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Congress Should Increase HUD’S Budget to Prevent Families from Losing Assistance and Address Growing Needs |
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From - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Under the President's 2008 budget, total funding for HUD programs would fall to a level that is $4.6 billion --- or 11 percent --- below the 2004 funding levels, adjusted for inflation. The President is proposing these cuts despite evidence that growing numbers of low-income families have serious housing affordability problems. Some 15 million low-income households have rent and utility costs that are unaffordable under federal standards (i.e., costs that exceed 30 percent of their modest incomes). In early 2007, Congress took the first steps toward reversing the recent weakening of federal housing assistance and renewing efforts to make housing more affordable. It provided the first real increase in funding for HUD programs since 2004, adding nearly $900 million (in inflation-adjusted terms) to HUD programs for fiscal year 2007 over the 2006 level, including significant increases in funding for HUD's main low-income programs. As this analysis shows, Congress must provide an estimated $2.8 billion more than the President's budget requested for the three largest HUD programs in 2008 (Section 8 vouchers, Section 8 project-based rental assistance, and public housing) just to prevent families from losing housing assistance and to avert the further deterioration of public housing. This report briefly outlines the major funding issues for each of those three programs for the coming year.
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