NCSHA Washington Report | April 14, 2023
Two new reports together produce a current picture of an historic level of home improvement activity in the U.S. alongside rapidly worsening repair needs for millions of low-income homeowners.
The remodeling market “reached an unprecedented height of $567 billion in 2022,” according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, after growing at more than double its annual pace between 2019 and 2021. While the center expects growth to slow this year, it notes “the market is more reliant on need-to-do projects than during the boom of the mid-2000s.”
At the same time, research by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank shows overall housing conditions worsened significantly for low-income homeowners since 2018 and now necessitate $57 billion in improvements. “Over one-quarter of low-income homeowners are both energy-burdened and have at least one repair need, with an average repair cost of $4,444,” bank analysts report.
Home repair sometimes seems to slip through the cracks in considerations of affordable housing, falling outside conventional understanding of both “supply” and “preservation,” when in fact it contributes to both and often punches above its weight compared to many other approaches.
Relatively modest improvements to lower-income homes have been shown to cut owners’ energy expenses significantly and improve respiratory health, leading in some cases to fewer school and work absences and hospitalizations. They make it possible for economically vulnerable people to remain in their homes. Neighborhood-wide home improvement efforts have stabilized property values and reduced violent crime, according to various studies.
Targeted home repair is increasingly seen as an important strategy for preserving family wealth for families of color. Harvard’s Chris Herbert observes: “Inadequate housing is also much more common for Black (8.2 percent), Hispanic (7.3 percent) and Native American (11.2 percent) households compared to white households (4.0 percent), and so an important aspect of racial disparities in housing conditions.”
The leader of a Detroit LISC program that has completed nearly 700 home improvements said recently, “We really see this as a Black homeownership preservation tool for a really intergenerational wealth-building strategy.” Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser is proposing a similar program paired with grants “to low-income individuals to pay for legal fees and other services to pass property on from one generation to the next.” Philadelphia leaders see potential for funds from a new statewide initiative to enable “small landlords and homeowners to make much-needed repairs to their property and maintain the homes they’ve often had for generations.”
More than half of major U.S. cities have home repair loan programs, although most are relatively small. Several state HFAs have recently announced or significantly expanded their efforts, some using federal fiscal recovery funds. The executive director of one, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority’s Elmer Moore, put it simply: “The limited supply of affordable, move-in-ready properties doesn’t match the need so we want to encourage revitalization of existing homes.”
Stockton Williams | Executive Director
Stockton Williams | Executive Director
State HFA Emergency Housing Assistance
In This Issue
- Scott Introduces Framework for Comprehensive Housing Bill
- Treasury Allocates $520 Million of ERA 2 Funds
- Treasury Report Highlights Increase in HAF Assistance During End of 2022
- HUD Awards $30 Billion in Housing Choice Vouchers to PHAs, HFAs
- HUD Announces Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant Awards
- NCSHA in the News
- Looking Ahead
Scott Introduces Framework for Comprehensive Housing Bill
Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) Wednesday unveiled a framework for comprehensive housing legislation he intends to introduce in the near future. According to Scott’s announcement, the bill, which will be titled the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act, will make changes to nearly all aspects of federal housing policy and adopt “long-needed reforms across all segments of the U.S. housing market.” While Scott has not shared legislative details, his announcement laid out several general principles for the bill, including helping federal housing program beneficiaries improve their financial literacy and economic opportunity, incentivizing local policy innovation, rewarding local homelessness and affordable housing programs with proven track records of reducing homelessness and decentralizing poverty, reducing unnecessary regulations, and increasing data collection to better measure housing program outcomes.
Treasury Allocates $520 Million of ERA 2 Funds
This week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the reallocation of slightly more than $520 million in Emergency Rental Assistance 2 funds among program grantees. The reallocation is based on funding use as of the end of Third Quarter 2022, or September 30. Treasury initially intended to reallocate any remaining excess funds based on funding used as of the end of 2022. However, because very few excess funds remain, Treasury announced in December it may not conduct any further reallocation rounds after this week’s reallocation. Treasury will make a final determination by the end of June about whether there will be one more reallocation. Treasury has reallocated approximately $4.8 billion of the $46.55 billion provided in both ERA 1 and ERA 2.
Treasury Report Highlights Increase in HAF Assistance During End of 2022
More than 241,000 struggling homeowners received assistance from the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) through the end of 2022, the Treasury Department reported late last week. This represents a 49 percent increase from Third Quarter 2022. Further, Treasury projects, based on the data presented on many states’ HAF program dashboards, the HAF program has continued to grow in recent months. Treasury credits HAF agencies with assisting vulnerable and underserved households, noting 57 percent of approved HAF applications were for very low-income homeowners. In addition, 35 percent of HAF beneficiaries identified as Black and 20 percent identified as Latino. In its summary of the results, Treasury highlighted recent efforts by the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and North Carolina Housing Finance Agency to make it easier for homeowners to access their HAF programs. Treasury released a spreadsheet with more detail.
HUD Awards $30 Billion in Housing Choice Vouchers to PHAs, HFAs
Yesterday, HUD announced the 2023 funding recipients of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. More than 2,000 public housing agencies and HFAs received an unprecedented $30.3 billion, more than 10 percent above last year’s amount, to address rent inflation and provide more housing vouchers to low-income families in need. The program currently supports 2.3 million low-income households, including nearly 80,00 veterans who formerly experienced homelessness. Later this year, HUD will announce an additional $50 million for new vouchers under the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, $30 million for the Family Unification Program, and $50 million for flexible new housing vouchers designed to meet other local housing needs. Eighteen HFAs were awarded funding through the HCV program this year, receiving nearly $850 million. See the full list of funding recipients.
HUD Announces Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant Awards
On Tuesday, HUD announced 16 grantees will receive more than $98 million in Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants to redevelop severely distressed HUD-assisted properties into mixed-income communities. The redevelopment includes revitalizing properties, investing in neighborhood improvement projects, and supporting residents’ needs related to health, education, and income. HUD announced grants to Baltimore, MD; Camden, NJ; Cleveland, OH; Detroit and Flint, MI; Fort Myers, FL; Fort Worth, TX; Lewiston, ME; Los Angeles, CA; Newport News and Norfolk, VA; Omaha, NE; Phoenix, AZ; St. Louis, MO; Tulsa, OK; and Winston-Salem, NC. HUD also announced it has made an additional $10 million dollars in Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants available to support locally driven planning efforts. HUD is encouraging public housing authorities, local governments, tribal entities, and nonprofit organizations with distressed HUD-assisted housing to apply for the grant funding by June 6.
NCSHA in the News
AZ Central, 4.14.23, ‘Waste of federal money’: Arizona is losing thousands of affordable rentals. Here’s how
Route 50, 4.7.23, Could Infrastructure Dollars Solve the Lack of Broadband in Public Housing?
Legislative and Regulatory Activities
- April 14 | Comments Due to NCSHA | Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Proposed Rule
- April 17 | Comments Due | HUD RFI on HUD’s 203(k) Rehabilitation Program
- April 18 | Comments Due to NCSHA | NSPIRE Scoring Notice
- April 24 | Comments Due | Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Proposed Rule
- April 26 | Comments Due | Department of Energy RFI on IRA Funding Opportunity
- April 27 | Comments Due | NSPIRE Scoring Notice
- May 1 | Comments Due | Review of Mortgage Loan Origination Rules (including Loan Originator Compensation)
- May 12 | Comments Due | Proposed Changes to GSE Capital Requirements
- May 17 | Comments Due | FHFA RFI on Enterprise Single-Family Social Bond Program
NCSHA, State HFA, and Industry Events
- April 17 – 19 | Nebraska Investment Finance Authority’s 2023 Innovation Expo | Lincoln, NE
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - April 19 | National Association of Realtors® State and Local Issues Policy Committee Webinar | Virtual
Jim Tassos will speak at this event. - April 19 – 21 | Southeastern States Tax Credit and Compliance Conference | Williamsburg, VA
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - April 25 – 27 | Affordable Housing Investors Council’s 2023 Spring Meeting | Baltimore, MD
Stockton Williams will speak at this event. - April 27 – 28 | Novogradac 2023 Affordable Housing Conference | San Francisco, CA
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - May 3 | Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future/National Affordable Housing Trust Annual Retreat | Washington, DC
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event. - May 3 | Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency 50th Anniversary Celebration | Harrisburg, PA
Stockton Williams will speak at this event. - May 3 – 6 | National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies Annual Conference | Tampa, FL
Robert Henson will speak at this event. - May 8 – 10 | Mountain Plains Regional Housing Summit | Sioux Falls, SD
Stockton Williams will speak at this event. - May 9 | Ballard Spahr National Housing Summit | Washington, DC
Jennifer Schwartz will speak at this event.
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