House Appropriations Committee Approves THUD Funding Bill
This afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2022 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies funding bill on a 33-24 vote. If enacted, the bill would provide a total of $56.5 billion for HUD – an increase of $6.8 billion above fiscal year 2021 and $314 million below the President’s 2022 budget request. Specifically, the legislation would:
- Expand housing choice vouchers to more than 125,000 low-income individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence and veterans.
- Protect housing assistance for more than 4.8 million individuals and families to ensure they continue to remain in safe, stable, and affordable housing.
- Include over $11.3 billion in funding for new affordable housing, critical health, safety, and maintenance improvements to ensure the safety and quality of public and low-income housing, and community development activities, including $365 million to construct over 4,000 new affordable housing units for seniors and persons with disabilities, $1.85 billion in direct funding to states and local governments through the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and doubles the number of distressed neighborhoods that could be revitalized through the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative program.
- Reduces the carbon footprint by investing more than $205 million across the Department to improve energy, water efficiency, and increase resiliency in public and low-income housing.
The bill includes $14 billion for Project-based Rental Assistance to continue to house more than 1.2 million very low- and low-income households nationwide, an increase of $545 million above fiscal year 2021. An additional $1 billion is provided for Housing for the Elderly to build approximately 2,200 new affordable housing units for low-income seniors and $352 million for Housing for Persons with Disabilities to construct approximately 1,800 new affordable housing units for persons with disabilities. $460 million was included for the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, an increase of $100 million above fiscal year 2021, including $60 million to conduct lead inspections in Section 8 voucher units to improve the health and condition of housing where nearly 229,000 children reside. The bill would also provide $8.64 billion for Public Housing, $834 million above fiscal year 2021, including $3.4 billion to meet the full annual capital accrual need to improve the quality and safety of public housing for more than 2 million residents. $10.6 billion has been approved for Community Planning and Development, an increase of $2.3 billion above fiscal year 2021, including $3.7 billion for Community Development Block Grants, an increase of $265 million above fiscal year 2021. This also includes $1.85 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program which has helped preserve approximately 1.33 million affordable homes, an increase of $500 million above fiscal year 2021, and includes $50 million for a new down payment assistance program to help first-time, first-generation home buyers purchase a home.
The funding bill would also provide $600 million for Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, to protect housing and services for more than 75,000 low-income people living with HIV, an increase of $170 million above the fiscal year 2021 and $150 million above the President’s budget request and increased investments to revitalize low-income housing and distressed communities by doubling the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to $400 million, an increase of $200 million above fiscal year 2021. providin$200 million for Self-Sufficiency Programs, an increase of $45 million above the fiscal year 2021, for supportive services for HUD-assisted households to improve their connections to jobs, healthcare, and educational opportunities. The House bill also seeks to increase enforcement in fair housing by providing $85 million for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, an increase of $12 million above the fiscal year 2021 and equal to the President’s budget request.
$29.2 billion was also included for Tenant-based Rental Assistance to continue to serve more than 2.3 million very low- and extremely low-income households nationwide. This level of funding also includes $1 billion to expand housing assistance to more than 125,000 low-income families, including individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence and veterans. Funding was also approved for more than 18,000 new housing options for people at risk of or experiencing harmlessness while continuing assistance to over 750,000 people experiencing homelessness and more than 350,000 individuals in emergency shelters, by including $3.4 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, an increase of $420 million above fiscal year 2021. $100 million was also approved for Housing Counseling assistance for renters, homeowners, and those considering homeownership and $185 million for Policy Development and Research, including $20 million to continue legal aid assistance for eviction prevention, a combined increase of $102.5 million above fiscal year 2021. The full House is expected to vote on the funding bill in the next several weeks.
To view the House Appropriations Committee’s press release on the Fiscal Year 2022 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Funding Bill, click here. The text of the full bill, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is available here.
House Ways and Means Hearing on Expanding Housing
This week, the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing titled Expanding Housing Access to all Americans. The hearing examined how access to affordable, safe, and decent housing leads to an increase in economic opportunities while providing stability and spurring community development. Witnesses discussed the need to continue expanding housing access to all eligible while noting concern with the rising increases in home prices and apartment rents, the high increases in construction costs and resulting low home construction rates, how to strengthen housing tax credits, and the need to improve access to rental assistance. Discussing the supply-side constraints impacting the construction of affordable housing, witnesses described a lack of skilled labor and buildable lots, tight lending conditions, shortages and rapidly rising prices for building materials, and excessive regulatory burdens that have added approximately 25% to the cost of single-family homes and 33% to multi-family units. Recommendations included easing these supply-side challenges to help increase housing production.
Witness and members discussions also centered on the benefits of the Housing Trust Fund and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and how non-profit developers can use the two programs together to develop affordable housing in high-cost areas. One subcommittee member, Representative Walorski (R-IN), noted in her statements that the lack of affordable housing in her community is blocking job growth and that many workers cannot afford to live near employment opportunities because the cost of housing in those areas is outside of their price range. Witness and member discussions also focused on the racial disparity in current homeownership rates as well as the concern that many young people cannot purchase homes in the current housing market without some form of additional financial assistance.
The full hearing on Expanding Housing Access to all Americans and individual witness testimonies are available here.
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Address the Eviction Crisis
Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Michael Bennet (R-CO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Todd Young (R-IN) recently introduced the Eviction Crisis Act of 2021, a bipartisan effort to address the current national housing crisis, to examine why families are struggling in their current housing needs, to provide the root causes of the eviction crisis, to reduce preventable evictions, and to limit the negative impact to families when eviction is unavoidable. If enacted into law, the Eviction Crisis Act of 2021 would:
- Improve Data and Analysis on Evictions
- Creates a national database to standardize data and track evictions, to better inform policy decisions.
- Establishes a Federal Advisory Committee on Eviction Research to make recommendations related to data collection, as well as policies and practices that can prevent evictions or mitigate their consequences.
- Authorizes funding for a comprehensive study to track evictions, analyze landlord-tenant law, and assess varying factors in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
- Reduce Preventable Evictions and Mitigate Eviction-Related Consequences
- Co-invest in state and local government programs:
- Creates a program to fund state and local governments expanding the use of landlord-tenant community courts and increasing the presence of social services representatives for tenants, which help both tenants and landlords avoid the high cost of eviction.
- Establishes a new permanent Emergency Assistance Program to provide financial assistance and housing stability-related services to eviction-vulnerable tenants. As states wind down their COVID-related Emergency Rental Assistance programs, states and local jurisdictions will be able to transition seamlessly to this new program.
- Support increased legal representation for tenants:
- Expresses support for substantially increasing funding for the Legal Services Corporation, a public-private partnership that provides legal services to low-income Americans.
- Co-invest in state and local government programs:
- Improve Information on Tenant Screening Reports
- Requires consumer reporting agencies to provide consumers with tenant screening reports when they are requested as part of a rental application process, so tenants can contest and correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
- When a court rules in favor of a tenant in an eviction proceeding, this bill requires those judgments and eviction filings related to that proceeding to be removed from tenant screening reports.
The bill text is available here and a summary of the bill is available here.