May 26, 2010
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On May 25, MassHousing Executive Director and NCSHA Board Member Tom Gleason testified at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on HUD’s Transforming Rental Assistance (TRA) proposal.  In his testimony on behalf of NCSHA, Gleason expressed support for HUD’s goals for TRA, including the preservation of public and assisted housing, more uniform policies and increased administrative efficiency across all HUD-funded rental assistance programs, and enhanced housing choice for assistance recipients. 

Gleason explained that NCSHA is continuing to analyze the TRA proposal and to seek HFA reaction to it, but he raised the following preliminary concerns and questions:
 
  • NCSHA believes it is important for Congress and the Administration to recognize the property recapitalization demands the TRA initiative will place on the Housing Credit and other federal housing resources, which are already oversubscribed. 
  • It is essential that TRA permits property rents adequate to support recapitalization strategies and to provide for long-term property viability. 
  • NCSHA strongly supports the goal of resident mobility, but urges Congress to find a way to achieve mobility without reducing the resources available to help additional families in need of housing assistance, as TRA proposes. 
  • NCSHA believes that TRA should remain a limited, voluntary program until Congress can review its outcomes. 
  • HUD needs to be more specific about the role and selection of TRA contract administrators and their relationship to administrators of HUD’s Performance-Based Contract Administration (PBCA) program. 
  • Congress should create a state-administered pool of project- and tenant-based rental assistance for HFAs to coordinate with the capital resources they administer to help meet the needs of very low-income households.

 

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan presented the TRA proposal to the Committee, stating that the single most important thing that HUD does is to provide rental assistance to America’s most vulnerable families.  Donovan said HUD’s many rental assistance programs desperately need simplification.  He stated that HUD’s TRA initiative is guided by five fundamental principles: 

  • Streamlining and simplifying HUD’s programs so that they are easier for families to access, less costly to operate, and easier to administer at the local level.
  • Changing the funding structure to leverage capital.
  • Bringing market investment to HUD’s rental programs to bring market discipline that drives fundamental reforms.
  • Encouraging resident choice.
  • Targeting the neediest families by maintaining the targeting and affordability requirements of the existing project-based Section 8, voucher, and public housing programs.
 
Other witnesses included Paul Graziano on behalf of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), Terri Preston Koenig on behalf of the National Leased Housing Association (NLHA), Betsey Martens of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), Judy Montanez of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), Damaris Reyes on behalf of National People’s Action, John Rhea of the New York City Housing Authority, and Mark Taylor of the Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority.  A webcast of the hearing and copies of the prepared testimony is available at the House Committee on Financial Services’ website.
 
Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) questioned Secretary Donovan about the implications for residents and communities if public housing developments enter foreclosure and are transferred to private ownership.  Other Committee members also voiced concerns about what would happen if converted properties go through foreclosure, the costs of TRA conversion, how the proposal would streamline HUD’s rental programs, and how HUD would balance the needs of TRA residents seeking to move out versus unassisted households waiting for vouchers. 
 
The witnesses raised a variety of concerns about the cost and complexity of implementing TRA.  Many encouraged the Committee and HUD to start with a pilot program focusing exclusively on recapitalizing public housing.  Several witnesses objected to HUD’s proposal to allow TRA residents to use up to one-third of the turnover vouchers allocated to a public housing authority (PHA).  
 
Frank indicated that the Committee has several other pieces of legislation on its agenda this year and stated that it was unlikely to finalize any action on TRA this year.  For more information on TRA, please contact Ellen Lurie Hoffman.