Homeless Assistance - Blog Post

On April 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2013 spending caps, known as 302(b) allocations, for the 12 individual appropriations subcommittees, including the Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) Subcommittee. Immediately after, it approved its first two FY 2013 appropriations bills—the T-HUD Subcommittee-passed bill and the Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee-passed bill.

This afternoon, the Senate Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2013 T-HUD appropriations bill. The bill includes $53.4 billion in appropriations for all the programs it funds—$3.9 billion, or 7 percent, less than the FY 2012 enacted level of $57.3 billion. The bill would flat-fund the HOME program at $1 billion, equal to its FY 2012 funding level. The bill would reject HUD’s proposal to short-fund, or provide less than a full 12 months of funding for, project-based Section 8 contract renewals in FY 2013 by providing $9.8 billion for the project-based Section 8 program, including more than $9.6 billion for contract renewals.

On March 21, the House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee held its hearing on HUD’s FY 2013 Budget request. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was the sole witness. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Tom Latham (R-IA) stated that he is concerned the HUD budget has reached a “tipping point,” with the cost of renewals overtaking the rest of HUD’s budget. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Ranking Member John Olver (D-MA) stated his concern for the shortfall in proposed funding for the PBRA program and said he wished that the fiscal situation allowed for HUD to request more funding for capital programs.

On February 7, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity passed by voice vote the Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2011, H.R. 32. The legislation would expand HUD’s definition of homeless to include children and youth considered homeless by other federal agencies.

HUD reported December 13 that its 2011 point-in-time count found that homelessness dropped 2.1 percent from 2010 to 2011. HUD found that, in addition to the reduction in overall homelessness, veteran homelessness decreased by almost 12 percent, individual homelessness decreased by 2 percent, family homelessness decreased by 2.8 percent, and chronic homelessness decreased by 2.4 percent, all compared to January 2010.

On November 18, President Obama signed into law the conference agreement on H.R. 2112, providing funding for HUD and USDA housing programs in FY 2012. The House had passed the bill by a vote of 298 to 121 and the Senate passed it by a vote of 70 to 30.

On October 19, NCSHA participated at HUD’s request in a conference call HUD held for more than 100 stakeholders across the country as a follow-up to the October 12 White House Convening on affordable housing NCSHA attended and described in its October 14 blog. NCSHA was one of four organizations HUD invited to make presentations during the call on their efforts to achieve the highest funding level possible for HUD programs.

This morning, the Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2012 T-HUD Appropriations bill. The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the bill tomorrow afternoon. According to a summary of the bill, the bill would slash the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program to $1 billion. This is a $607 million, or 38 percent, cut compared to the FY 2011 enacted funding level of $1.6 billion and it is $200 million less than the level included in the House T-HUD Subcommittee-passed FY 2012 bill.