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.
*Please let us know if you are working on deadline.
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To view all of CLPHA's press statements, click here.
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Web tool targets idea-sharing and improves cross-sector
collaboration to help low-income families
February 2, 2021
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(Washington, D.C.) February 2, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement upon President Biden's signing of an executive order regarding the public charge rule:
“The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds the Biden administration’s action today to begin unwinding the Trump administration’s patently unlawful Public Charge Rule that included housing assistance receipt against immigrants and their families when applying for an adjustment of residency status. Federal housing assistance exists to keep families together and to lift them up, not to be weaponized to tear them apart. The cruelty of the rule was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as it caused families to opt out of many critical safety net programs, including federal housing assistance.
"CLPHA looks forward to working with the Biden administration to ensure the equitable and compassionate treatment of immigrants and their families when seeking federal housing assistance.”
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
January 28, 2021 |
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(Washington, D.C.) January 28, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement upon the conclusion of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs’ nomination hearing for The Honorable Marcia L. Fudge, of Ohio, to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: “The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds HUD Secretary-designate Marcia Fudge’s forceful call for expanding emergency rental assistance at her Senate nomination hearing today for individuals who are facing housing instability due to lost income or are experiencing unemployment because of COVID-19, many of whom are people of color. She understands that the $25 billion allocated to emergency rental assistance in the most recent stimulus was not enough and only a down payment.
“Right now, in back rent alone, 10 million low-income renters have accrued an average of $5,600 in rental arrears, which totals $56.3 billion. The current stimulus package will help approximately 3.5 million renters pay back rent by February. The remaining 7 million renters who are unable to pay back rent will face eviction, compounding the strain on our nation’s economy and compromising our nation’s moral responsibility to address racial inequities among our most vulnerable individuals.
CLPHA calls for Congress to immediately pass President Biden’s American Rescue Plan which contains $50 billion in emergency rental assistance, and for the Senate to swiftly confirm Secretary-designate Fudge so that she can begin her imperative work.”
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
January 15, 2021 |
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(Washington, D.C.) January 15, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement on President-elect Biden’s American Rescue Plan:
“The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds President-elect Biden’s American Rescue Plan for including $35 billion in emergency rental and utility assistance and a significant extension of the eviction moratorium.
“The Biden-Harris proposal underscores the magnitude of the rental crisis facing the nation, and, when combined with the $25 billion in rental assistance from the December stimulus, finally begins to address the threat of housing instability that millions of low-income Americans are facing. To date, 11.4 million renters have accrued an average of $6,000 in back rent, totaling $70 billion in unpaid rent. President-elect Biden said last night that every day matters when keeping a roof over one’s head. The most effective model to deliver rental assistance immediately is the Housing Choice Voucher program. Its efficiency is proven, the infrastructure is in place, and it can rapidly expand to deliver the significant amount of relief proposed in the American Rescue Plan.
“CLPHA is committed to working with Congress and the Biden-Harris administration to ensure its swift passage so that Americans facing the threat of eviction don’t have to wait another day longer.”
About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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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.
Last month in Shelterforce, Vancouver Housing Authority (VHA) Communications Director Patty Hastings penned an article sharing lessons that VHA has learned from doubling their number of supportive. housing units over the years. Hastings discusses examples of VHA properties like Lincoln Place, Meriwether Place, Rhododendron Place, and the future Tenny Creek Assisted Living, outlining each property's unique successes and challenges.
"With each community, lessons are learned about how to improve the built environment and service delivery for residents. The population served makes a difference, as does the location; a downtown building feels much different from one on a quiet suburban street,” says Hastings. “Those trial-and-error experiments and lessons from Meriwether Place, Lincoln Place, and others in VHA’s portfolio are shaping its future supportive housing developments... What works in one building and for one population may not work for another.”
Frank insights from VHA staff and their community partners illuminate the expected and unexpected hurdles that the housing authority has faced when setting up supportive housing communities, as well as how they have worked to address these issues and improve service delivery and resident quality of life. VHA’s learnings from their supportive housing projects provide helpful advice to other housing authorities looking to establish or expand similar communities.
From the Star Tribune:
The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority plans to demolish more than a dozen houses it owns and replace them with 84 units in four- and six-plexes across the city.
The roughly $34 million project is expected to begin in the summer of 2022 and calls for replacing aging "scattered site" public housing. Authority officials said only one of the 16 parcels designated for new housing is vacant.
"Our goal here with this project is to build as much affordable housing as we can in areas where it typically doesn't exist, but also to continue investing in areas where it is present and it does exist," said Juan Torres, project lead and the housing authority's development manager. "This is kind of a direct response to that, to create additional family housing within our scattered sites."
Read the Star Tribune's article "Minneapolis aims to build 84 housing units across the city," featuring the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
From the Municipal Housing Authority of the City of Yonkers' (MHACY) press release:
It was a happy X-Giving for more than 350 senior residents of affordable housing run by the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY) who received special Thanksgiving meals thanks to the generosity of donors including Def Jam Recordings who donated in memory of the late rapper "DMX."
The dinners, which were prepared by renowned Restaurateur Peter Kelly of X2O on Hudson Restaurant, consisted of sliced turkey, apple and sausage stuffing, potato puree, giblet gravy, French string beans with shallots, cranberry sauce and a slice of homemade pumpkin nut bread.
The meals were underwritten by Def Jam Recordings, The Fresnel Group, Sean Gann of Touchstone Builders and Richard Chen of Kiska Solutions Inc. and Kiska Fire Systems
On November 24 the day before Thanksgiving, MHACY President and CEO Wilson Kimball and Def Jam Recordings Vice President of Marketing Charlene Thomas joined Peter Kelly at his restaurant to help pack the meals for delivery. MHACY staff loaded the meals in vans and delivered them to senior housing sites throughout Yonkers.
Kimball said that X-Giving (named after two main donors DMX and X-20) was part of a larger partnership that has formed between Def Jam records since the death of "DMX" Earl Simmons, who lived at 80 School Street. A mural dedicated to him was unveiled at the MHACY property in August.
"We wanted to make sure that our seniors had a wonderful meal this Thanksgiving," said Kimball. "We are so grateful to Def Jam Records and to Peter Kelly, a success story who grew up in municipal housing in Yonkers, and our development partners for their on-going support of our residents."
Last month, the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency celebrated a major milestone -- SHRA has helped 10,000 families to remain in their homes with their Sacramento Emergency Rental Assistance (SERA) program!
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SHRA, in partnership with the City and the County of Sacramento, through state and federal funding (including the Emergency Rental Assistance program), is offering emergency rent and utilities assistance for renters living anywhere in Sacramento County who have experienced a reduction in household income or other financial hardship due to the pandemic.
SHRA is not done with this vital work to keep families housed -- the program is still accepting applications!
From Affordable Housing Finance:
"After 14 months of construction, a 70-unit apartment community is about to welcome military veterans, including those transitioning from homelessness, in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. The development is one of the first private veterans’ communities in the U.S. to offer rental housing to former service members at a range of incomes along with comprehensive services, including a program to help move veterans toward homeownership, announced WinnCompanies.
Federal, state, county, and local officials recently gathered at the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community to celebrate the December opening of the $23 million mixed-income property with apartments for veterans earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income.
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Financing for the project came from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), which provided construction and permanent financing from the Agency Revenue Bond Financing Program and a subsidy mortgage loan commitment from the NJHMFA’s Multifamily Rental Housing Production Fund; low-income housing tax credit equity provided by Bank of America; a subordinate mortgage from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York Affordable Housing Program; federal HOME funds administered by Monmouth County; and a deferred developer fee. In addition, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA) awarded 18 Housing Choice Project-Based Vouchers to the project to assist homeless veterans."
Read Affordable Housing Finance's article "Mixed-Income Community for Veterans Opens in New Jersey," featuring the NJ Department of Community Affairs.