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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A coalition of more than 70 national organizations tell the Administration & Congress that people with the lowest incomes will be hit hardest if the shutdown continues.
Washington, DC - Members of the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) sent a letter to congressional leaders today calling on them to protect low-income Americans by ending the government shutdown and passing full-year spending bills that provide strong funding for affordable housing and community development programs.
CHCDF, a coalition led by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, expressed strong concern for the shutdown’s immediate and long-term impacts on affordable housing programs and the low-income people they serve. The letter also called out the shutdown’s impact on the housing stability of low-wage government contractors, like janitors, security guards, and cafeteria servers, who often live paycheck-to-paycheck. These individuals working without pay are at risk of being unable to cover their rent payments, putting them at risk of eviction.
The government shutdown is thwarting critical investments in local communities and in affordable and accessible housing for low-income families, threatening to destabilize over four million households that depend on HUD’s rental assistance programs and creating widespread uncertainty for affordable housing investors.
“The longer the shutdown continues, the more the lowest income people will be hard hit,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “Residents living in HUD-subsidized properties are some of our country’s most vulnerable people - the clear majority are deeply poor seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children. They rely on government assistance to remain housed, and a prolonged government shutdown puts them at increased risk of eviction and potentially homelessness. It’s incredibly reckless to risk the homes of our country’s lowest-income and most vulnerable people as perceived leverage for a border wall.”
“The partial government shutdown is a disaster for the millions of low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities who depend on HUD assistance for safe, stable housing,” said Council of Large Public Housing Authorities Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “Funding uncertainty puts more than two million voucher households at risk of losing their homes, and a lack of operating fund payments will force public housing authorities to shut units that cannot be repaired or properly maintained.”
“The bottom line for us is care and concern for the people we serve, and the shutdown hurts them,” said CSH President and CEO Deborah De Santis. “Every hour the deadlock drags on means people who really need housing and services are not going to get them. And the longer critical agencies stay shuttered the more likely it is families, children and other individuals now counting on help to stay housed and healthy will have their lifelines cut off.”
“Each day of the shutdown makes it harder and harder for the nearly 10 million people who live in HUD-assisted housing – low-income families, people with disabilities, veterans, and the elderly – to avoid eviction, keep their heat turned on, and access health care and supportive services,” said Enterprise Community Partners President Laurel Blatchford. “Congress and the Administration must find a way to restore funding for programs critical to the livelihoods of Americans across the country.”
“As the shutdown continues, HUD has made clear it will become unable to renew rental assistance contracts for housing providers,” 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 each of these 1.6 million older adults have the stable housing they need to age with dignity.”
“Local governments rely on consistent contact with HUD in order to ensure reliable funding for services, projects and developments funded with grant programs like the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships program,” said National Association for County Community and Economic Development Executive Director Laura DeMaria. “These programs provide vital services and resources to low-income families across the country. As long as HUD remains shut down, local governments, their community partners, and the low-income families they serve will lack the stability and constant flow of funds they need to operate.”
“This shutdown is hurting families across the country whether or not they work for the federal government and prolonging it will make matters worse,” said NAHRO CEO Adrianne Todman. “Capital expenses that require approval from HUD employees are left undone, and housing vouchers are not reaching families in need as housing agencies curtail additional spending. We should be especially concerned about the public- and private-sector landlords in the project-based rental assistance program who are left without funding and/or contract renewals. Those who can are already dipping into their reserves to make repairs and respond to their residents’ needs, but these reserves only go so far. This is unacceptable. End the shutdown.”
“Vulnerable Americans are the casualty of the current political battle. As a partial federal shutdown drags on, essential federal housing programs and tenant protections are in jeopardy,” said National Housing Law Project Executive Director Shamus Roller.
“The needless government shutdown has put the lowest-income residents at risk and left private rental housing owners scrambling to cover operating costs for which the federal government is contractually responsible,” said National Housing Trust Federal Policy Director Ellen Lurie Hoffman. “This threatens seniors, people with disabilities, and families who are struggling to make ends meet, as well as the viability of critically important affordable housing properties.”
Read the complete letter outlining the impact of the shutdown on specific affordable housing programs at: https://bit.ly/2RkB8Xd.
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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.
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.
Announcing the New CLPHA.org
(WASHINGTON) January 7, 2019 - The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) is pleased to announce the launch of our newly-redesigned website.
The new CLPHA.org showcases our member PHAs and offers industry news and updates with a bright, modern look and dynamic, user-friendly content that is easy to navigate on a desktop computer or a mobile device.
DYNAMIC: A carousel of stories and the latest news on the front page keeps the content fresh. CLPHA.org is a website to bookmark and visit regularly.
INFORMATIONAL: At the new CLPHA.org, you will find articles and information about the latest developments on Capitol Hill and from HUD, facts and updates about programs important to public and affordable housing, and news from CLPHA about our work on behalf of our members.
USER-FRIENDLY: The new CLPHA.org features sections on each of CLPHA's priorities: Public Housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Moving to Work, RAD, and our cross-sector initiative Housing Is. Plus, dedicated sections for Legislation & Policy, Press, News & Events, and Membership.
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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.
Experts to Present First National Snapshot of Health Partnerships in Public Housing
Free Webinar Aug. 29, 12 PM ET
WASHINGTON (August 28, 2018) - Half of the nation’s public housing authorities (PHAs) are engaged in a resident health initiative, most with a health organization partner according to Health Starts at Home: A National Snapshot of Public Housing Authorities' Health Partnerships, the latest report released by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) and the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC). The report provides the first national snapshot of PHA efforts to address residents’ health care needs and emphasizes opportunities for collaboration between the health and housing sectors.
Report authors Steve Lucas, MPH, CLPHA Health Research and Policy Manger for the Housing Is Initiative, Keely Stater, PHD, PAHRC Director of Research and Industry Intelligence, and Kelly McElwain, PAHRC Research Analyst III, will present their analysis during a free webinar on August 29, 2018 at 12:00 PM ET.
“Housing and health systems need to work together,” said Lucas, who designed and implemented the original survey that led to the report. “Public housing authorities are significant providers of housing to those in need, offering the health sector scale and expertise. We found that PHAs across the country are engaged in a wide range of partnerships with different health organizations that address various target populations and health priorities. Though there are barriers to housing-health collaboration, such as funding and staffing capacity, these can be overcome with cross-system partnerships that seek to address these needs.”
Lucas published the initial survey findings in an issue of CityScape, a research publication of the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. The article, “Connecting Fragmented Systems: Public Housing Authority Partnerships with the Health Sector,” is posted to the HUD User website.
What: Free Webinar: Building PHA Health Initiatives and Cross-Sector Partnerships
When: Wednesday, August 29, 2018, 12:00 PM ET
WEBINAR RECORDING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-jm5eF_YU&t=24s
Webinar Presenters
Steve Lucas, MPH
Health Research and Policy Manager, Housing Is Initiative,
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
Keely Stater, PhD
Director of Research and Industry Intelligence,
Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation,
HAI Group's Research Division
Kelly McElwain
Research Analyst III,
Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation,
HAI Group's Research Division
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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 26 percent 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 Housing Is
CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative helps establish, broaden, and deepen efforts to align affordable housing, education, and health systems to produce positive, long-term results. We are building a future where systems work together to improve life outcomes for low-income people. Learn more at HousingIs.org and on Twitter @Housing_Is.
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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 |
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(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.
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.
Today, Gray News Bureau published a comprehensive article "SNAP, WIC, Section 8: Separating fact from fiction in the government shutdown" featuring a quote about the shutdown’s effects on HUD programs from CLPHA Executive Sunia Zaterman. Gray News pulled the quote from CLPHA’s January 16 joint press release with the Campaign for Housing & Community Development Funding (CHCDF), of which CLPHA is a member of the Steering Committee.
On the shutdown's effect on housing authorities' future rental assistance payments, Zaterman said, "Without a guarantee from HUD that funding will be available in March, many Public Housing Authorities 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.”
You can read the article via Gray News Bureau TV affiliates:
CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman spoke to the Pew Charitable Trust's Stateline blog about the looming crisis facing public housing authorities (PHAs) if the shutdown continues. In today's article "Cities Scramble as Shutdown Leaves Families in Federal Housing Vulnerable," Zaterman warned that if the shutdown is still in effect by the end of February, many PHAs will not have enough funds to continue rental assistance payments for March and beyond.
“It’s definitely an all-hands-on-deck, high-urgency red alert for agencies that don’t have sufficient reserves for a sufficient amount of time,” Zaterman said. “And most don’t.”
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.
On Wednesday, March 24, CLPHA member Brian Gage, executive director of the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance during their hearing "Preserving a Lifeline: Examining Public Housing in a Pandemic."
In TIME’s February 18 article “Millions of Tenants Behind on Rent, Small Landlords Struggling, Eviction Moratoriums Expiring Soon: Inside the Next Housing Crisis,” writer Abby Vesoulis outlines the looming housing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic effects and the Biden administration’s plans to address them through the lens of struggling low-income renters and small landlords in the Seattle area.
To illustrate President Joe Biden’s campaign proposal to build new public housing communities that vastly improve upon the current, dilapidated public housing stock, CLPHA Board President & King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen Norman described one of KCHA’s public housing communities that embodies this future vision of what public housing could like and discussed how rent subsidies provided by PHAs help to insulate their residents from the direst effects of economic crises:
Greenbridge, a housing community in unincorporated King County just south of Seattle’s city limits, is something of a model. It has 325 subsidized housing units scattered among hundreds of other affordable homes. Families from different socioeconomic groups share parks and more than five dozen public art installations. The subsidized residents are shielded in periods of economic duress: they pay up to 30% of their income toward rent, while public-housing authorities pick up the remainder. If a resident’s income declines because of a layoff or reduction in work hours, their monthly rental burden follows suit. The system is designed to boost residents out of poverty and to prevent their children from falling into the same trap. “We like to say that if we’re raising the next generation of public-housing applicants, we failed,” says Stephen Norman, the executive director of the King County housing authority, which developed the project.
CLPHA congratulates the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority upon receiving a $246,468 grant from HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program!
HUD’s Family Self -Sufficiency (FSS) Program funding helps local public housing authorities to hire Service Coordinators who work directly with residents to connect them with existing programs and services in the local community. These Service Coordinators build relationships with networks of local service providers, who provide direct assistance to FSS participants. The broad spectrum of services made possible through FSS enables participating families to find jobs, increase earned income, and access opportunities to improve their long-term economic well-being.
HUD awarded over $1.5 million in FSS grants to 13 PHAs, including CMHA. We look forward to seeing how CMHA uses this funding award to increase economic and career opportunities for their residents!
To close out Black History Month, Atlanta Housing offered a thought-provoking, timely discussion on the intersections of race and housing, titled “Dialogues in Housing: Affordable Housing & the Race Factor” that explored:
- The history of how race impacted access to affordable housing in America and in Atlanta
- The potential current and future policy solutions to bridge the gaps of disparity, and
- Atlanta Housing’s approach and efforts to create equitable and inclusive housing for all.
Facilitated by AH’s Director of Communications and Content Strategy, LaConia Dean, the conversation was powered with historical context and expert insights from an esteemed collection of thought leaders in the equitable housing space.
Dialogues in Housing is a new discussion series from AH that’s aimed at shedding light on the topic of affordable housing, advocating for its importance, and providing context on affordable housing as a crisis that impacts us all.
You can watch this first edition of Dialogues in Housing (in two parts) on Atlanta Housing’s website.
From the Fresno Bee:
Members of the board of commissioners of the Housing Authorities of the City and County of Fresno named Angie Nguyen interim CEO during a special meeting on Thursday, nine days after they failed to fill the position at a regularly scheduled February meeting.
Nguyen, chief of staff and director of Strategic Initiatives & Housing Programs, will lead the agency — the largest housing provider in Fresno County — starting April 1.
Preston Prince, outgoing CEO, will depart March 31 to become the executive director of the Santa Clara County Housing Authority.
Nguyen will become the first female and first person of color to lead the Fresno Housing Authority in its 80-year history.
“Tonight’s action appointing Angie Nguyen is a clear indicator that the board has complete confidence in the leadership team at Fresno Housing,” said Cary Catalano, county chair of the Fresno Housing Board of Commissioners. “The agency will continue, without interruption, the important work around resident services, homelessness, sustaining neighborhoods of opportunity, real-estate development and so much more.”
Read the Fresno Bee’s article “Angie Nguyen appointed first woman, person of color, to lead Fresno Housing Authority.”