[StBernard] Financial Services Committee Passes Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Sat May 26 00:03:40 EDT 2007


For Immediate Release: May 25, 2007

Financial Services Committee Passes Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007


Washington, DC - The House Financial Services Committee today passed H.R.
1851, the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007. The bill passed by a wide
bipartisan margin of 52 to 9. The legislation would reform the Section 8
funding formula to make it more efficient, revise the rent calculation
process for Section 8 and public housing to expand work incentives and
reduce administrative costs, increase flexibility to use vouchers for
homeownership, amend voucher targeting rules to increase voucher
opportunities for lower income working families in rural areas, and
authorize an expansion in the number of families receiving vouchers by
20,000 a year for each of the next five years.


"It is important that we move forward on Section 8 Voucher reform, if for no
other reason than to restore our responsibility for the program. Many
important aspects of the program like the funding formula have had to be
addressed by the appropriators because we did not reauthorize the Section 8
Voucher program. Several weeks ago the funding formula was put in the
Continuing Resolution without any vetting of the issue within our
Committee," said Rep. Waters. "A program of this importance to American
communities needs to be more efficient to be effective. H.R. 1851
represents consensus around a federal housing program that can work for the
nation's low-income working families with children, and the elderly and
disabled, as well the Public Housing Authorities (PHAs)."


The Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity
held a hearing to examine Section 8 voucher issues on March 9, 2007. Rep.
Waters introduced H.R. 1851 on March 29, 2007, with Committee Chairman
Frank, Ranking Housing Subcommittee Member Biggert, and Rep. Shays as
original cosponsors.


The full committee also voted today to adopt Rep. Waters' Manager's
Amendment that would provide for the following provisions:


Using Vouchers for the Purchase of manufactured homes

Permits vouchers to be used for the full cost of purchasing manufactured
homes on leased land


Protecting Vouchers Reserved for Persons with Disabilities

Requires HUD to issue guidance to ensure that the 50,000+ vouchers created
for persons with disabilities continue be reserved for such persons.


Breaking the Cap on the number of families a housing authority can serve

Permits housing agencies to exceed their limit on the number of voucher
holders they can serve, thus encouraging more efficient use of voucher funds


Voucher Reserves

Increases from 2% to 5% the percentage of reserves housing agencies can
retain for the voucher program


Portability

Provides for full funding for the cost of housing agencies accepting voucher
holders from other communities, to strengthen the voucher program's feature
that lets families move from one community to another.


Family Self Sufficiency Coordinators

Provides for a more reliable funding source for the cost of family
self-sufficiency coordinators that assist public housing residents in
finding employment.


More Accurate Market Rent and Funding Adjustments

Requires HUD to establish smaller areas for the purpose of calculating Fair
Market Rent levels and providing annual voucher funding inflation
adjustments, in order to improve the accuracy of such calculations


Housing Innovation Program

Expands the number of public housing agencies that can participate in the
Housing Innovation Program [renamed from "Moving to Work"], which lets
agencies experiment with development, financing, and work incentive
proposals, while also adding substantial tenant protections to the program


Subsequently, the Committee passed a number of amendments, as follows:


* A Waters amendment to expand the permissible number of Housing
Innovation Program agencies by 20, plus a second category of 20 additional
agencies under expanded tenant protections, including expanded resident
participation in any proposals to demolish public housing units
* A Green amendment, modified by an amendment by Rep. Bachus, to
authorize 20,000 new incremental vouchers in each of the next five years
* A Waters amendment to strengthen protections for voucher families in
units that fail to meet federal housing quality standards
* A Lynch/Murphy amendment to strengthen voucher provisions to address
areas when families face high rent burdens
* A Watt amendment to ensure that families seeking public and assisted
housing are only screened based on their ability to meet lease obligations
* A Murphy amendment to exclude income from Coverdell and Section 529
educational accounts from rent calculations
* A Moore [WI] amendment to increase voucher work incentives for
severely disabled persons, in conjunction with State demonstration programs
* A Capuano/Lynch amendment to protect families making less than 95%
of median income from being evicted from "Demo Dispo" and Section 8 limited
equity cooperative developments
* A Green amendment to authorize 15 year contract terms for vouchers
used in housing tax credit projects, to help facilitate financing for such
projects
* A Capuano amendment to protect "empty nesters" from eviction from
certain buildings when their units are oversized





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