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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.
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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.
August 10, 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.
- Listen to HousingWire's coverage of our letter in their Daily Download podcast.
- Read HousingWire's article about our letter.
August 3, 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.
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.
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.
From the New York City Housing Authority’s press release:
[On March 10, 2021] NYCHA released its unconstrained Transformation Plan, a vision for significant yet sustainable change to NYCHA’s governance and leadership structure, property management systems, and central support functions. The Transformation Plan was conceived as part of the 2019 HUD Agreement and includes a set of strategies that will improve the resident experience and set the agency on a path to a stronger future. The release of the Transformation Plan marks the beginning of this multi-year process. In partnership with residents and stakeholders, NYCHA now will turn to the challenging task of reviewing, testing, and implementing these structural and process changes in a resource-constrained environment.
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) have concurred on the Plan. NYCHA, HUD, SDNY, Monitor, residents, and other stakeholders will now focus on analysis and implementation efforts. This includes evaluating the costs and benefits of each possible change and beginning to make difficult choices that are necessary to better serve residents. These results, based on modelling and analysis, will be submitted in an Implementation Plan as a supplement to the Transformation Plan. The first part of the Implementation Plan is due by the end of September 2021. The second part is due at the end of June 2022. Together, the Transformation Plan and the Implementation Plan will result in the Organizational Plan required in the HUD Agreement.
“NYCHA’s Transformation Plan, along with the critical work we are doing to address key issues detailed in the 2019 Agreement, is central to the dramatic reforms we are making at the Authority,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Greg Russ. “We are aware of the many constraints we face, but with this plan we have the management structure and operations model to forge a strong path forward. Thank you to HUD and SDNY, and federal monitor Bart Schwartz for their assistance in getting NYCHA to this important milestone.”
This Transformation Plan is a part of NYCHA’s innovative Blueprint for Change, a comprehensive set of ideas to transform the Authority, which also includes a Stabilization Strategy to access capital funding for 110,000 units.
From WAVY News Norfolk:
There was a continuous flow of people heading into the community building in the Calvert Square neighborhood of Norfolk Sunday.
All of them were waiting patiently to get their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“It feels good to get the first one out the way,” said Norfolk resident, Jerry Broadnax.
Dr. Cynthia Romero, the Director of the M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health at EVMS, was helping out.
She says this vaccine clinic was a major partnership between the Hague Pharmacy at CHKD and EVMS as well as the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Hague Pharmacy officials says they filled 1,300 appointments Sunday.
Read WAVY News Norfolk's article "About 1,300 Norfolk residents get vaccinated at clinic in Calvert Square neighborhood," featuring the Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority.
From the Yakima Herald:
Construction of the Chuck Austin Place — a veterans housing project and service hub in Yakima — is on track for summer completion.
Apartments have been built and work continues to transform an old armory into additional housing and a center where medical, dental, behavioral health and other services will be provided. In all, 41 units will be built.
There were 48 homeless veterans counted in Yakima County in 2020, according to the annual Point-In-Time survey. One-third were unsheltered, while half were considered chronically homeless and 45% were younger than 65, the count said.
The $17 million project is named after the late Chuck Austin, a three-war veteran who died Jan. 25 of COVID-19. He was 95.
Headed by the Yakima Housing Authority, the project is unfolding at the old Marine Corps Reserve armory at 1703 Tahoma Avenue. It’s expected to be complete in July with move-ins that same month, said Lowel Krueger, executive director of the housing authority.
“Everything seems to be on time and on budget at this point,” he said. “We’re clicking along pretty good.”
Read the Yakima Herald's article "Yakima veterans housing project on schedule for summer completion," featuring the Yakima Housing Authority.
From the Boston Herald:
The city’s mobile vaccination site has begun putting shots in arms, starting with 100 vaccines at a Boston public housing project for seniors in Roxbury.
“This is the beginning of a mobile effort that the city’s going to roll out to bring vaccines to people’s homes, to where people live,” Boston Health Chief Marty Martinez told reporters outside the Martin Luther King Towers apartment buildings in Roxbury on Friday morning.
This “final prong” of what Martinez has repeatedly called the city’s four-pronged approach to COVID-19 vaccines started Friday with 100 shots for residents at the Boston Housing Authority property for elderly or disabled Bostonians. The other prongs are the mass vaccination site, neighborhood clinics and the start of priority-group clinics.
“There’s been so much talk about mass vaccination and Fenway and all the big places — and they’re super important — but this is how we’re going to make sure that those folks who can’t get to those locations or who need greater access get it,” Martinez said outside the towers on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Read the Boston Herald's article "Boston mobile vaccination unit begins in Roxbury: ‘This is what equity looks like,’" featuring the Boston Housing Authority.
From ABC 6 Columbus:
18-year-old, Ka’Marr Smith has traveled a tough road. After the death of his mother, he bounced around between family members.
Smith found himself getting into trouble and acting out, which lead him down an even darker path.
...
A professor then pointed Smith in the direction of the Columbus Scholar House for Former Foster Youth.
“Each of the 30 one-bedroom units here in the scholar house are fully furnished and have a number of amenities,” said Tom Williamson, with Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. “These apartments are affordable, and residents will pay approximately 30% of their income toward rent.”
With the help of the City of Columbus and Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, young adults that have aged out of the foster care system finally have a place to call home.
Read ABC 6 Columbus's article "Former foster kids now have a place to call home in Columbus," featuring the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority.