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Analysis of New Voucher Bill and Audioconference on Voucher Funding |
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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: On May 24, 2007, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 1851, the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA) by a bipartisan vote of 52-9. Under Moving to Work (MTW), HUD can grant agencies waivers of voucher and public housing program rules to allow the agencies to experiment with different policies. Agencies can use those waivers, for example, to raise rents on tenants substantially or to place time limits on assistance, even for working families that cannot afford market-rate housing on their own. The objective of the changes is to establish a stable, efficient and equitable voucher funding policy. From 2004 to 2006, voucher funds were allocated using a series of inefficient formulas that gave some agencies less funding than they needed to cover the costs of their vouchers --- forcing them to cut back on assistance to needy families --- while providing other agencies with more funds than they could use. This change --- which will make use of newly available data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey that allows rent estimates for small areas to be updated more frequently --- will result in voucher payments more closely calibrated to rental costs in local communities. A key component of this program is funding for staff to counsel participants and to coordinate employment services for participants with social services agencies and other service providers. The amendments rename the demonstration the "Housing Innovation Program" (HIP), place a number of new requirements and limitations on participating housing agencies, and permit HUD to admit as many as 80 agencies to the demonstration. Established by legislation in 1996, MTW permits HUD to grant agencies broad waivers allowing them to experiment with a wide range of policies. To help advocates and agencies better understand how to respond to the 2007 funding awards in light of what Congress may do for 2008, The Center is holding an audioconference on Tuesday, July 17, from 2 - 3:30 EDT. If you would like to participate in the funding audioconference, please send an e-mail reply to Anton Marx marx@cbpp.org.
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