Public Housing Operating Funds Reduced
Boston Cuts Create Grim Situation
By Eugene T. Lowe
January 20, 2003
On January 6, HUD shocked officials in charge of public housing authorities across the nation with a notice that public housing operating subsidies would be cut by 30 percent in fiscal year 2003. Operating subsidies are funds that public housing authorities receive each year from the federal government to provide basic services. In a Boston Globe front page story on January 9, Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino commented on the HUD announcement that will delay reaching the city's affordable housing goals: "they're going to take all the tools away from us to continue making progress."
According to an alert on January 6 from the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), the cut in the public housing operating subsidy in FY03 is the result of the HUD's FY02 operating fund shortfall. In addition, the CLPHA alert reports that HUD's Deputy Assistant Secretary Bill Russell attributes the cut to: "HUD's unwillingness to estimate the total FY03 Public Housing Authority (PHA) eligibility amount until the PHA submissions are completed; the uncertainty regarding the FY03 appropriations amount; and the possibility that HUD will fund federalization of New York and Massachusetts state units out of the FY03 appropriations.
CLPHA argues that HUD should have "asked Congress for funding to cover the FY02 shortfall." In a December 20 meeting, CLPHA ask the HUD Assistant Secretary for Public Housing to make a request for more funding, but got no response.
With this week's announcement, the situation for public housing is grim, with Boston officials saying that the city's public housing will lose $13 million for servicing some 10,000 housing units. Meanwhile, CLPHA, the Conference of Mayors, and a number of other local groups will appeal to Congress to find the resources to fund the basic services needed in public housing authorities across the nation.
Section 8 Housing Vouchers Could Be Lost
Another critical issue is Congress' consideration of Section 8 Housing Vouchers in FY2003 appropriations. The Conference of Mayors and other national organizations are urging support of the Section 8 voucher renewal provisions in Senate Report 107-222, the Senate VA-HUD appropriations bill, and rejection of the provisions in the House VA-HUD bill. At issue in the House bill are provisions that would change the renewal formula for the Section 8 program. A letter to the Senate from the presidents of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties, says that the House bill "would provide 127,000 fewer voucher renewals than President Bush requested in his 2003 budget. The bill would also fund 27,000 fewer incremental vouchers." The letter further says: "Under the House renewal proposal, public housing agencies (PHAs) may find themselves without enough funding for their current vouchers. The number of vouchers that PHAs would receive would be based on data that is dated. If utilization of vouchers has gone up over the past two years, PHAs would not get enough funds to cover the vouchers now in use. The House Report 107-740 would create a central reserve fund to cover additional vouchers, but calculations show that it would be inadequate."
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