Legislative News/articles:
Hill Update
House Subcommittee Approves HUD Appropriations Bill
Last Thursday, June 20, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development marked up the Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year (FY) 2009. In total, the bill allocates $108.3 billion for transportation and housing programs, including:
$1.69 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, $105 million above last year's level;
$75 million to fund 10,000 new housing vouchers for homeless veterans;
$30 million for 4,000 new housing vouchers for people with disabilities;
$16.57 billion for the Tenant Based Section 8 housing program, a $145 million increase over last year; and
$7.3 billion for the Project Based Section 8 program, an increase of nearly $1 billion above last year.
The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill either later this week or shortly after July 4. The Senate Subcommittee is scheduled to consider its version of the bill on July 10.
Spotlight On...
Rental Housing and Housing Policy
The Joint Center for Housing Studies recently released America's Rental Housing- The Key to a Balanced National Policy, a report that looks at rental housing issues and, in particular, the effect that the current mortgage market meltdown is having on the well-being of renters and the construction and preservation of the rental housing inventory. The study found that the number of rental households grew by 2.8 percent, or nearly one million households, in 2007. Additionally, the authors found that nearly half of all renters paid more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing in 2006 and about a quarter spent more than 50 percent. The report also provides policymakers, state and local housing agencies, and private business leaders engaged in the rental market with information about the role of rental housing in the national housing agenda.
America's Rental Housing- The Key to a Balanced National Policy
Funding for Affordable Housing Trust Fund at Risk
Over the past several weeks the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has planned to mark-up the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008, which would reform the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and would provide foreclosure assistance through the Federal Housing Administration. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), chair of the Committee, and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the Committee, have struggled to negotiate a bill that is agreeable to both Democrats and Republicans and have delayed the Committee's mark-up of the bill. Today, a compromise was reached where certain funds from the GSE's would be used for one year to insure mortgages through the FHA, then for two more years would be used partly for mortgage insurance and partly for a National Housing Trust Fund, then beginning in the fourth year would be used completely for the National Housing Trust Fund.
House Subcommittee Passes Veterans Bill
On Wednesday, May 14, the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 3329, the Homes for Heroes Act. The bill would authorize 20,000 HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers annually, would establish a $200 million housing and supportive services program for homeless veterans, and make a number of other changes designed to alleviate homelessness among veterans. The bill will now move to the full Financial Services Committee.
Permanent Supportive Housing Vouchers in Senate Supplemental
On Thursday, May 15, both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees marked up their Supplemental Spending Bills for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Senate bill included $76 million for 3,000 permanent supportive housing vouchers for the state of Louisiana, a provision that advocates have been working tirelessly to have included. The supplemental bill also includes $50 million for a community development fund in Alabama and $20 million for project-based Section 8 vouchers in Mississippi. In his statement, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, discussed the growing homelessness problem in New Orleans and the importance of the 3,000 permanent supportive housing vouchers.