Testimony of the National Low Income Housing Coalition to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies


April 16, 2007

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is pleased to submit testimony on the FY08 Department of Housing and Urban Development.  We would also like to thank the Subcommittee for its series of hearings on the FY08 HUD budget.

NLIHC is dedicated solely to ending the affordable housing crisis in the United States.  Our members include non-profit housing providers, homeless service providers, fair housing organizations, state and local housing coalitions, public housing agencies, private developers and property owners, housing researchers, local and state government agencies, faith-based organizations, residents of public and assisted housing and their organizations, and concerned citizens. NLIHC does not represent any sector of the housing industry. Rather, NLIHC works only on behalf of and with low income people who need safe, decent, and affordable housing, especially those with the most serious housing problems.  NLIHC is entirely funded with private donations.

The need for more affordable housing is indisputable.  The nationwide shortage of rental homes for extremely low income households, which are composed of elderly and disabled people on fixed incomes or people in the low wage workforce, is acute and getting worse. In the U.S., there are 9,022,000 extremely low income renter households and only 6,746,000 homes renting at prices these households can afford, paying the standard of 30% of their income for housing.  In Massachusetts, there are only 51 affordable and available units available to every 100 extremely low income renter households who could afford them.  In Michigan, there are only 36 affordable and available units for every 100 extremely low income renter households.[1]

This lack of affordable housing forces 74% of extremely low income renters to pay more than half of their incomes toward their homes, compared to 26% of renters in any income group.[2]  

NLIHC firmly believes in the potential for federal housing programs to address these types of housing affordability problems through a variety of housing programs targeted to the lowest income households.

NLIHC urges the Subcommittee to provide full funding for the voucher program, including language that tenant protection vouchers must replace all units leaving the affordable housing inventory, not just for those units under lease.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the President has requested between $300 and $600 million less than what will actually be needed to renew existing vouchers in FY08.[1]

We appreciate the many improvements made to the Section 8 housing choice voucher program in the FY07 funding resolution.  NLIHC is encouraged by legislation, H.R. 1851, which would also fix the voucher funding formula while providing other welcome reforms to the program.  It is our hope that this legislation will be enacted before FY08 begins.  If not, we hope that funding formula fixes will be included in the HUD FY08 bill. 

NLIHC rejects the President's policy proposal to lift voucher agencies' authorized voucher caps.  NLIHC firmly believes such action would be tantamount to creating a block grant and that no one, including Congress, HUD and advocates, would know the number of vouchers in use locally or nationally.  It is also apparent that many housing authorities have not expended funds up to their authorized cap so we are very doubtful that lifting the cap would result in any significant increase, if we could even hope to measure it, of vouchers in use.

In addition to assuring the current voucher program is on solid ground to restore all vouchers lost since 2004, NLIHC urges the Subcommittee to include funding for 100,000 new, incremental vouchers in FY08.  Such action would be a meaningful, much-needed step toward meeting the nation's housing needs and would signal the Subcommittee's belief  that the reliability and credibility of the voucher program have been re-established.

NLIHC is concerned about the President's request for Section 8 project-based contract renewals and urges the Subcommittee to seek additional data from HUD to ensure that all Section 8 project-based contracts are renewed in FY08.  Preliminary analysis shows 1,004,529 units with Section 8 project-based contracts expiring in FY08 at a cost of at least $5.92 billion.  But, the President has only requested $5.52 billion for renewals, a shortfall of at least $400 million.  This is potentially exasperated by a recent HUD general counsel decision that, counter to HUD's previous practices, HUD cannot renew project-based contracts for terms fewer than 12 months. 

The nation's 1.2 million units of public housing are in need of immediate attention and increased funding in FY08. NLIHC urges the Subcommittee to increase both public housing operating and capital funding to levels that will restore financial and physical stability to these homes.  Adequate funding is the only way these homes can be preserved for their target population.  NLIHC supports at least $4.7 billion for operating funds and at least $3.5 billion for capital funds in FY08.

NLIHC supports Resident Opportunity and Self Sufficiency funding of at least $55 million in FY08 to help ensure that residents are prepared to participate in the public participation opportunities available to them.

NLIHC continues to have serious concerns about the HOPE VI program.  NLIHC is hopeful that forthcoming legislation in the House will require that each public housing unit revitalized with HOPE VI funds will be replaced with a public housing unit and that residents will have a universal right of return to the revitalized housing.  Without these and other improvements to the HOPE VI program, NLIHC believes that, if the HOPE VI program continues to be authorized in FY08, any public housing revitalization funds would be better appropriated through the public housing capital fund.

NLIHC also urges the Subcommittee to adequately fund HUD's research functions, with particular attention to fully funding its core housing market and program data collection, research, and policy evaluation functions that are necessary to inform the public debate on the most effective solutions to housing affordability and quality problems.

NLIHC urges adequate funding for HUD's other core programs, including homeless assistance grants, Community Development Block Grants, HOME, Section 202 supportive housing for the elderly, Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, fair housing and lead-based paint hazard reduction.

NLIHC urges the Subcommittee to fund all provisions of H.R. 1227, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act.  H.R. 1227, which passed the House on March 21 with a large bipartisan majority, would do much towards assuring the replacement of housing for low income people in the Gulf Coast and providing a long-term housing solution to the over 150,000 families that remain displaced.  It is a concrete, long-term plan to address the critical housing needs of those displaced households that remain in trailer camps and other temporary housing arrangements, and must be funded through the FY08 appropriations bill.

Thank you for considering our views.

 

[1]Pelletiere, D. (2007). American Community Survey estimate shows larger national, state affordable rental housing shortages. Research Note #07-01. Washington, DC: NLIHC.

[2]NLIHC tabulations of 2005 American Community Survey PUMS.

[1] Sard, B. and Rice, D. (2007) Memorandum to Interested Parties on Administration's proposed housing budget for FY08.  Washington, DC: CBPP.