Congress passes joint funding resolution

Funding for housing added back

SEATTLE—February 20, 2007—Bestowing a welcome Valentine's Day gift on low-income residents across the nation, the U. S. Senate passed a Joint Resolution last week to provide $464 billion in funding for federal agencies across the nation.

Thanks to a successful lobbying campaign in Congress by national housing organizations, along with leadership from Sen. Patty Murray, the FY 2007 appropriations bill for HUD greatly improves and restores funding for a number of critical housing programs. In a year when the pressures on the federal government for funding are acute, this is a significant win for low-income housing.

According to SHA’s Executive Director Tom Tierney, “The Congress committees that make spending recommendations have said repeatedly that they would not make any changes in funding within the continuing resolution unless failure to do so caused irreparable harm to a program in some way. In light of this, the additions to the appropriations for low-income housing are even more significant. It means that SHA will receive about the same amount of funding for public housing this year as last year."

The joint resolution marks a significant turnaround from the HUD budget proposed in the continuing resolution passed by last year’s Congress. The bill provides $3.864 billion for the Public Housing Operating Fund, $300 million above the FY 2006 level. This addition will address utility cost shortfalls, including higher energy costs.  It also provides an additional $502 million for the Housing Choice Voucher program (also known as Section 8).  This increase is necessary to prevent the loss of current vouchers.  The bill also adopts a voucher funding distribution system that more accurately and efficiently captures the needs of public housing agencies.  The bill also puts money into a number of homeless programs and extends the authorization for the HOPE VI program.

As a result of this appropriations bill, elderly, disabled and low-income families will gain a reprieve. Families living in public housing won’t see a reduction in services.  Rent burdens on households in the Section 8 program won’t increase, and regional efforts to end homelessness will move forward.

On a recorded vote of 286 -140, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the spending bill in January. The Senate approved the bill (81-15), without amendments, on February 14, and President Bush signed it into law on February 15, just before the Continuing Resolution that was in place was due to expire. This year-long joint funding resolution makes further continuing appropriations for FY07.

Even with the addition of the $300 million, the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) stressed that the public housing operating fund is still $672 million short of the total estimated need of $4.5 billion. CLPHA estimates that with the additional $300 million, housing authorities across the country will receive about 83 percent of what HUD says they need to operate public housing.

Materials provided by CLPHA were used in preparing this report.