Vouchers
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Off the Charts Blog: In Case You Missed It...
May 24, 2013
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Sequestration Could Deny Rental Assistance to 140,000 Low-Income Families
April 2, 2013
The budget cuts known as “sequestration,” initiated on March 1, will likely force state and local housing agencies to cut the number of low-income families using Housing Choice Vouchers to afford housing by roughly 140,000 by early 2014.[1] This represents a sharp break from Congress’ bipartisan commitment — … -
Testimony of Robert Greenstein, President, Before Senate Budget Committee
February 13, 2013
I appreciate the invitation to testify today on the impact of federal budget decisions on families and communities. This is an important matter. As you know, the nation will have to make tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course. The issue is not only whether policymakers act to secure adequate … -
Policy Basics: Federal Rental Assistance
January 25, 2013
What Is Federal Rental Assistance? Federal rental assistance enables 5 million low-income households to afford modest homes. Three major programs — Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, and Public Housing — assist about 90 percent of these households. Other programs serve households with special needs, including the “202” and “811” Supportive Housing Programs for the Elderly and for People with Disabilities; Housing … -
Policy Basics: The Housing Choice Voucher Program
Updated January 25, 2013
Created in the 1970s, the “Section 8” Housing Choice Voucher Program has become the dominant form of federal housing assistance. What Is the Housing Voucher Program? Low-income families use vouchers to help pay for housing that they find in the private market. The program is … -
Methodology: State Fact Sheets on Federal Rental Assistance
Updated December 19, 2012
Data on renter households in each state are CBPP tabulations of the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS). The number of renter households includes households renting for cash rent and no cash rent, excluding households living in group quarters. Total households is the sum of renter households and all households that own their homes, with or without a mortgage or other loan. Monthly household income is the … -
National and State Housing Data Fact Sheets
Updated December 19, 2012
Federal Rental Assistance About 35 percent of all U.S. households – or 41 million households – are renters. Federal rental assistance programs enable more than 4.9 million low-income households in U.S. to rent modest housing at an affordable cost. About 56 percent of these households are headed by people who are elderly or have disabilities; … -
Bill to Simplify Housing Program Administration Contains a Few Promising Proposals, But Numerous Problematic Ones
November 15, 2012
Legislation that Senators Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced in September (S. 3538) seeks to reduce administrative burdens and complexities for small local agencies that operate the federal low-income housing programs. These public housing agencies (PHAs) would realize administrative savings under the bill, but it … -
Testimony of Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
August 1, 2012
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate-income families. The … -
Senate Funding Bill Improves on President's Budget Request for Rental Assistance
May 22, 2012
The Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved funding legislation for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that improves upon President Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2013 in several ways, including: Providing $17.5 billion for the renewal of Housing Choice Vouchers, $250 million above the Administration's … -
President's Proposal to Raise Rents on Some of the Nation's Poorest Households Would Cause Serious Hardship
March 20, 2012
The President’s budget proposes to raise the rents charged to more than 500,000 of the nation’s poorest families. It would do this by raising to $75 a month the “minimum rent” charged to the poorest families in the rental assistance programs that the Department of Housing and Urban Development administers and eliminating state … -
President’s Budget Not Sufficient to Renew Rental Assistance Fully for Low-Income Households
March 14, 2012
The President's fiscal year 2013 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is at least $1.7 billion below the amount needed to fully renew rental assistance provided this year under HUD's three major rental assistance programs for low-income households: the Housing Choice voucher, public housing, and Section 8 … -
HUD Rental Assistance in Rural and Urban Areas Fact Sheet
February 13, 2012
http://www.cbpp.org/files/RentalAssistance-RuralFactsheetandMethodology.pdf -
Contrary to "Entitlement Society" Rhetoric, Over Nine-Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, or Working Households
February 10, 2012
Some conservative critics of federal social programs, including leading presidential candidates, are sounding an alarm that the United States is rapidly becoming an “entitlement society” in which social programs are undermining the work ethic and creating a large class of Americans who prefer to depend on government benefits rather … -
Romney's Charge That Most Federal Low-Income Spending Goes for "Overhead" and "Bureaucrats" Is False
Updated January 23, 2012
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has endorsed a proposal to eliminate major federal assistance programs for low-income Americans and turn them over to the states, often with deep funding cuts. But the rationale he offered for doing so in this past Sunday’s “Meet the Press” debate — that the federal bureaucracy … -
Proposal to Greatly Expand “Moving To Work” Initiative Risks Deep Cuts in Housing Assistance Over Time
January 10, 2012
A recent proposal from Representative Gary Miller (R-CA) to permit an unlimited expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration, which now exempts 35 housing agencies from nearly all federal housing laws and regulations so they can experiment with alternative ways of administering low-income housing aid, risks deep cuts to housing … -
Large Majority of Housing Voucher Recipients Work, are Elderly, or Have Disabilities
December 2, 2011
In light of renewed interest among policymakers in increasing the "self-sufficiency" of recipients of housing assistance (and other public benefit programs), we used recent administrative data submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by state and local housing agencies to analyze the demographic … -
Proposed Change in HUD’s “Minimum Rent” Policy Could Raise Rents for Several Hundred Thousand Poor Families
Revised November 28, 2011
Leadership of the House Financial Services Committee recently circulated draft legislation that could increase rental costs for several hundred thousand extremely poor families that receive federal housing assistance. Families in every state could face rent increases that could total $300 a year or more (see Appendix 1). The change … -
Testimony: Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity
October 13, 2011
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Will Fischer, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, non-profit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate-income families. The Center's housing work … -
Expansion of HUD’s “Moving-To-Work” Demonstration Is Not Justified
September 27, 2011
Proposals before Congress would sharply expand HUD's Moving-to-Work (MTW) demonstration, which allows HUD to grant broad waivers of federal statutes and regulations to agencies that administer the public housing and Section 8 voucher programs in order to test experimental policies. An expansion of MTW is not justified: it would reduce the … -
Letter from 810 Groups Urging Senate Banking Committee to Act on Section 8 Reform Legislation
September 21, 2011
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Update on Housing Choice Voucher Funding for 2012
September 12, 2011
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Section 8 Rental Assistance Programs Are Not Growing as Share of HUD Budget
July 20, 2011
Contrary to the concerns that some lawmakers have expressed, there is no evidence that the Section 8 rental assistance programs for low-income families — the Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Rental Assistance programs — are crowding out spending on other HUD programs. In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, total outlays … -
Testimony: Barbara Sard, Vice President for Housing Policy, Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Support
June 23, 2011
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Barbara Sard, Vice President for Housing Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate-income families. … -
State-By-State Fact Sheets: Federal Rental Assistance
Updated May 4, 2011
This page is no longer being updated. For the most recent data on federal rental assistance please see this page. For each state, the linked fact sheet has data on each of the major federal rental assistance programs and the unmet need for housing assistance. The sources of the various data in the fact sheet for each state are explained here. To view the … -
HUD Requests Applications for Small Area FMR Demonstration
April 26, 2011
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Impact of the House Republican FY 2012 Budget on Housing and Community Development Programs
April 26, 2011
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House Spending Bill Renews Most Low-Income Rental Assistance but Would Undercut Efforts to Reduce Homelessness and Meet Other Critical Housing Needs
March 7, 2011
Legislation that the House of Representatives recently passed to cut funding for non-security discretionary programs in the current year (fiscal 2011) would provide adequate funding for several major low-income rental assistance programs — for renewal of Housing Choice vouchers and Section 8 project-based rental assistance … -
Comparison Between Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) and Current Law
December 9, 2010
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Proposals to Cut Domestic Programs Threaten Loss of Housing Assistance for Thousands of Low-Income Families
November 29, 2010
The full House of Representatives and the Senate Committee on Appropriations have approved bills that would provide adequate funding in 2011 to renew all Housing Choice (“Section 8”) vouchers used by low-income families this year, according to Center analysis. If final appropriations legislation were to fund the … -
“SEVRA” Housing Voucher Reform Bill Would Update and Streamline Program
Revised May 13, 2010
The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA), which the House Financial Services Committee approved in July 2009, contains a series of important, carefully crafted measures to strengthen the housing voucher program. Most significantly, it would help and encourage state and local housing agencies to assist more needy families … -
President’s Budget Would Strengthen Housing Voucher Program
April 6, 2010
Executive Summary In a budget that would freeze overall funding for non-security discretionary (i.e., non-entitlement) programs, the Administration has made the renewal of “Section 8” Housing Choice vouchers a priority. The President’s budget requests $17.1 billion to renew vouchers in 2011, an increase of $875 million above … -
Sharp Expansion of HUD’s “Moving-To-Work” Demonstration Raises Serious Concerns
January 22, 2010
A proposal before Congress would sharply expand HUD’s Moving-to-Work (MTW) demonstration. Unless important limitations are added, this expansion would reduce the number of families receiving housing assistance by shifting funds out of the Section 8 housing voucher program. It also would expose more low-income families to … -
Funding Shortfalls Causing Cuts in Housing Vouchers
September 14, 2009
As a result of a shortfall in funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program for calendar year 2009, an estimated 400 state and local housing agencies across the country will be forced to reduce or eliminate rental assistance for a significant number of the 500,000 low-income families they serve. While landlords may absorb … -
Podcast: Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, on the Section Eight Voucher Reform Act
June 8, 2009
The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) would take a series of important, timely steps to strengthen the voucher program, the nation's most widely-used low-income housing program. At a time when poverty and homelessness are rising, this bill would make housing affordable to more needy families, and provide more flexible and effective assistance.
Duration: 3:56
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Testimony: Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, at the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity
June 4, 2009
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Will Fischer, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate- income families. … -
Introduction to the Housing Voucher Program
Revised May 15, 2009
The Housing Choice Voucher Program (sometimes referred to as the “Section 8 voucher program” after the section of the U.S. Housing Act that authorizes it) is the largest federal low-income housing assistance program. Families who are awarded vouchers use them to help pay the cost of renting … -
Additional Housing Vouchers Needed to Stem Increase in Homelessness
April 16, 2009
“One of the changes in attitudes that I want to see here in Washington and all across the country is a belief that it is unacceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.” — President Obama, speaking to reporters on March 24, 2009. “An extensive body of … -
Decade of Neglect Has Weakened Federal Low-Income Housing Programs
February 25, 2009
A large and growing number of low-income renters face unaffordable housing costs. Federal housing programs have proven effective in enabling millions of low-income households to obtain stable, decent housing, but a funding squeeze and various actions taken by Congress and the Bush Administration have weakened these programs considerably, just when the need is rising.… -
Testimony: How to Promote Housing Integration and Choice through the Section 8 Voucher Program
October 6, 2008
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is by far the nation’s largest low-income housing program. More than 2.2 million housing vouchers have been authorized by Congress and allocated to the approximately 2,400 housing agencies that administer the program. It is also the housing program that is the most targeted on the … -
National and State Voucher Utilization Data, 2004 - 2008
July 16, 2008
This page is no longer being updated. For the most recent data on federal rental assistance please see this page. Of the 2,191,371 vouchers authorized for agencies nationwide, only 90 percent were used by families last year. In contrast, 96 percent of authorized vouchers were used in 2004, before policy changes and underfunding led to a decline in … -
Testimony: Enhancing Affordable Housing Opportunities: Reforming the Housing Voucher Program"
April 16, 2008
I am Barbara Sard, Director of Housing Policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues, with particular emphasis on fiscal policies and policies affecting low and moderate-income families. We receive no government … -
Senate Bill Would Update And Streamline Housing Voucher Program
March 10, 2008
On March 3, 2008, Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd, Senate Housing Subcommittee Chair Charles Schumer, and several other Senators introduced S. 2684, the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA). SEVRA would make significant changes to the “Section 8” Housing Choice Voucher program and related changes in other … -
Bipartisan Legislation Would Build on Housing Voucher Program's Success
Revised July 26, 2007
On July 12, 2007, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 1851, the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) by a bipartisan vote of 333-83. SEVRA would make significant changes to the housing voucher program and also institute related changes in laws governing other housing assistance programs. Similar legislation is expected to be … -
Testimony: Barbara Sard, Director of Housing Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
March 9, 2007
I appreciate the opportunity to testify concerning the proposed Section 8 Voucher Reform Act. I am Barbara Sard, director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues, with … -
HUD Data Show Housing Voucher Costs Leveled Off Starting In 2003 As Rental Market Cooled
Revised August 23, 2005
The Administration has pointed to “spiraling” costs for the Housing Choice Voucher program to justify radical changes in the program’s funding structure and the elimination of many key protections for low-income families. HUD and Treasury data indicate, however, that far from spiraling, growth both in the … -
Funding Instability Threatens to Erode Business Community’s Confidence In The Housing Voucher Program
October 14, 2004
At its core, the Section 8 housing voucher program represents a partnership between the private sector, which builds and maintains the housing occupied by voucher holders, and the public sector, which provides a subsidy to make the housing affordable to low-income families. For 30 years, this partnership has worked well, … -
The Family Self-Sufficiency Program
Updated May 4, 2001
Executive Summary The Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program is an employment and savings incentive program for low-income families that have Section 8 vouchers or live in public housing. The FSS program was enacted in 1990, based on a proposal by the first Bush Administration. It …
