News
HUD and RD Disclose Sequestration Impacts on Rental Assistance
On March 7th HUD issued
letters to PublicHousing Agencies estimating the impact of
sequestration on funding levels for public housing and the Housing Choice
Voucher program. In its letter HUD estimates that the Public Housing Operating
Fund will be prorated to a historically low 73 percent of needed funding. The
resulting financial pressure from sequestration could “critically degrade the
ability to operate the public housing program.”
A
March 11, 2013 Memo to from HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Marie Head to
Industry Partners and Section 8 Property Owners announced HUD’s plans to fully
fund all contracts expiring in FY 2013 and the first quarter of FY 2014.
However, all PBRA contracts expiring after that timeframe would be
short-funded. HUD estimates that roughly 11,000 contracts will fall into this
category, receiving an average of 8.5 months of funding.
Information on sequestration’s
impacts to HUD housing programs can be found at the Sequestration Information page on HUD’s website.
USDA Rural Housing Services recently
announced their planned response to sequestration found here on the National Council of State Housing
Agencies (NCSHA) website.
RHS estimates the Sequestration will
reduce the Rental Assistance Program by $45.5 million for Section 521, $125,000
for Rental Assistance to support new construction of Section 514/516 Farm Labor
Housing, and $75,000 for Section 515 new construction. Rural Development
announced they intend to renew rental assistance contracts for as long as funds
remain during the course of the year, but could reach a point where contract
renewals would cease (projected to occur in September 2013). The reduction in
Rental Assistance would cause approximately 10,340 current recipients to lose
Rental Assistance.
— Posted on 3/25/2013