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HUD launched a new ethics program that will support whistleblower, ombudsman, and hotline initiatives. Part of HUD’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Integrity & Compliance Program (ICP) aims to create a “principled organizational culture,” Inspector General David Montoya said in a recent press release.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently released an updated version of its paper, Research Shows Housing Vouchers Reduce Hardship and Provide Platform for Long-Term Gains Among Children. According to the paper, vouchers and other rental assistance lifted 2.8 million people—including about 900,000 children—above the poverty line in 2014 under the federal government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which counts non-cash benefits. Vouchers alone probably produced at least half of that effect.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report that examines fragmentation and overlap of rental assistance programs on the federal, state, and local levels. The GAO partnered with 25 state and local audit offices to design an audit plan that six participating audit offices conducted on rental assistance to low-income households. The GAO assessed the completed results, reviewed documentation, and interviewed officials from HUD, Treasury, and the IRS.
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released data that show no significant change in the official poverty rate or real median household income between 2013 and 2014. The data used by the Census Bureau in this report are from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
With regard to income and poverty in the United States, the data shows that 46.7 million people in the U.S. were living at or below the poverty level in 2014, reflecting a poverty rate of 14.8 percent, the same as in 2013. Real median household income was $53,657, as compared to $54,462 in 2013.
In commemoration of HUD’s 50th anniversary, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) recently issued a call for ideas to reform HUD and modernize the delivery of federal housing assistance. According to Hensarling, HUD hasn’t met the expectations set for the agency by President Lyndon Johnson when he created the department, which was “to achieve the best administration of the principal programs of the Federal Government which provide assistance for housing.”
Recently, Enterprise Community Partners and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released a white paper entitled “Projecting Trends in Severely Cost-Burdened Renters: 2015-2025.” Rent is considered “affordable” if it totals 30 percent or less of one’s income. Renters who spend between 30 percent and 50 percent of their income on rent are considered “moderately” rent-burdened. Renters who spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent are considered “severely” rent-burdened.
On Sept. 8, Congress returned from recess and lawmakers scheduled 12 legislative days before the start of the 2016 fiscal year on Oct. 1. In that time, Congress must come to a broad new agreement that lifts legally imposed spending caps or, more likely, pass a short-term measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to keep the government running for the rest of the year. Current spending laws expire on Oct. 1.
In June, the House of Representatives voted to pass its FY 2016 spending bills for the Department of Justice (Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill) and HUD (Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Funding Bill). Both bills contain several amendments that would limit enforcement and implementation of the Fair Housing Act. The Senate has yet to take action on these bills.
A recent study from the Urban Institute examined the relationships between housing subsidies, the mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions, and income inequality. It used data from the 2013 Current Population Survey (CPS), which the federal government uses for its official measures of income, poverty, and inequality. CPS income data is then adjusted by the Transfer Income Model (TRIM), which measures the value of near-cash benefits, such as food stamps, housing subsidies, and itemized deductions.
Recently, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the “Equality Act,” S. 1858, and Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced its companion bill, H.R. 3185. It’s the first comprehensive and inclusive piece of federal legislation to encompass the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community alongside those who have been traditionally protected by civil rights legislation.
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