A new bill aims to increase private-sector participation in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.
The Choice in Affordable Housing Act was recently introduced by Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), ranking member of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.
The HCV program helps more than 5 million low-income Americans access affordable housing in the private market. More than two-thirds of the 2.3 million households participating in the program are headed by a person of color, and the program is especially important for the elderly and those with disabilities, according to lawmakers.
Unfortunately, landlord participation in the program is declining, with an average of 10,000 housing providers having left the program each year between 2010 and 2016. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has found that rent payment standards, administrative hurdles, and misperceptions of the program have caused uncertainty in rental housing operations and deterred landlords from participating.
The bill calls for several reforms to the Section 8 HCV program to expand affordable housing options. These include:
- Creating the Herschel Lashkowitz Housing Partnership Fund: This fund would be used to recruit, train, and incentivize landlord participation in the program. That would involve greater protections against tenant damages, financial incentives to partner with the federal government, and resources for public housing authorities with dedicated landlord liaisons;
- Setting rents fairly with better data: The current subsidy for HUD’S HCV is generally determined by a broad formula that considers rent prices over an entire metropolitan area. This leads to less accurate subsidies and higher costs for families. The bill requires HUD to select additional metropolitan areas to use the more granular Small Area Fair Market Rents to set standards based on ZIP codes;
- Reducing delays for inspections: Units in buildings financed by other federal housing programs, such as the low-income housing tax credit program, the HOME Investment Partnership program, or assisted by the Rural Housing Service, would meet the voucher inspection if the unit has been inspected in the past year. New landlords could also request a pre-inspection from a public housing authority prior to selecting a voucher-holding tenant to help reduce unnecessary delay; and
- Modernizing HUD’s evaluation of public housing agencies: The bill requires HUD to reform and modernize its annual evaluation of public housing authorities to include ways to promote more positive interactions with landlords and support voucher families who want access to neighborhoods with greater opportunity. The legislation also requires HUD to report to Congress annually on the effects of the bill.
A companion bill to the Choice in Affordable Housing Act has been introduced in the Senate by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.).
The legislation is supported by several housing industry organizations, including the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), National Apartment Association (NAA), Enterprise Community Partners, and the National Leased Housing Association.
“NMHC and our members have long supported the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and believe it to be one of the most effective means of addressing our nation’s affordable housing needs, supporting mixed-income communities and improving housing opportunity and availability throughout the country,” said Sharon Wilson Géno, NMHC president. “The reasonable reforms included in the Choice in Affordable Housing Act will improve the program for both residents and housing providers and increase private housing provider participation, which are a good first step toward increasing opportunity for millions of American families and help them find homes.”
The NAA also touted the introduction of the bill. “We recognize that operational hurdles and programmatic inefficiencies too often make participation an unviable option for many housing providers,” said president and CEO Bob Pinnegar. “As the single most important tool in addressing immediate affordability challenges, the HCV program and countless families it serves all deserve improvements and increased access.”
