New CBPP Report: President's Budget Would Strengthen Voucher Program - April 8, 2010

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has issued a new analysis of the Obama Administration’s 2011 budget request for the Housing Choice (Section 8) Voucher program. The President’s budget requests $17.1 billion to renew vouchers in 2011, an increase of $875 million above the 2010 funding level. This amount is likely to be just enough to renew all vouchers in use this year, according to the Center’s preliminary estimates. In contrast, freezing voucher renewal funding at its 2010 level would cause approximately 100,000 low-income families to lose housing assistance.

The Administration’s budget would also set aside $85 million for 10,000 new vouchers for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In addition, the budget proposes improvements in voucher funding policy — modeled on those in the pending Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) — that would encourage the state and local housing agencies that administer the voucher program to use available funds more efficiently to serve more families.

While the Administration’s budget would strengthen the voucher program and modestly increase the number of families receiving assistance, housing affordability problems are likely to continue to grow among low-income renters. From 2000 to 2008, the number of low-income renters paying more than half of their income for housing increased by 2.3 million, or 38 percent, according to Census data. Over the same period, the number of families served by the three largest federal rental assistance programs increased by 300,000, or 7.5 percent.

To view the full report, see http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3145.