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As part of President Obama’s efforts to promote rehabilitation and reintegration for the formerly incarcerated, HUD and the Department of Justice recently announced $1.7 million for public housing authorities to aid eligible public housing residents who are under the age of 24 to expunge or seal their records in accordance with their applicable state laws. The Juvenile Re-entry Assistance Program (JRAP) specifically excludes makers of meth on public housing proper...
On Oct. 30, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. President Obama signed the bill into law a day before the government would have been in default without the agreements. The legislation provides a two-year framework to relieve federal programs from the bulk of sequester spending caps. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, the act provides $33 billion more for nondefense discretionary programs than would have been available if the sequester caps had remained in place.
On Oct. 22, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled, “The Future of Housing in America: 50 Years of HUD and its Impact on Federal Housing Policy,” to review the effectiveness of HUD programs since the Department was established half a century ago.
HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing recently issued Notice PIH-2015-17, which provides guidance to public housing agencies (PHAs) on the use and reporting of administrative fee reserves for the Housing Choice Voucher program. The new notice responds to Office of the Inspector General recommendations to implement controls and require reconciliation of administrative fee reserves.
HUD launched a new ethics program that will support whistleblower, ombudsman, and hotline initiatives. Part of HUD’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Integrity & Compliance Program (ICP) aims to create a “principled organizational culture,” Inspector General David Montoya said in a recent press release.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently released an updated version of its paper, Research Shows Housing Vouchers Reduce Hardship and Provide Platform for Long-Term Gains Among Children. According to the paper, vouchers and other rental assistance lifted 2.8 million people—including about 900,000 children—above the poverty line in 2014 under the federal government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which counts non-cash benefits. Vouche...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report that examines fragmentation and overlap of rental assistance programs on the federal, state, and local levels. The GAO partnered with 25 state and local audit offices to design an audit plan that six participating audit offices conducted on rental assistance to low-income households. The GAO assessed the completed results, reviewed documentation, and interviewed officials from HUD, Treasury, and the IRS...
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released data that show no significant change in the official poverty rate or real median household income between 2013 and 2014. The data used by the Census Bureau in this report are from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
With regard to income and poverty in the United States, the data shows that 46.7 million people in the U.S. were living at or below the poverty level in 2014, reflecting a povert...
In commemoration of HUD’s 50th anniversary, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) recently issued a call for ideas to reform HUD and modernize the delivery of federal housing assistance. According to Hensarling, HUD hasn’t met the expectations set for the agency by President Lyndon Johnson when he created the department, which was “to achieve the best administration of the principal programs of the Federal Government which provide ass...
Recently, Enterprise Community Partners and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released a white paper entitled “Projecting Trends in Severely Cost-Burdened Renters: 2015-2025.” Rent is considered “affordable” if it totals 30 percent or less of one’s income. Renters who spend between 30 percent and 50 percent of their income on rent are considered “moderately” rent-burdened. Renters who spend more than 50 percent...
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