Welcome to CLPHA's Press Room
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David Greer
Director of Communications
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CLPHA Opposes Administration Proposal to Increase Rent Burden on Lowest-Income Residents
WASHINGTON (May 14, 2018) - The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) strongly opposes the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) recently announced proposal to increase rent burdens on low-income residents residing in public housing and assisted housing.
The core of HUD’s rent reform proposal is to shift the burden of chronic federal underfunding of assisted housing to low-income residents who can least afford it. While there are advantages to a proposal that simplifies rent calculations and reduces administrative burdens for public housing authorities (PHAs), this proposal requires that PHAs raise rents in order to benefit from common sense rent simplification. Even with the benefit of housing assistance, many public housing residents are already spending more than 30% of their income on rent. A 2017 HUD study reported that the average Housing Choice Voucher recipient had a rent burden of 37% in 2015. Nationally, we represent PHAs serving residents in the most expensive housing markets in the country, where voucher holders are especially likely to have to incur high rent burdens to gain access to higher opportunity neighborhoods of their choice.
Given existing rent burdens, this proposal raises serious concerns about the negative impact the proposed rent calculations would have on residents. Through changes to 35% of unadjusted income for families and 30% of unadjusted income for the elderly and disabled, many assisted households would see significant rent increases. For example, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) estimates that public housing residents would see an average 36% rent increase while Housing Choice Voucher households would experience an average 23% rent increase. With an average annual household income of $21,000 for public housing residents and $16,000 for voucher holders served by HACLA, these increases represent substantial burdens that may interfere with a household’s ability to afford other necessities.
Beyond concerns regarding the fairness of further cost-burdening residents, there is some evidence to suggest that increased rents do not financially benefit PHAs and may have the opposite effect. When the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) implemented a HUD-mandated flat rent increase in 2014, impacted residents experienced an average rent increase of 46%. NYCHA saw their rent collection rate decrease among those impacted by the increase. NYCHA’s experience reflects the reality that increased rent payments only exacerbates affordability issues and puts more residents at risk of delinquency and eviction, resulting in more challenges for PHAs and less predictable revenue.
In addition to our concerns about the impacts of the proposed rent calculations, we note that the timing of these proposed changes are problematic for two reasons. First, some components of the proposal contradict important changes to housing assistance made through the recent federally enacted Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) in 2016 by unanimous vote of the House and Senate. HUD has yet to publish implementation regulations for some of the key provisions in the bill. For example, HOTMA increased the deduction of medical expenses for elderly and disabled families and tied the deduction to inflation, while HUD’s proposal eliminates these deductions entirely. A significant number of elderly and disabled households currently use medical deductions, many of whom have substantial medical costs. We question the elimination of this deduction particularly when it is already undergoing a very different set of changes through congressionally-mandated HOTMA.
We also question the timing of these proposed changes given the fact that in 2012, HUD commissioned a four-site demonstration from MDRC to study several rent reform elements included in the proposal, including triennial recertification, elimination of income deductions, and ignorable asset limits. One of the research questions the demonstration is explicitly testing is whether these reforms reduce work disincentives and increase family self-sufficiency among families receiving vouchers. With results expected in 2019, HUD should use insights from the study to inform design of a rent reform model that most effectively promotes self-sufficiency.
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
CLPHA, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit organization working to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. It represents most of the nation’s largest public housing authorities.
Web tool targets idea-sharing and improves cross-sector
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
July 23, 2020 |
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(Washington, D.C.) July 23, 2020 -- CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman released the following statement on why the Senate must include emergency rental assistance in its next COVID-19 stimulus package:
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.
July 20, 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.
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
July 2, 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.
Pacific Standard quoted CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman in today's article "The Government Shutdown Could Decimate America's Subsidized Housing Programs." Of the partial government shutdown's impact on the housing market, Zaterman said, "Owners in many cities will be faced with financial disruption, foreclosure, or bankruptcy if they're not able to pay their mortgage or meet the other costs of the property... This really is going to ripple through the whole housing market system."
Zaterman added that the shutdown is likely to negatively impact landlords' perceptions of the HCV program and other federally funded rental assistance programs, observing that in light of the shutdown landlords may be discouraged from participating in the HCV program because now "[funding] is something an owner would have to calculate as a risk now that was previously not seen as a risk."
CLPHA’ Executive Director Sunia Zaterman spoke to Multi-Housing News about the disastrous effect the shutdown will have on not only on Housing Choice Voucher funding and other rental assistance programs, but also affordable housing projects, if it continues beyond February. Zaterman added that if the shutdown continues into March, for smaller landlords and property owners especially “there is a huge concern about the ripple effect and concerns about bankruptcy and foreclosure.”
However, as Zaterman noted in a January 16, 2019, joint press release accompanying a national conference call about the effects of the partial government shutdown on low-income people and communities and the affordable housing programs that serve them, the shutdown is already a catastrophe for millions who rely on HUD funding. “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,” said Zaterman.
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.
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.
In response to a January 5 Washington Post article focused on new research about where voucher holders live, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman submitted a Letter to the Editor to emphasize examples of PHAs’ innovative housing mobility strategies. Although edited significantly for length, the version published in print and online describes landlord recruitment and retention efforts, and calls for additional local flexibilities and sufficient federal funding.
From the St. Paul Public Housng Agency's newsletter:
On November 1, 2020, 39 new PBV units came online at Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis Dorothy Day Residence, with a 20-year subsidy contract (Housing Assistance Payments; HAP) from the PHA. Completed in the Fall of 2019, Dorothy Day Residence - along with the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Saint Paul Opportunity Center - comprise the second building of Dorothy Day Place, a two-building campus of 370 units which replaced the former Dorothy Day Center shelter. The apartments were fully occupied from Day 1.
The PHA’s Board of Commissioners awarded the 39 vouchers as PBVs to this development in January of 2020. It was the PHA’s largest PBV award in 2020 and included 15 VASH (Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing) vouchers, the PHA’s very first PBV use of VASH. The PBV subsidies guarantee deep rental assistance for these 39 units, ensuring that all residents, including those with the lowest of incomes, will never pay more than 30% of their income toward their rent portion.
Catholic Charities, which developed and manages Dorothy Day Place, had applied for PBVs from the PHA through Minnesota Housing’s Consolidated Request for Proposals. Their application included this summary:
“Dorothy Day Place represents the largest public-private social services partnership in Minnesota history; $110 million was raised across sectors to complete the campus. In a region with rising rates of unsheltered homeless, a tightening rental market, and stagnant wages, the emergency shelter, affordable and supportive housing opportunities, and connections to social services provided at Dorothy Day Place, and specifically at Dorothy Day Residence, are essential for helping our most vulnerable residents achieve long-term stability.”
From The 74:
Seeing how 2020 has become the year of highly unlikely events actually happening, Karen DuBois-Walton, president of the Housing Authority of New Haven in Connecticut, would like to put one more on the table: school integration.
After all, she notes, protests following the police killing of George Floyd have already led to a “sweeping police accountability bill” in Connecticut that she previously believed was unthinkable. She wonders what else might be possible in her state, where inequities loom large. The educational gaps between white students and Black and Latino students there are some of the largest in the country. Black and Latino residents comprise less than 30 percent of Connecticut’s population but approximately 80 percent of the low-income residents served by the housing authority.
“What in this moment can we seek to change as it pertains to education funding, education access, and equity in housing policy?” DuBois-Walton said.
This commingling of housing and education advocates to fight for school integration is the focus of The Bridges Collaborative, a new effort that brings district and charter schools together with housing organizations in a coordinated attempt to spur progress on this long-stalled issue. The Housing Authority of New Haven is among the 56 organizations across more than 20 states selected for the inaugural cohort that will collaborate over the next two years. The Collaborative plans to develop new messaging and new approaches that will support its members in building on one-off initiatives, such as a Maryland county’s redistricting plan to promote socioeconomic integration, and achieving more widespread progress by modifying zoning restrictions and redrawing school enrollment areas.
Read The 74's artcle "New Effort Pairs Educators and Housing Advocates to Tackle School Segregation," featuring Elm City Communities.
From Block Club Chicago:
A long-planned affordable housing complex marketed toward LGBTQ people has opened in Logan Square — about 18 months later than originally planned.
The John Pennycuff Memorial Apartments at 2033 N. Milwaukee Ave. brings 41 affordable housing units and 47 Chicago Housing Authority project-based units to a hot stretch of Milwaukee Avenue that has attracted several luxury apartment buildings in recent years.
The 88 apartments include a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
Read Block Club Chicago's article "Logan Square LGBTQ-Friendly Affordable Housing Complex Now Open On Milwaukee Avenue," featuring the Chicago Housing Authority.
From WBEZ Chicago:
Ms. B’s Kitchen and Catering in the North Lawndale neighborhood sells Chicago-style favorites like pizza puffs. On other days of the week, owner Tawanda Stange cooks comfort food, everything from pot roast to oxtails to gumbo. Her Sunday Soul Food menu includes baked chicken, smothered pork chops and candied yams.
Stange, who learned how to cook at her grandmother’s house, started the business in 2017. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, she had to let go of two employees.
“It’s been really rough,” Stange said. “What has saved my business is catering. If it were not for that additional stream of revenue, I would have closed in April.”
The Chicago Housing Authority is giving a boost, too. Stange, a resident of the Henry Horner Homes, is one of seven CHA residents awarded a $5,000 grant for their businesses to mitigate losses from the pandemic.
Read WBEZ Chicago's article "CHA Grants Boost Resident-Owned Businesses During The Pandemic," featuring the Chicago Housing Authority.
From ABC 7 News:
El Sereno community leaders and Caltrans have partnered with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles to help a group of homeless activists in the area.
The group known as Reclaiming Our Homes started illegally occupying the Caltrans-owned homes in March.
Now, thanks to a new transitional housing program, the activists can legally occupy some of the homes.
"I'm extremely grateful for the community and for this push that was very much needed," said Martha Escudero, a single mother who is a part of the group and now benefiting from the program. "Especially during this pandemic, and being able to stay safe."
Read ABC 7 News' article "Homeless families who took shelter in vacant El Sereno homes can now legally live in them," featuring the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.