Current Legislation and Policy Archive
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Mortgage Interest Deduction Is Ripe for Reform
April 4, 2013
Costing about $70 billion a year, the mortgage interest deduction is one of the largest federal tax expenditures, but it appears to do little to achieve the goal of expanding homeownership. The main reason is that the bulk of its benefits go to higher-income households who generally could afford a home without assistance: in 2012, … -
Estimated Cuts in Federal Housing Assistance and Community Development Programs Due to Sequestration, 2013
Updated March 5, 2013
Automatic, across-the-board funding cuts in most federal programs (or “sequestration”) had been scheduled to begin on January 2, but the “fiscal cliff” budget deal enacted by President Obama and Congress delayed these cuts until March 1, 2013. The budget deal also reduced the amount to be sequestered in fiscal … -
Methodology: State Fact Sheets on Federal Rental Assistance
Updated December 19, 2012
Data on renter households in each state are CBPP tabulations of the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS). The number of renter households includes households renting for cash rent and no cash rent, excluding households living in group quarters. Total households is the sum of renter households and all households that own their homes, with or without a mortgage or other loan. Monthly household income is the … -
National and State Housing Data Fact Sheets
Updated December 19, 2012
Federal Rental Assistance About 35 percent of all U.S. households – or 41 million households – are renters. Federal rental assistance programs enable more than 4.9 million low-income households in U.S. to rent modest housing at an affordable cost. About 56 percent of these households are headed by people who are elderly or have disabilities; … -
Bill to Simplify Housing Program Administration Contains a Few Promising Proposals, But Numerous Problematic Ones
November 15, 2012
Legislation that Senators Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced in September (S. 3538) seeks to reduce administrative burdens and complexities for small local agencies that operate the federal low-income housing programs. These public housing agencies (PHAs) would realize administrative savings under the bill, but it … -
Testimony of Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
August 1, 2012
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, nonprofit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate-income families. The … -
Renters’ Tax Credit Would Promote Equity and Advance Balanced Housing Policy
Revised July 25, 2012
Related files Report without appendices (31pp.) Appendix 1: Comparison of Capped and Uncapped Credits (3pp.) Appendix 2: Method Used to Estimate Cost and Impact of a Renters’ Credit (3pp.) Appendix 3: State Tables (6pp.) One-Page Fact Sheet Over the past several decades, the nation’s housing policy has focused predominantly on increasing homeownership. Most federal housing expenditures now benefit families with relatively little need for … -
Senate Funding Bill Improves on President's Budget Request for Rental Assistance
May 22, 2012
The Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved funding legislation for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that improves upon President Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2013 in several ways, including: Providing $17.5 billion for the renewal of Housing Choice Vouchers, $250 million above the Administration's … -
President's Proposal to Raise Rents on Some of the Nation's Poorest Households Would Cause Serious Hardship
March 20, 2012
The President’s budget proposes to raise the rents charged to more than 500,000 of the nation’s poorest families. It would do this by raising to $75 a month the “minimum rent” charged to the poorest families in the rental assistance programs that the Department of Housing and Urban Development administers and eliminating state … -
President’s Budget Not Sufficient to Renew Rental Assistance Fully for Low-Income Households
March 14, 2012
The President's fiscal year 2013 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is at least $1.7 billion below the amount needed to fully renew rental assistance provided this year under HUD's three major rental assistance programs for low-income households: the Housing Choice voucher, public housing, and Section 8 … -
HUD Rental Assistance in Rural and Urban Areas Fact Sheet
February 13, 2012
http://www.cbpp.org/files/RentalAssistance-RuralFactsheetandMethodology.pdf -
Proposal to Greatly Expand “Moving To Work” Initiative Risks Deep Cuts in Housing Assistance Over Time
January 10, 2012
A recent proposal from Representative Gary Miller (R-CA) to permit an unlimited expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration, which now exempts 35 housing agencies from nearly all federal housing laws and regulations so they can experiment with alternative ways of administering low-income housing aid, risks deep cuts to housing … -
Proposed Change in HUD’s “Minimum Rent” Policy Could Raise Rents for Several Hundred Thousand Poor Families
Revised November 28, 2011
Leadership of the House Financial Services Committee recently circulated draft legislation that could increase rental costs for several hundred thousand extremely poor families that receive federal housing assistance. Families in every state could face rent increases that could total $300 a year or more (see Appendix 1). The change … -
HUD Program Funding for FY 2012
November 18, 2011
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Methodology and Explanation of Housing Voucher Utilization Data
October 18, 2011
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Testimony: Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity
October 13, 2011
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Will Fischer, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is an independent, non-profit policy institute that conducts research and analysis on a range of federal and state policy issues affecting low- and moderate-income families. The Center's housing work … -
Expansion of HUD’s “Moving-To-Work” Demonstration Is Not Justified
September 27, 2011
Proposals before Congress would sharply expand HUD's Moving-to-Work (MTW) demonstration, which allows HUD to grant broad waivers of federal statutes and regulations to agencies that administer the public housing and Section 8 voucher programs in order to test experimental policies. An expansion of MTW is not justified: it would reduce the … -
An Update on HUD Program Funding for FY 2012
September 27, 2011
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Update on Housing Choice Voucher Funding for 2012
September 12, 2011
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Small Housing Agency Reform
June 2, 2011
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Impact of the House Republican FY 2012 Budget on Housing and Community Development Programs
April 26, 2011
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Audio Highlights from the "Preserving Public Housing: Issues and Options" Policy Forum
July 28, 2010
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Urban Institute, and Abt Associates, Inc. sponsored "Preserving Public Housing: Issues and Options," a series of policy forums on the Obama Administration’s PETRA proposal. PETRA would institute new rules governing key rights of tenants in developments converted under the plan, including rights … -
Using TANF Emergency Funds to Help Prevent and Address Family Homelessness
July 13, 2010
At least 15 states are using federal stimulus dollars provided through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund to assist the growing number of needy families that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because of the recession. The number of homeless families has increased for each of the last two years and the … -
Decade of Neglect Has Weakened Federal Low-Income Housing Programs
February 25, 2009
A large and growing number of low-income renters face unaffordable housing costs. Federal housing programs have proven effective in enabling millions of low-income households to obtain stable, decent housing, but a funding squeeze and various actions taken by Congress and the Bush Administration have weakened these programs considerably, just when the need is rising.… -
Exchange Plan in House Recovery Bill Offers Best Fix For Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
Updated February 9, 2009
The economic downturn has sharply reduced the effectiveness of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the nation’s primary subsidy for development of affordable rental housing. Faced with lower profits and reduced access to capital, fewer corporations are willing to invest in affordable housing in exchange for the credits. As …
