Federal Priorities
Federally funded housing programs are a critical source of stability for many people in King County. More than 45,000 King County residents rely on federally funded housing programs. To live in King County affordably someone must earn an hourly wage of $18.94, more three times our state’s minimum wage. Federal funds are no longer keeping pace with skyrocketing housing prices and the dramatic increase in the number of people who cannot afford to live in King County.
National Affordable Housing Fund
Federal Funding
HUD programs have already lost $3.3 billion in funding in inflation-adjusted terms since fiscal year 2004. While the deepest cuts have been made in public housing and community development funding, various other programs have also been squeezed, including the
Section 8 voucher program and the supportive housing programs for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Section 8 Voucher Program
The Bush Administration’s 2008 budget proposal falls $300-400 million short of the funding needed to renew housing Section 8 vouchers that help low-income families afford their homes. As many as 80,000 families may lose their rental assistance in 2008. More than 19,000 seniors, low-income and disabled residents use Section 8 vouchers to help meet their housing needs throughout the Puget Sound region.
View the Seattle City Council Brown Bag Lunch Forum on Section 8 housing led by Councilmember Tom Rasmussen in an archived video on the Seattle Channel.
2006 Section 8 Fact Sheet (PDF)
Community Development Block Grants
The President’s budget proposed to cut over $1 billion from the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). In 2005, King County relied on nearly $5 million of CDBG funds to build or renovate more than 1,000 units of affordable housing around King County.
Between 1999 and 2006, funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund, which helps cover costs for substantial repairs and modernization of public housing, dropped by 33 percent, after adjusting for inflation. The 2008 funding proposal of $2.024 billion is 17 percent less than the President requested in 2007 and $1.5 billion less than HUD estimates is required just to meet new capital repair needs that arise each year, without taking into account the $22 billion backlog of needed capital repairs.
Congress has refused to approve many of the Administration’s proposed cuts. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate will be holding hearings on federal funding for housing programs during the spring of 2007.
In late March both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed Budget Resolutions to set overall spending guidelines for Congress and to dictate the amount of funds the House and Senate appropriations committees have to divvy up among their respective subcommittees for 2008. While both budget resolutions call for more funding for housing programs than the Administration proposed, however the funding levels in the two resolutions differ and will have to be reconciled. Reconciliation will likely happen in late April.
National Affordable Housing Fund
A bill to reform oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac includes an affordable housing fund. The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 1427), would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to contribute a portion of their profits to an “Affordable Housing Fund.” The fund is expected to provide an estimated $500 million a year. In the first year, these funds would be directed to the Gulf Coast states facing ongoing rental housing shortages due to 2005 hurricanes, then the money would be made available on the state level to organizations developing affordable housing.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Government-sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). Congress has been trying to reform the oversight of GSE for two years. GSEs were created to assist certain groups of borrowers such as homeowners, farmers, ranchers, and mortgage lenders gain access to the appropriate capital markets. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are the largest source of housing finance in the United States.
The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act was passed out of the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 45 to 19 and is awaiting action by the full House of Representatives and could be considered by the full House in late April.
The bill included in amendment sponsored by Committee Chairman Barney Frank that would allow any funds to be transferred to an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Mr. Frank plans to introduce a bill to create a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund in May.
For more information about how you can support a national fund for affordable housing click here.
To learn more about the Campaign for a National Housing Trust Fund click here.
Take Action!
Visit the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Legislative Action Center for all you need to know about contacting your elected officials and urging them to vote for affordable housing!
