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If ‘Housing Is a Right,’ How Do We Make It Happen?

February 19, 2021 by Housing Leadership Council

By Eva Rosen | The New York Times | Feb. 17, 2021

Dr. Rosen has been conducting in-person research on the housing market in poor neighborhoods in Baltimore for more than 10 years. Her book, “The Voucher Promise: ‘Section 8’ and the Fate of an American Neighborhood,” tells that story.

“Housing is a right in America,” President Biden said last month as he signed an executive order promising to address racial discrimination and inequality in housing. On Tuesday, the administration announced an extension of the federal foreclosure moratorium through the end of June.

While this temporary measure is a necessary Band-Aid on a gaping economic wound, housing is not yet a right in this country — far from it. Mr. Biden’s emphasis on redressing racial inequity in housing provides a welcome contrast, though, to the long history of the federal government’s housing policies, which created barriers to safe, affordable housing in all 50 states, especially for communities of color.

Of course, the American housing crisis long predated the pandemic, and the United States has never made the provision of housing a national priority. The crisis has only been compounded during the last year: Somewhere between 10 and 40 million people may be at risk of eviction in the coming months, in a time of deep racial inequity, volatile personal incomes, a surge in small business failures and diminished public access to many government benefits.

Mr. Biden’s speech points to a pathway out. In a moment of economic upheaval and fragility, there is an existing program that can help. Housing vouchers offer the potential for a solution to the residential instability and deep inequity in our country. Housing assistance can help stabilize communities that have been hard hit by generations of racially predatory practices like redlining and disinvestment. Expanding housing vouchers to everyone who needs them would be a key step toward recognizing the role that stable housing plays in life outcomes from health to employment and education.

Currently, the Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as “Section 8,” helps more than 2 million households keep a roof over their head. Funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, vouchers offer a ticket to safe, affordable housing, reducing homelessness and alleviating overcrowding. Yet they aren’t used as much as they could be: Only one-quarter of those who qualify for housing help get it. Marcia Fudge, the new secretary of HUD, knows that the logic is clear for scaling up vouchers with the goal of improving affordability.

Economists like Raj Chetty hold a secondary hope for the program: social mobility. Vouchers can offer the chance to move to new places — out of the disadvantaged neighborhoods to which subsidized renters have long been tethered. In theory, the private market can offer recipients homes in safer neighborhoods, with better schools and jobs, paving a pathway out of poverty. In this way, policymakers hope vouchers might even be able to remedy the concentrated poverty and segregation that previous policies helped create.

But like school vouchers — which conservatives have long championed as a preferred policy to promote choice and better educational outcomes, despite data that suggests otherwise — housing vouchers, as they currently operate, are based on a flawed premise: that given the option, people can and will make the “right” choice. The truth is that “right” choices are often unavailable.

Take Edie, whom I met during my fieldwork in Baltimore. For Edie (this is not her actual name; the terms of my research protocol prevent me from using even an initial to describe her), getting a housing voucher after years on the waiting list was like winning the lottery. Edie works as a shampooer at a hair salon in her neighborhood. Instead of handing over most of her meager paycheck to her landlord each month, she would now only…

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Filed Under: Affordable Housing, Evictions, Homeless, Low-Income, News, Unaffordable

When $25B won’t make a dent…

December 23, 2020 by Housing Leadership Council

U.S. Renters Could Owe $70 Billion

By January, when the federal eviction moratorium expires, 11.4 million households in the U.S. might be more than three months behind in their rent, or $6,000 each.

By: Kriston Capps
December 10, 2020, 11:36 AM

Between past due rent, late fees and unpaid utility bills, Americans may collectively owe $70 billion by January, when the current federal eviction moratorium is set to expire.

Estimates for the nation’s total rent shortfall on Jan. 1 range in the tens of billions of dollars, potentially exceeding the amount of emergency rental assistance that Congress may or may not deliver over the next few weeks. If lawmakers fail to act, the New Year could trigger a long-feared disaster — an avalanche of evictions during… Read More

Filed Under: COVID-19, Evictions, Homeless, News, Rental Assistance

COVID – 19 Relief Bill – A Review of the Housing Provisions

December 21, 2020 by Eralda Agolli

The Covid-19 relief bill was just posted and includes the following provisions that will impact housing:

Emergency Rental Assistance – There is $25B for rental costs including back rent, forward rent (limited to 3 months at a time), utility and other qualifying housing expenses.  This will be targeted to 80% Area Median Income and below (~$70,000 for a household of 4 in PBC) with a focus on those making less than 50% AMI (~$44,000 for a household of 4 in PBC).  Landlords can apply on the renter’s behalf with permission of the tenant. Florida will get $1,429,695,000 in funds but we have not received specific County/City allocations.

CDC Moratorium – The moratorium is extended to January 31, 2021.

Extension of CRF Funds – The current CRF funding deadline is extended to December 31, 2021. Without this extension, all unexpended funding would have been returned to the Treasury as of December 30,2020.

4% Tax Credit – The bill establishes a permanent floor for the 4% credit so those using the credit will have more secure, predictable financing.

Download NLIHC fact sheet.

Filed Under: COVID-19, Evictions, News, Rental Assistance Tagged With: Covid-19, rental housing

FHFA Extends Foreclosure Moratorium Through January

December 7, 2020 by Eralda Agolli

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced that single-family homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be protected from foreclosure for at least another month.

The moratorium, previously set to expire on December 31, will instead last through January 31, if not later. The moratorium also applies to evictions. “This extension gives peace of mind to the more than 28 million homeowners with an enterprise-backed mortgage,” FHFA director Mark Calabria said in a statement, referring to the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Read Full Moratorium

Filed Under: Affordable Housing, COVID-19, Evictions, Homeless, News

Florida foreclosure filings trend up as some fear a fall wave awaits

September 22, 2020 by Eralda Agolli

By John Haughey | The Center Square | 9/20/2020

Gov. Ron DeSantis extended Florida’s eviction and foreclosure moratorium until Oct. 1 last month, delaying what some fear will be a wave of foreclosures across the state once the ban is lifted.

Those fears are justified if trends documented by mortgage date firm ATTOM Data Solutions in its August 2020 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report continue into fall and 2021.

According to ATTOM, which owns RealtyTrac, Florida had the nation’s second-highest foreclosure filing rate in August, with Jacksonville’s foreclosure filing rate the highest for any metro area in the country.

There were 9,889 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions – in August, up…Read More

Filed Under: Evictions, News

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