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
April 9, 2021
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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
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 |
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March 11, 2021
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(Washington, D.C.) March 11, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement upon President Biden’s signing of the American Rescue Plan Act into law:
“The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities applauds President Biden for signing into law the groundbreaking American Rescue Plan Act. When combined with the $25 billion in emergency rental assistance in the previous relief bill, the total $45 billion in emergency rental assistance and $5 billion to prevent homelessness is scaled to the enormous scope of the rental crisis with more than 11 million renters behind on rent. The law is also historic in nature as it represents the largest federal investment since the creation of the Great Society programs more than 55 years ago, which launched what is now known as the Housing Choice Voucher program. Estimates show that the American Rescue Plan Act’s war on poverty will reduce the projected poverty rate this year by half. This historic investment in alleviating poverty and expanding housing opportunities constitutes one of the most significant steps towards ending racial inequity since the legislation passed during the Civil Rights Era.
"The American Rescue Plan acknowledges that housing stability for all Americans is essential to the economic well-being, racial equity, and public health of the nation. While this legislation directs critical federal investment to pandemic relief, new transformational federal investments will be needed to address the affordable housing crisis that was only exacerbated by the pandemic, including a 10-year roadmap to recapitalize the public housing portfolio and a permanent and significant expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program.
"CLPHA looks forward to working with the Biden-Harris administration to make stable housing a reality for all Americans."
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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.
From the Housing Authority of the City of Austin's press release:
The Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $460,229 to renew its existing Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Programs for residents of HACA’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) housing assistance program, as well as an additional $334,712 to launch the program at eight properties within HACA’s Project Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) portfolio.
The federal grant funding supports the hiring of full-time FSS program coordinators who connect participating families to community-based resources to help achieve financial stability. Families participating in this voluntary program can access skills training, childcare, financial literacy classes, and health services.
HACA has successfully operated a FSS program since 1994. HACA's FSS Service Coordinators work directly with residents for up to five years to help them set and achieve specific goals, and to connect them with programs and services in the local community. Goals that FSS participants set for themselves may include earning a GED or high school diploma, going to college or finishing a degree, or improving credit scores. In addition, families in the FSS program have an interest-bearing escrow savings account established for them to eventually help pay for personal advancements like educational expenses or make a down-payment on their first home.
“We have witnessed the transformational benefits this program has had for participants. This has helped so many of our FSS families to break the cycle of poverty and to help build a foundation of financial stability for themselves and their children,” said HACA Chief Operating Officer Sylvia Blanco.
“We’re grateful for this new funding to continue our existing programs, and to greatly expand our ability to assist even more families on their journey to self-sufficiency,” Blanco said.
Residents in the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles' Estrada Courts housing development now have access to high-speed, no-cost internet.
A Step Towards Connectivity and Opportunity in Los Angeles from WeLink on Vimeo.
From the Goldsboro Daily News:
Participants are still buzzing with leftover excitement from the 2023 SERC MLK Basketball & Cheer Tournament hosted in Goldsboro, North Carolina, January 13-15th. Housing Authorities throughout the Southeastern Region of the United States traveled during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with their youth, families, coaches, and staff to an incredible weekend of thrilling competitive sports, exciting educational opportunities, and positive cultural experiences.
The celebration did not disappoint this year as the multi-site event took off Friday at 6 pm at Dillard Middle school. The Housing Authority of the City of Goldsboro (HACG) staff brought out all the bells and whistles for over 300 youth attendees. Rousing laughter and cheering ignited the basketball court, where celebrity radio personality Kariana Taylor (Kay-Tee Radio, 92.7 Jamz Goldsboro) and local DJ C-Rai helped get the party started with incredible music setting the tone for a fun-filled kick-off experience
The weekend’s keynote speaker, Harlem Globetrotters legend Dexter “Loveboat” Williams, wowed the crowd proving why he was named one of the “World’s Best Basketball handlers” and offering words of motivation and inspiration for all ages.
Read the Goldsboro Daily News' article "SERC MLK Basketball & Cheer Tournament Hosted by HACG Creates Buzz."
From the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services' news bulletin:
In 2017, Home Forward began testing its Portland public housing buildings for radon to prepare for a major rehabilitation project. The agency discovered some buildings had elevated levels of radon, but guidance on addressing it was limited.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had issued recommendations for radon testing in 2013, but there was no requirement specific to testing public housing properties.
So, Home Forward took a proactive approach to addressing elevated radon levels, creating a policy to test, mitigate where necessary, and re-test all the properties it owns – more than 100 buildings. That spawned the Home Forward Radon Procedures Manual.
“The only way of knowing if a property or a unit has high levels of radon is by testing,” said Carolina Gomez,
Home Forward’s director of Integrated Facilities Services and Safety who helped draft both the policy and the procedures manual. “We don't know where we're going to find it until we test, so we are in the process of testing all our properties.”
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Home Forward is now on track to completing testing and abatement at all its properties – home to some 14,000 households – by the end of 2023.
OHA took notice of Home Forward’s success in developing its radon policy and procedures manual. In late 2022, OHA published its own Radon Testing for Multifamily Buildings guide – available on OHA’s Radon Resources page – to help multifamily building owners and managers in the state accurately test their buildings for elevated radon.
“What inspired us was the Oregonian’s “Cancer Cloud” article, and then learning about Home Forward’s commitment to test their buildings for radon,” said Jara Popinga, OHA’s Radon Awareness Program coordinator. “It was clear that local housing authorities could use more support and encouragement for radon testing.”
OHA had recently finished the protocols and procedures document for testing radon levels in schools – as part of ORS 332.341 and 332.345 – and a risk communication tool kit. It was an opportunity for the agency to reconstruct those resources to make something geared toward property owners and tenants. Because Home Forward has experience with radon testing in multifamily buildings and communicating with tenants, “we thought they would be a great partner to work with to build these resources. Lucky for us, they agreed to provide support and input on our materials,” Popinga said.
Read OHA's news bulletin "Housing authority’s radon procedures manual inspires state protocol," featuring Home Forward.
From ABC 5 News Oklahoma City:
Millions of dollars were approved on Thursday to fight homelessness through Oklahoma City's MAPS 4 program.
The plan included a partnership with the Oklahoma City Housing Authority to add more than 500 supportive and transitional units, preserve 1,500 public housing units and build 150 workforce homes.
"This is just a piece in that bigger puzzle to try and help solve the homelessness problem we see here," said David Todd, the MAPS program manager for the city of Oklahoma City.
Five allocations of $10 million were approved by the MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board to address the need for housing in Oklahoma.
Read ABC 5 News Oklahoma City's article "MAPS 4 board approves millions to fight homelessness in Oklahoma City," featuring the Oklahoma City Housing Authority.