APPROPRIATIONS FOR HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

The mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is to help provide a decent, safe and sanitary home and suitable living environment for every American. HUD runs a variety of programs, including programs to create opportunities for home ownership, provide assistance for low-income people, create and maintain affordable housing, help the homeless, and enforce the nation's fair housing laws.

Each fall, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees decide funding levels for HUD programs the following year. Below are many of the programs subject to these appropriations decisions. Check back here in the fall for more up-to-date appropriations information.

Major HUD Programs

1. The Emergency Shelter Grant Program: This program provides homeless persons with basic shelter and essential supportive services (created through the McKinney Vento Act).

2. Single Room Occupancy Program: This program provides rental assistance for single adults living in Single Room Occupancy Units (created through the McKinney Vento Act).

3. Shelter Care Plus Program: The Shelter Plus Care Program provides rental assistance for homeless persons with disabilities in connection with supportive services funded from sources outside the program.

4. Supportive Housing Program: The Supportive Housing Program is designed to develop supportive housing and services that will allow homeless persons to live as independently as possible. (created through the McKinney Vento Act).

5. The Housing Choice Voucher Program: The Housing Choice Voucher Program allows very low income families to rent or purchase safe and sanitary housing. The biggest and most well-known program is the Section 8 program, which provides rental assistance to very low income families through rental vouchers. Section 8 is a fantastic program that allows people living on very low incomes more housing choice and flexibility in choosing where they would like to rent.

The Section 8 program does a great deal of good and has the potential to do even more; however, the program does face difficulties. First, there is stigma attached to the vouchers. Theoretically people can rent anywhere using Section 8 vouchers, but the stigma attached to Section 8 vouchers often relegates low income people to high-poverty areas. Secondly, government funding for the voucher program is insufficient, leaving many eligible people without vouchers. Finally, the skyrocketing cost of rental housing in recent years has resulted in many Section 8 recipients being unable to use their vouchers because they are unable to find housing they could afford even with the voucher assistance. The utilization rate of Section 8 vouchers, which is the percentage of people granted vouchers that actually use them, dropped from 95% to 76% over the last 15 years. 24% of vouchers allocated aren't and can't be used because rental housing prices are still too high for very low income people to afford.

The lower utilization rate of Section 8 vouchers has led Congress and President Bush to propose cuts to the programs funding. As you can see, however, the problem is not a lack of need or desire for use, but rather a roadblock toward use by thousands of people who desperately need the help of vouchers to afford housing. Therefore, housing and homeless advocates are working to prevent cuts to the program and to revise the criteria so that more people can use the vouchers they are allocated.

6. Public Housing: Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to high rise apartments for elderly families. There are approximately 1.3 million households living in public housing units, managed by some 3,300 Housing Authorities (HA's).

While government-funded public housing does provide an affordable place to live for many people, the program has its drawbacks. First, public housing is often built in very high-poverty neighborhoods, perpetuating income segregation and social stigma. Second, the funding for and number of livable public housing units fall far short of the need for housing. Finally, public housing units are often in terrible disrepair, either creating unsafe, unsanitary living environment for the inhabitants or not being used at all because they are in such bad shape.

Recognizing these needs, housing advocates are working with HUD, Congress, and government agencies for improvements to public housing programs, as well as to institute new and innovative programs like the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act. One solution to the stigma problem is to build public housing units in mixed income neighborhoods or as part of mixed income rental complexes, rather than segregating units to high poverty areas or single buildings. In order to fix the unit shortfall, advocates are working to increase funding toward public housing.

7. Hope VI: The Hope VI program was created to demolish severely run-down public housing units and replace them with safe, sanitary public housing units. The Hope VI program also works with communities to build partnerships that empower local residents and community members, and promotes the establishment of public housing in mixed income areas so as to lessen the concentration of poverty.

The idea behind Hope VI has the potential to help communities rebuild severely distressed public housing units; however, the Hope VI program is of grave concern to residents of public housing and low income advocates. Through the program, demolished units are often not replaced with an equal number of new units, therefore displacing families from run-down homes to no homes at all. Therefore, one things housing advocates can do to fix the program is push for "one-to-one unit replacement" in demolition and rebuilding plans and ensure that residents of distressed public housing aren't displaced when new units are built.

For more information about the McKinney-Vento Act, HUD's main homelessness assistance program, click here.

For more information about HUD, go to http://www.hud.gov.

Back to Federal Policy homepage