Summary of President’s Budget Request for HUD – Fiscal Year 2016 - February 3, 2015
The President’s budget request for FY2016, released February 2, seeks funding increases for almost all HUD programs except CDBG, including a request for 67,000 incremental vouchers. As detailed in a HUD fact sheet, it also includes funding new HUD/HHS initiatives to encourage innovative approaches to meeting housing needs by combining funding streams flexibly and working collaboratively. Details on individual program funding requests can also be fund in HUD’s Congressional Justifications. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has also posted an updated budget chart which compares the request with recent budget levels.
Below is a summary of the President’s request, including language changes, for selected programs.
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) - Requests $512 million for 67,000 incremental vouchers – roughly the number lost to sequestration and not yet restored – but does not include new VASH vouchers (10,000 a year added in recent years). Of the 67,000 new vouchers, 30,000 are targeted to vulnerable populations:
- 22,500 for homeless families, homeless veterans (without regard to discharge status), tribal families and survivors of domestic or dating violence;
- 5,000 vouchers to implement the emergency transfer provision of VAWA, and
- 2,500 FUP vouchers.
The other 37,000 are not specifically targeted, but would be allocated “based on relative need.”
Tenant Protection Vouchers – requests $150 million, up from $130 million in FY2015. Continues the $5 million set-aside to assist tenants in low vacancy areas who lose assistance under programs that do not provide for enhanced vouchers. Continues language terminating use of protection vouchers once original family terminates except for replacement vouchers, to be defined by HUD by notice).
Section 8 Administrative Fees – requests 32% increase (supports an estimated pro-ration of 90%
Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) – requests a $1.03 billion increase, sufficient – when combined with excess balances in other accounts - to cover all renewals for calendar year 2016 (January-December). Includes up to $215 million for contract administrators. It also includes, according to HUD, up to $3 million for tenant groups, non-profits, and public entities to provide “preservation-related tenant advocacy and capacity building technical assistance”. The budget request assumes that proposed administrative reforms (§229 - to allow fixed-income families to recertify every three years and raise the threshold for medical deductions to 10%) are enacted and notes that additional funding may be required for renewal costs if not. The request also includes language to authorize a budget-neutral performance-based energy conservation program for up to 20,000 units [§230] and to amend the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act (LIHPRHA) to allow modification of restrictions on distributions and prepayments in order to facilitate preservation transactions [§231].
Public Housing Capital Fund – Requests $1.97 billion, a $90 million increase. Provides a 3.5% increase for formula funding, sufficient to meet 53% of the recommended annually accrued need. Includes $100 million for Jobs Plus Initiative – up from $15 million this year. Does not fund ROSS.
Public Housing Operating Fund – Requests $4.6 billion, up $160 million (3.6%) - resulting in a project proration for 2016 of 86% (up from 83-84% this year). Proposes Utility Conservation pilot [§244] to encourage and make it easier for small PHAs to invest in water and energy conservation measures
S8/Public Housing Administrative Reforms– again proposes to (1) allow fixed income families to recertify every 3 years [§243] and (2) raise the threshold for medical deductions to 10%. [§229] Applies to project-based Section 8 also.
Moving to Work (MTW) Expansion - proposes adding up to 15 high performing PHAs (no more than 150,000 total units and vouchers total) over 3 years “to test and rigorously evaluate innovative models for improving self-sufficiency, mobility, academic performance and other outcomes for HUD-assisted tenants.” Program requirements and selection criteria will be subject to public comment. [§242]
Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) – Requests $50 million to support the conversion of 25,000 public housing units in high-poverty neighborhoods undergoing comprehensive revitalization efforts that cannot feasibly convert under current funding restrictions. Requests language to remove the cap (185,000 units) on public housing conversions. Request language to clarify that sunset language has been eliminated for RAD second component (RAP, Rent Supp and Mod Rehab conversions). [§220]
Choice Neighborhoods Initiative - Requests $250 million, up from $80 million in FY2015, to fund 5-8 implementation grants of up to $30 million and 5-10 new planning or planning and early action grants.
Family Self-Sufficiency – requests $85 million, up from $75 million in FY2015 and new language to allow owners of multifamily properties with project-based Section 8 contracts to compete for HUD funding. The FY2015 appropriations act allowed PBRA residents to participate in established FSS programs at PHAs and allowed PBRA owners to establish FSS programs on their own without HUD funding. Allowing PBRA owners to compete for appropriated coordinator funding also increase the ability for PBRA owners to provide continued services for families in a development transitioning to PBRA through RAD.
HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS)–requests $332 million up from $330 million in FY2015, sufficient to renew all expiring contracts. HUD is recommending legislative changes (not through the budget) to modernize the grant formula to better target funds to need.
CDBG – Requests $2.8 billion for Community Development Block Grant formula grants, down 6.7% from FY2015. The budget also requests authorization, in another account, for a pilot Upward Mobility Project (see below) that would allow states and localities apply to combine their CDBG , HOME and two HHS block grants into one flexible fund and receive new HHS funding.“
HOME- Requests $1.05 billion for formula grants, up $150 million from FY2015, though still far below funding levels prior to FY2012. Also requests level funding of $10 million for SHOP. Proposes language changes to eliminate the reduced minimum grant threshold for formula grantees (it falls from $500,000 to $335,000 in years when the HUD appropriation is less than $1.5 billion) and make jurisdictions ineligible if their average grant falls below $500,000 over five years. Other language requests are to allow States to designate statewide non-profits as CHDOs, to allow recaptured set-aside funds to be distributed by formula and to allow a shorter eviction notice period for dangerous tenants. [§228]
Homeless Assistance Grants – Requests a $345 million increase (19%) increase to $2.48 billion, to cover increased renewal costs, create 25,500 permanent supportive housing beds and fund 15,000 rapid re-housing interventions for households with children. Requests statutory change [§233] to permanently allow non-profits to administer rental assistance permanent (authorization has been provided through annual budget language since FY2014). Also requests language changes [§257] to improve the process for making surplus federal properties available to assist the homeless, shortening timelines and creating a public database.
Housing for the Elderly (Section 202) – Requests $455 million, up 8% from FY2015. It provides no new construction funds. It includes a 10% increase in service coordinator/congregate services funding (to $77 million) compared to FY2015 but still less than provided in FY2013. According to HUD’s Congressional Justifications, It includes $365 million for contract renewals and $10 million to develop the Section 202 Elderly Project Rental Assistance Demonstration program, a housing-with-services program for low-income elderly to test models that demonstrate the potential to delay or avoid the need for nursing home care. It also includes language allowing HUD to use recaptured 202 funds to support the demonstration.
Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811) – Requests $177 million, a 31% increase over FY2015 ($135 million). Includes $150 million to renew existing contracts and $25 million for new project-based assistance (to assist about 700 new households nationwide). It also includes a request for authority [§247] to transfer assistance from current Section 811 group homes to other properties that comply with local Olmstead requirements, in cases where the current homes are having difficulties getting referrals due to Olmstead settlements or enforcement actions. Transfers could not reduce the number of assisted units and could only occur after consultation with the residents and public notice.
Housing Counseling – Requests $60 million, a 27% increase compared to the FY2015 funding level of $47 million. Also requests language changes [§227] to make the authority to provide multi-year funding permanent and to allow HUD to substitute training for a written examination under certain conditions. It also requests authority to allow it to contract with more than one entity to provide counselor testing for certification in order to meet peak demand and expand access to the certification process in different languages and modalities. It also requests authority to receive and distribute funds from private entities for housing counseling, such as forward and reverse mortgage lenders, servicers, and foundations.
Lead/Healthy Homes – Requests $120 million, a $10 million increase over FY2015, with all of the increase going to the Healthy Homes Initiative (rising from $15 million to $25 million, sufficient to treat about 4,000 homes).
Fair Housing – Requests $71 million, an 8% increase ($5.7 million) over FY2015, restoring it to FY2012 funding levels overall. Most of the increase requested is for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP).
Policy Development and Research – Requests level funding. While the request for the account is $50 million, down from $72 million in FY2015, the decrease is entirely due to requesting funding for technical assistance ($22 million in FY2015) in a separate account (the Transformation Initiative) in FY2016.
Local Housing Policy Grants program. According to HUD’s Fact Sheet, the President’s request includes $300 million to provide grants to localities and regional coalitions of localities to increase economic growth, access to jobs and improve housing affordability by supporting new policies, programs or regulatory initiatives to create a more elastic and diverse housing supply.
HHS/HUD Upward Mobility Project According to the HUD Fact Sheet, the Budget also proposes a new Upward Mobility Project, which will allow up to ten communities, States or consortia of States and communities to combine funds from four existing block grant programs designed to promote opportunity and economic development and reduce poverty to test and validate promising approaches to help families become more self-sufficient, improve children’s outcomes, and revitalize communities so they can provide more opportunities for their residents. The funding streams that States and communities can apply to use including the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Social Services Block Grant and Community Services Block Grant, and the HUD's Community Development Block Grant, and HOME Investment Partnerships Program - share a common goal of promoting opportunity and reducing poverty. Participating communities will be eligible to receive HHS funding up to $300 million per year ($1.5 billion in new funding over five years), to combine with the added flexibility with currently provided resources.”