Elderly Housing - Blog Post

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 September 8, the Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2012 appropriations bill. The bill slashes the HOME program by 25 percent compared with FY 2011, funding it at $1.2 billion, and Housing Choice Voucher administrative fees by 24 percent compared with FY 2011, funding it at $1.1 billion. The bill funds HUD at $38 billion, 7 percent or $3 billion less than FY 2011 and 9 percent or $3.7 billion less than the President’s request.

On July 18, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a plan, Back in Black, which he says would achieve $9 trillion in savings over the next ten years. According to a summary of the savings, $1 trillion would come from reforming tax expenditures; $4 trillion would be cut from discretionary spending, including $1 trillion from the Department of Defense; over $2.6 trillion would come from entitlement program savings; and $1.4 trillion in savings would come through interest payment reduction.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center is accepting entries and nominations for their new workforce housing competition, The Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Awards. The new awards program aims to recognize exemplary state and local programs, policies, and practices that support the production, rehabilitation, or preservation of workforce housing through innovation in these areas that will impact the future of workforce housing, as well as current efforts to provide ongoing and sustainable workforce housing.

The Center for Housing Policy recently released a research report, Should I Stay or Should I Go? Exploring the Effects of Housing Instability and Mobility on Children, a composite and analysis of four separate reports analyzing household moves and family data. The study suggests that further data could inform housing assistance program design and community development initiatives.

On April 12, the House unveiled the details of the FY 2011 appropriations compromise reached April 8. According to summaries released by the House Appropriations and Senate Appropriations Committees, the final FY 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR), H.R. 1473, contains nearly $28 billion in spending cuts, in addition to the $12 billion in cuts included in the previous three short-term CRs.

On February 19, the House passed, by a vote of 235 to 189, its version of a continuing resolution (CR), H.R. 1. The bill would cut approximately $61 billion from the FY 2010 funding level and approximately $100 billion from the President’s FY 2011 Budget request. The bill will now move to the Senate for further consideration. Congress has not passed any of the regular FY 2011 appropriations bills, so all federally funded agencies continue to operate under a CR that maintains funding at the FY 2010 level until March 4, when it expires

The Administration yesterday sent Congress its FY 2012 Budget, proposing funding for all federal programs, including HUD and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Programs. It also contains the Administration’s tax proposals, including changes to the Housing Credit program to provide incentives for creating mixed-income housing and allow a 30 percent basis boost for some 4 percent Credit, tax-exempt bond-financed preservation deals.