Representatives Christopher Murphy (D-CT) and Judy Biggert (R-IL) have reintroduced the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act (H.R. 5772). The bill, which passed the House last year but never found traction in the Senate, would reform the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Section 811 Supportive Housing Program for Persons with Disabilities. Section 811 provides housing for people with physical or developmental disabilities or people with chronic mental illness who are 18 years of age or older and have very low incomes (at or below 50 percent of the area median income). Section 811 participants may live in supportive housing units developed and owned by non-profit organizations, or they may receive tenant-based rental assistance that helps them rent decent, accessible and safe housing in the private rental market. Tenants pay 30 percent of their adjusted income (approximately $200 per month) for rent which ensures affordability for those receiving SSI benefits.
For years, HUD has treated the Mainstream Voucher program as traditional Section 8 vouchers, administered by Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) for many different low income populations on their waiting lists. Even though these vouchers were supposed to go to persons with significant disabilities who needed supportive housing, HUD did not put a tracking mechanism into place to ensure that this occurred until 2005.
Disability housing advocates believe that many non-disabled people and persons with non-significant disabilities (who could use traditional Section 8 vouchers) were receiving Mainstream vouchers. This created fiscal burdens for the small 811 program because renewal of the Mainstream Vouchers must come off the top of the 811 budget every year. For example, the FY 2009 budget requires that over $87 million be used for renewal of Mainstream Vouchers. This would leave only $150 million for the production of new units.
The bill will shift fiscal responsibility for the Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher Program to the Section 8 budget where it belongs. Although funded and renewed from 811 appropriations, these Mainstream Housing Choice Vouchers have never created new permanent supportive housing units and are not targeted to people with the most serious and long-term disabilities. By shifting the Mainstream voucher funding to the traditional Section 8 program, all Section 811 funds currently used for Mainstream voucher renewal will be freed up for production of new units via the Project-Based Contracts (PRAC) Demonstration.
Currently, only Section 811 funds can be used to construct housing units for non elderly people with disabilities. The new bill would re-write the law to allow for other funds to be combined with Section 811 funding, thereby increasing the number of units built. The PRAC Demonstration program will “fast-track” and sustain the creation of thousands of new permanent supportive housing units every year by leveraging new set-asides of supportive housing units in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties. The PRAC program will also provide a rental subsidy to reduce rents to affordable levels for people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in a small but significant percentage of the hundreds of thousands of units that are routinely created every year through the LIHTC program administered by states and local jurisdictions.
FMI: To read the bill or track its progress, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and search for bill number HR 1675.
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