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.
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David Greer
Director of Communications
(202) 550-1381 or dgreer@clpha.org.
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March 11, 2021
(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 |
(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2021 |
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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 .
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative
The Housing Is Initiative, led by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, helps build a future where sectors work together to improve life outcomes. Housing stability is a critical first step to improve life outcomes for low-income children, families, and seniors; CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative is based on the premise that sectors can better meet needs when they work together. Housing Is establishes, broadens, and deepens efforts to align affordable housing, education, and health systems to produce positive, long-term results. Learn more at housingis.org and on Twitter @housing_is.
(202) 550-1381
For Immediate Release
March 4, 2021 |
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(Washington, D.C.) March 4, 2021 – Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, released the following statement urging the swift passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in the U.S. Senate: “The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities calls for the Senate to pass the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which includes desperately needed $30 billion in emergency rental assistance, $5 billion in single-use vouchers, and a significant extension of the eviction moratorium. “This legislation is critical to addressing the rental crisis facing the nation. The situation has only grown more dire since the Biden Administration announced the American Rescue Plan in mid-January. Renters have continued to accrue past-due rent at an alarmingly high rate. While the eviction moratorium has provided important protections for renters financially impacted by the pandemic, the moratorium has meant that millions of renters have accumulated significant arrears. Economists estimate that unpaid rent at the end of January 2021 totals $52 billion, which amounts to $5,600 for the average renter. “The $5 billion in emergency housing vouchers will help transition persons-at-risk and homeless persons to stable housing. Emergency rental assistance is not only vital to renters, but its impact on the economy and public health is far-reaching. The Senate must act swiftly to provide emergency rental assistance and prevent a wave of evictions and housing instability that will tragically disrupt the lives of millions of Americans.” |
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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
About CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative |
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The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP)will redevelop the vacant Larimer School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, into 35 affordable housing units. This project is part of HACP’s larger Larimer/East Liberty Choice Neighborhoods redevelopment plan.
The Otto Bremer Trust awarded a $100,000 grant and a $500,000 low-interest loan to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). MPHA will use the loan to support housing authority operations for its 6,000 public housing units and will use the grant to fund construction of the 16-unit Minnehaha Townhomes, slated to open in 2019.
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles alongside partner Meta Housing Corporation, opened El Segundo Apartments and 127th Street Apartments in Harbor Gateway, two new communities offering a combined 160 units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless families and individuals.
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), partner Red Eye, Inc., and celebrity guests celebrated the opening of the Watts Empowerment Center Sports Complex at HACLA’s Imperial Courts community with basketball games, soccer matches, a slam dunk contest, and other activities.
Fort Worth Housing Solutions (FWHS)President Mary-Margaret Lemons penned an op-ed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about FWHS’s efforts to increase the city’s affordable housing options, such as their utilization of the RAD program.
From the San Diego Housing Commission's press release:
More than 120 seniors with low income, including several with medical frailties, who otherwise may struggle financially in San Diego’s high-cost housing market now have homes with affordable rent at Levant Senior Cottages, a development in collaboration with the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) that celebrated its grand opening today.
“I’m not going to call it an apartment. I’m calling it a home. I can’t believe the quality of it,” said Earl, a cancer survivor who will receive rental assistance from SDHC at Levant Senior Cottages. “I have a place here I can be proud of – a place where I can put up my children’s pictures. I can decorate. There’s actually room to put a TV, which I haven’t had in some time.”
Levant Senior Cottages in the Linda Vista community consists of 126 affordable rental apartments for seniors ages 55 and older with low-income. These units will remain affordable for the next 55 years. There is also one manager’s unit.
“We must be honest about the crisis our region is facing and decide when enough is enough. Today, we are seeing the very first property to open doors on land offered by the County through an initiative to use excess County sites to develop affordable housing. This also a first step for many more positive projects to come,” said County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, whose district includes Linda Vista, where Levant Senior Cottages was built. “We know that we must do more—we don’t have a choice—we must do more to alleviate the housing burdens for all the people in our region.”
Developed by Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation in partnership with San Diego Kind, Levant Senior Cottages was built on land owned by the County of San Diego and leased to the development for $1 per year for 70 years. The 4.5-acre site formerly housed a County child welfare center and later became an empty lot.
SDHC awarded 70 rental housing vouchers to Levant Senior Cottages, which is fully leased, to assist residents with their rent. The housing vouchers are tied to the development. When a resident moves on, the voucher remains with the unit to help another senior.
“The blueprint to help us address this crisis is collaboratives like this one,” SDHC Chair of the Board Eugene “Mitch” Mitchell said. “The collaborative—as part of the blueprint for success that will allow us as a community, as a City, to truly address this crisis—must continue. And so, today is a happy day, but I’m excited because I have a feeling that because of collaborations like this, we’re going to have a bunch of happy days in the future.”
SDHC also authorized the issuance of $22.9 million in tax-exempt Housing Authority Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds and $19.7 million in taxable bonds toward the financing for the development. The San Diego City Council, in its role as the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego, approved the bonds. SDHC, the City of San Diego and the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego are not financially liable for the bonds. Private sources of funds, such as revenue from the development, are used to repay the bonds.
Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation served as the lead developer, managing the entitlement phase, financing, design, and construction, and provides ongoing asset management and oversight of resident services at the property.
“So many seniors in San Diego are in crisis, with over 50 percent paying more than half of their income toward rent, struggling to live off fixed incomes while costs are anything but,” Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation President and CEO Rebecca Louie said. “Our seniors are living on the edge no safety net to catch them. But projects like this are that safety net.”
Financing for Levant Senior Cottages also included $19 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Multifamily Housing Program.
“As the nation continues to face an unprecedented housing crisis, California is leading the way and delivering innovative programs to support and protect our most vulnerable residents while creating long-term affordable housing. We are working to end homelessness, increase housing production and preserve affordable housing for years to come,” said California Department of Housing and Community Development Super Notice of Funding Availability Section Chief Melissa Harty-Swaleh.
The rental units at Levant Senior Cottages will be affordable for seniors with income ranging from 25 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income (AMI), currently $26,550 per year for a one-person household, to 50 percent of AMI, currently $53,050 per year for a one-person household. The new development includes 32 units set aside for seniors identified as frail whose income is extremely low – all of whom will be among the Levant Senior Cottages residents receiving rental assistance from SDHC.
Rents range from $603 to $1,206 per month and will not exceed 30 percent of a resident’s income, according to Wakeland Housing. The utilities for all residential units and the common areas will be paid by the building’s owner.
The design includes 18 single-story “bungalow” type buildings arranged around 2 elevator-serviced two-story buildings connected by a walkway and one large community building that will host on-site services and social activities for residents. Common areas include a large outdoor patio, computer lab, kitchen, laundry room facilities, and space for workshops, classes, community events and social activities.
Units, which range in size from 300 to 500 square feet, include a refrigerator, electric range and oven, storage, a full bathroom, and a patio or balcony.
St. Paul’s Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) will provide wraparound medical and social services for eligible frail and elderly residents at the community. These services include primary medical and specialty care, dental, optometry, prescription drug coverage, nutritious meals and home care services.
Wakeland Housing will also provide resident services and social activities for all residents.
From the Municipal Housing Authority of the City of Yonkers' press release:
Officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the NYS Office of Housing and Community Renewal were among those who toured a unique senior housing complex in Southwest Yonkers that is being built by the Yonkers Housing Authority and the non-profit Mulford Corporation.
The LaMora Senior Housing complex in the Hollow neighborhood of South Yonkers is one of the few affordable housing projects in the country that uses energy saving Passive House design in a modular construction format. Passive House is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency which results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. It is estimated to achieve 40-60 percent energy savings over a conventional building design.
The $44 million, four-story building has 60 energy efficient, affordable apartments for seniors and is expected to open in July.
“The La Mora Senior Apartments is an example of what can be done nationally to incorporate sustainable features into affordable housing, said Yonkers Housing Authority President and CEO Wilson Kimball. “Not only is this important for energy savings and reduction of carbon footprint, but for the protection it provides to our seniors. With on-site emergency power generation, the building will be self-contained and less vulnerable to flooding, power outages and other weather-related disruptions.’’
Among those touring the site on May 20 were Richard Monocchio, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing; RuthAnne Visnauskas – Commissioner & CEO – NYS HCR; Wilson Kimball, CEO of the Yonkers Housing Authority; State, County and Yonkers elected officials and representatives of project lead architects Perkins Eastman.
Stuart Lachs of Perkins Eastman also gave a presentation on the features of Passive House construction which focuses on minimizing heat transfer through insulation, air tightness and proper ventilation. (see attached).
All apartments include low-flow plumbing fixtures, Energy Star appliances, individual high-efficiency electric heat and cooling, and LED lighting. The building has a high-efficiency envelope, dual-pane insulated windows, and a central hot water heating and distribution system. An emergency generator will ensure that the building systems remain operable in the event of a blackout.
In addition to the energy saving features, other amenities include a community room with kitchen, two business rooms, fitness center, central laundry, building-wide WIFI, storage units, landscaped courtyard and roof deck.
The project will be included in a national panel discussion in Washington D.C. on June 7 to raise awareness of innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies. More than 4,000 people, including policymakers, housing industry representatives, media, and the public, are expected to attend.
From Yale Climate Connections:
The federal government requires all public housing to be heated to keep residents warm, but it does not require cooling. So during heat waves, people may be at risk of heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses, especially as the climate warms.
So Miami-Dade County has taken action on its own.
Jane Gilbert is the county’s chief heat officer. She says for decades, the county has required all new and redeveloped public housing to have air conditioning.
Gilbert: “But our existing buildings, still, many of them have maybe one old wall unit, and it’s a four-bedroom unit, or they didn’t have any AC.”
So last year, the county installed 1,700 air conditioning units in public housing.
Read/listen to Yale Climate Connections' piece "How Miami-Dade County is protecting public housing residents from dangerous heat waves."
From Dezeen:
Architecture firm Studio Libeskind has completed The Atrium at Sumner Houses, an affordable housing block with 190 apartments for seniors in Brooklyn, New York.
Located at the centre of the New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) Sumner Houses campus, the 11-storey block is wrapped around a full-height central atrium that gives the building its name.
Within the block, which has angled facades typical of Studio Libeskind's style, are 190 apartments designed for elderly people as part of the city's Seniors First program.
The majority of the apartments will house seniors earning below or equivalent to 50 percent of Area Median Income, while 57 units are for seniors who have formerly experienced homelessness. NYCHA residents will be given priority for the remaining 33 apartments, with one set aside as a residence for a live-in superintendent.
The design of The Atrium at Sumner Houses was informed by Studio Libeskind founder Daniel Libeskind's personal experiences growing up in the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative in the Bronx.
Libeskind, who is now one of the world's best-known architects, lived in the housing cooperative when he was a teenager in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
"Growing up in social housing in the Bronx gave me a unique perspective on the importance of community and high-quality, affordable housing," said Libeskind.
"I took this insight to task when designing The Atrium at Sumner Houses; I wanted to create a place that felt like home to the residents," he continued.
"I hope this project serves as a powerful example of how good design can positively impact society, especially for those in need."
Read Dezeen's article "Studio Libeskind unveils social housing that feels "like home" in Brooklyn."
A new publication from the King County Housing Authority, Seattle Housing Authority, and Tacoma Housing Authority shares their PHAs' perspectives on how the Moving to Work (MTW) program has allowed them to innovate programming and tailor housing resources and services for low-income people in the Puget Sound region. The piece outlines how the MTW program, coupled with a strong collaborative relationship among the PHAs, has helped them to make more targeted local impacts and expand housing opportunities and services for the vulnerable communities who call their PHAs home.