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
(202) 550-1381 or dgreer@clpha.org.
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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.
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
collaboration to help low-income families
April 22, 2021
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
April 9, 2021
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
March 31, 2021 |
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(Washington, D.C.) March 31, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement upon President Biden’s announcement of the American Jobs Plan:
“The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds President Biden’s transformative American Jobs Plan to reimagine and rebuild the American economy by centering housing as key to accomplishing the administration’s top priorities of economic impact, racial equity, and climate change. The $213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than one million housing units, with $40 billion targeted at the long-neglected public housing capital needs, is the size and scale that can move the needle on improving public housing infrastructure. CLPHA has called for a 10-year road map to recapitalize the public housing portfolio.
“The centrality of public and affordable housing means its impact reaches beyond shelter. It is also critical to other key elements of the American jobs plan including expanding broadband, improving childcare, and increasing health care opportunities. Public housing authorities are the most efficient delivery mechanism for these critical services because of their understanding of local needs, especially the needs of underserved communities of color. Public housing authorities stand ready to implement the bill when it becomes law.
CLPHA will work closely with Congress to ensure that the housing provisions are fully funded and remain central to the bill.”
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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.
In this December 27, 2018 article by Bruce Japsen for Forbes.com, CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman discusses the importance of cross-sector collaborations between housing and health care to improve life outcomes for low-income families and seniors.
“We’re housers with expertise in the management and operation of affordable housing for low-income families and seniors, but we are not experts in the complexities of health care service delivery,” Zaterman said. “That’s why nearly all of the public housing authorities we surveyed work with a partner to provide health services. Most would do more if they had the funding and resources to commit to their health partnerships.”
Anthony Scott, CEO of Durham Housing Authority (left) and A. Fulton Meachem, President & CEO of Charlotte Housing Authority (right) in Durham, NC.
CLPHA is pleased to see that our members are visiting each other’s communities to share knowledge, ideas, and best practices for preserving and strengthening their public housing portfolios and resident services.
In August, the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA) hosted the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) and Durham city officials on a bus tour of Charlotte public housing properties. The Durham delegation also met with CHA staff, board members, and residents to discuss how Charlotte is transforming its housing portfolio and resident services through entrepreneurial efforts in real estate development, bond programs, property management, and family self-sufficiency programs. You can watch a video slideshow of the Charlotte & Durham meeting here.
In October, residents, staff, and board members from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) traveled to Cambridge, MA to meet with Cambridge Housing Authority staff and tour public housing communities. MPHA learned from Cambridge about their ongoing, comprehensive public housing transformation financed through the RAD program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and other funding tools. In a post-trip recap, MPHA said their residents expressed the importance of seeing and hearing for themselves that these programs did not result in displacement. In fact, said MPHA, “CHA residents were often able to simply move units and continue living in their building even as the work proceeded around them.” You can watch a video about MPHA’s trip to Cambridge here.
Representatives from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority on a bus tour of Cambridge Housing Authority properties.
In this month’s HUD Choice Neighborhoods Newsletter Spotlight, learn how Atlanta Housing built relationships with families and partnered with their local school district to offer tailored educational supports to its Choice Neighborhoods residents to help bridge the gap between home and school.
From Atlanta Housing's press release:
Santa kept his promise for more than 650 Atlanta Housing-assisted children who received a Christmas gift from their wish lists at the Santa For a Day three-day gift distribution event, which started Monday and ended today. Atlanta Housing’s partnership with Santa For a Day has served more than 4,600 children since its inception four years ago. This year’s campaign began in October with a letter-writing event where children were assisted with writing letters to Santa and decorating ornaments.
At this week’s event, more than 200 books were distributed through the Book Rich Environments (BRE) Program. Today marked the culmination of this year’s program, as Atlanta Housing (AH) staff and volunteers distributed gifts to hundreds of AH-assisted children from their Christmas wish lists over the course of three days at the Zell Miller Center for Human Excellence. “Atlanta Housing is proud to once again partner with Santa for a Day to bring cheer and hope to hundreds of Atlanta youth,” said Eugene E. Jones, Jr., president and CEO of AH. Jones forged the partnership between the two organizations and sits on the board of Santa for a Day. “This remarkable program provides more than holiday cheer and gifts to children; it also builds letter-writing and communication skills that can last a lifetime.”
Santa For a Day helps corral generous individual contributions from donors across the country to create magic for children and their families. With a mission to spread hope while teaching childhood literacy through the power of the pen, the program allows participants to author a positive narrative, sparked by optimism and the vision of a bright future, and reward their efforts by translating their wishes into reality.
“We’re thrilled that Santa For a Day has partnered with Atlanta Housing for the fourth consecutive year teaming up to make a real impact together. Our seasonal gift-giving, year-round literacy-related programs, and vital needs resourcing, actively help transform more the lives of so many young people,” said Rich Gentile, founder of Santa For a Day. “This collaboration works so well because at Santa For A Day, our mission – to provide holiday joy, to inspire hope, to model kindness, and to foster literacy amongst children who need it most – aligns so well with Atlanta Housing’s overarching mission, and we could not be more grateful for their partnership.”
AH is proud of its association with Santa For a Day, which supports AH-assisted children year-round through literacy programs and services.
From WAVE 3 News Louisville:
Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Louisville native Elizabeth Strojan will become the Executive Director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority.
As the Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of Administration & External Affairs at the New York City Housing Development Corporation, Stojan works to create and preserve affordable housing for New Yorkers.
“Elizabeth Strojan is a rising star in the nationwide affordable housing industry, and we are incredibly fortunate she has chosen to come home to Louisville and lead LMHA,” Greenberg said. “Having the right leader at LMHA can make the difference between an organization that misses opportunities and one that innovates. She will bring every possible tool to improving conditions as a landlord, efficiently administering LMHA’s rental assistance, and becoming a key partner to Metro’s broader affordable housing efforts.”
She will enter her new role in early 2024, taking over a department that administers nearly 16,000 affordable housing units citywide with more than 250 employees and a nearly $40 million annual operating budget.
“Having a safe, stable home you can afford is truly the foundation for everything in life, and that is why I’ve dedicated my career to bringing quality, affordable housing within reach of more people,” Strojan said. “I want to thank Mayor Greenberg for trusting me to lead LMHA and bring people together to make the future brighter for its residents. I am thrilled to be coming back home to Louisville, and I can’t wait to join the incredible team at LMHA.”
Watch the City of Louisville's press conference on WAVE 3 News' website.
From. HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research:
In 1940, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) in Columbus, Ohio, opened Poindexter Village, one of the nation’s first public housing projects. The 414-unit housing project was constructed on the former site of the Blackberry Patch, a successful settlement of the Great Migration and home to Black entrepreneurs, families, musicians, and community leaders such as Reverend James Preston Poindexter, a pastor active in the abolition movement and namesake of the public housing development. Over time, disinvestment spurred the decline of both the housing project and the adjacent Near East Side neighborhood, which became areas of concentrated poverty.
In 2014, HUD awarded CMHA a $29.7 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) implementation grant to redevelop Poindexter Village, distributing the funding across three categories: housing, people, and neighborhood. Through a competitive procurement process, CMHA selected McCormack Baron Salazar as the co-lead developer responsible for transforming the site into a 450-unit, mixed-income, multigenerational community. In addition, the CNI grant helped revitalize the Near East Side neighborhood by catalyzing economic growth and investment in other properties following the completion of Poindexter Village in 2020. Poindexter Village received the Novogradac 2021 Developments of Distinction Award in the Metropolitan Community Impact category.
From CapRadio:
A former Best Western motel has reopened in downtown Sacramento after being converted into permanent homeless housing, offering nearly 100 residents the chance at a fresh start.
Sacramento Central Studios at H and 12th streets is the city’s third motel-conversion project funded by the state’s Homekey initiative and the first downtown. The others are in South Sacramento and Natomas, while Sacramento County recently approved two similar projects.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration launched the multi-billion program during the pandemic with the goal of creating thousands of stable housing units for homeless residents.
Formerly unhoused resident Mike Pollard said he moved into the new community when it opened in November after spending much of the pandemic living in his pickup.
He said he’d been evicted from his childhood home in Rancho Cordova and had nowhere to go.
The 66-year-old said the transition hasn’t always been easy. There are rules to follow: Residents can’t hang anything on the walls that would leave a mark. And all guests must check in at the front desk.
Still, he said, having one’s own place has its perks.
“My bed’s like an acre and a half. My shower’s the best shower I’ve ever had in my life,” Pollard said during an interview at the housing complex. “It’s just such a difference from living down at the park.”
The housing community took two years to complete and like other affordable housing projects, it wasn’t cheap, something critics have increasingly called out.
Altogether, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency spent $7.4 million while Homekey provided $23.9 million for a total of $31.3 million, according to a city news release.
Most of the renovation consisted of adding kitchenettes to each of the 92 units, the vast majority of which are occupied by a single resident.
Homekey pays local governments to purchase and transform hotels and motels into long-term housing. Cities and counties, meanwhile, pay for services from meals to laundry to mental health care for residents.
Read CapRadio's article "Downtown Sacramento motel transforms into permanent homeless housing, after two years and $31 million."