sat down with MinnPost to discuss why he believes the agency urgently needs this one-time infusion of funding.
From LoHud.com:
Last summer, Shanequa Benitez borrowed her mom’s electric bike and pedaled up and down Yonkers’ notorious hills. Using her grandfather’s Vivitar 35-millimeter camera, the 34-year-old Yonkers native photographed friends on sweltering afternoons in and around Cromwell Towers, the public housing where she grew up in the Locust Hill neighborhood.
In one black-and-white photo, Pauly plays dice. Benitez has baby pictures with him. Three color photos show her friends Pops and Pun on a stoop, both smiling, donning matching white tank-tops.
In her exhibit, “But It’s Ours: The Redline Between Poverty and Wealth,” Benitez aims to highlight how Black and brown communities were confined to sections of Yonkers through the century-old discriminatory practice of redlining. As the first artist-in-residence for the nonprofit Yonkers Arts and the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY), Benitez has chronicled the effects of redlining on communities like hers through art.
Read LoHUD.com's article "Redlining in paint: In new exhibit, artist shows effects of discrimination on her Yonkers neighborhood," featuring the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers.