July 13, 2012 | Volume 17, Issue No. 28
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The Weekly Newsletter of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
CONGRESS
Sign On to Letter in Support of
Permanent PTFA
NLIHC is asking for organizational endorsements of the
Permanently Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (H.R. 3619), a
bill introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). The bill would remove
the 2014 sunset date of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act
of 2009 (PTFA) and add a private right of action to ensure better
compliance with the law.
It is estimated that the impact of these program changes equates
to a $16.5 billion cut. According to the Coalition on Human Needs,
the cuts included in H.R. 6083 would cause two to three million
individuals to lose food assistance.
The Senate-passed version of the Farm Bill (S. 3240) also restricts
eligibility for SNAP, but to a lesser extent than H.R. 6083. The Senate
bill, if enacted, would result in $4.5 billion in savings from SNAP.
Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) offered an amendment
during the markup of H.R. 6083 that would have eliminated the
proposed changes SNAP. However, the amendment failed by a vote
of 15-31. An amendment offered by Representative Larry Kissell (DNC) that would have restored SNAP funding to be equivalent with
the language included in S. 3240 was defeated by a vote of 15-28.
The enactment of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act was a
major step forward in achieving housing stability for renters living
in properties in foreclosure. The Act ensures that most tenants can
stay in their homes for the remainder of their leases or for at least
90 days post-foreclosure. Prior to PTFA, such tenants were often
required to move with as little as a few days’ notice.
The Committee also rejected an amendment offered by
Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) that would have further cut
SNAP beyond the levels included in H.R. 6083.
The deadline for organizations to sign on to the endorsement letter
is close of business July 20.
The measure now awaits consideration by the full House of
Representatives.
View the letter and sign on: https://nlihc.wufoo.com/forms/
support-protecting-tenants-at-foreclosure/
An archived webcast of the markup is available at http://agriculture.
house.gov/hearings/markupDetails.aspx?NewsID=1593.
Learn more about PTFA: http://nlihc.org/issues/foreclosure/ptfa
House Committee-Approved “Farm Bill”
Cuts Food Stamps
The House Committee on Agriculture approved H.R. 6083, the
Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act, on July 12
by a vote of 35-11. The 5-year reauthorization legislation, commonly
referred to as the “Farm Bill,” governs eligibility requirements for
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly
known as food stamps. The current Farm Bill is set to expire on
September 30.
SNAP is an entitlement program, meaning that any individual or
family meeting the program eligibility requirements can receive
benefits. The federal government spent close to $78 billion on SNAP
in FY11.
S. 6083 would restrict SNAP benefits provided under the Farm Bill
by limiting the categorical eligibility of individuals or households
receiving other types of federal or state assistance. The measure
would also prohibit states from coordinating benefits between the
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and SNAP.
ADMINISTRATION
Champions of Change for Homeless Youth
Honored at White House Event
The White House and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
(USICH) recognized 13 leaders at an event, “Champions of Change
in the Fight Against Child and Youth Homelessness,” on July 12. The
Champions of Change event is part of the Obama Administration’s
Winning the Future initiative.
The honorees shared promising practices they have utilized in
their communities to better serve children, youth and families,
and discussed barriers such as limited federal dollars and a lack of
coordination between government agencies at the federal, state and
local levels. They also discussed the importance of “right-sizing”
interventions, and ensuring that efforts to increase incomes and
jobs are not left out of the equation. The conversation was held
over two panel discussions, one hosted by HUD Secretary Shaun
Donovan and one by Administration for Children, Youth and
Families Commissioner Bryan Samuels.
727 Fifteenth Street NW, Sixth Floor • Washington, D.C. 20005 • 202-662-1530 • 202-393-1973 fax • memo@nlihc.org • www.nlihc.org
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MEMO MEMBERS
Secretary Donovan opened the discussion, saying “when it comes
to youth, particularly knowing which youth are homeless and why,
we are still in dark.” Secretary Donovan added that “these children
are just looking for a place to live. That’s not right and should never
happen in America.”
The federal government established the goal of ending family, youth
and child homelessness in the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent
and Homelessness (Opening Doors) (see Memo, 6/25/10). In June,
USICH launched a new framework for ending youth homelessness
to establish a more concrete roadmap for meeting this goal (see
Memo, 6/22).
“The efforts of these Champions, and others like them across the
country, are critical to achieving our goal of preventing and ending
homelessness for families, youth and children by 2020, and ensuring
that every child has a safe and stable place to call home,” said USICH
Executive Director Barbara Poppe.
Also in attendance were House Financial Services Chair Spencer
Bachus (R-AL), Congressional Caucus on Homelessness Co-Chair
Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
Biographies of the honorees are available at http://bit.ly/LON10y.
FROM THE FIELD
Illinois Advocates Achieve Housing and
Homelessness Funding Gains During
Tough Legislative Session
Against the backdrop of large budget cuts for health care and
human services programs, Illinois housing and homeless advocates
are pleased with their accomplishments at the close of their state’s
legislative session. Led by Housing Action Illinois (Housing Action),
an NLIHC state coalition partner, the advocates successfully
persuaded legislators to preserve or increase funding for homeless
and supportive housing programs.
One of the most significant outcomes was the General Assembly’s
decision to level-fund the state’s Emergency and Transitional
Housing Program at $9.1 million, rejecting the proposal of Governor
Pat Quinn (D) to cut its funding by 52%. Funded at $4 million was
the Homeless Prevention Program, which provides rent and utility
assistance to households in immediate danger of losing their home
or becoming homeless. This amount marks a $2.5 million increase
over FY12 levels.
Housing Action worked with its member organizations in this effort
and empowered users of homelessness prevention services to get
involved. Advocates met with Senator Heather Steans (D) to gain
her support to increase funding for the programs. The meeting
was facilitated by Carlos Narravo, a formerly homeless veteran
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Volume 17, Issue No. 28
and current client at Ezra Multi Service Center, a Housing Action
member. “I feel proud to be a part of it and I’m ecstatic that the
funding went through,” Mr. Narravo said. “I look forward to being a
part of the process again next year.”
In addition, the Homeless Youth Program was funded at $4.1
million, a nearly $900,000 increase, while supportive housing
programs totaled $26.7 million, a $3 million increase. The Chicago
Coalition for the Homeless and the Supportive Housing Providers
Association took the lead on these efforts.
Tempering this victory is that most of the funds for these programs
will be diverted from the state’s affordable housing trust fund, not
general revenue funds. However, advocates are pleased that trust
fund resources will be spent on housing-related programs, contrary
to what happened in late 2010 and most of 2011 when they were
used to fill other budget gaps. To maximize affordable housing
resources in FY14, Housing Action plans to work with its partners
to ensure that programs currently funded through trust fund dollars
are completely funded by the general fund next year.
“Yet again, it was another very difficult budget year for Illinois, with
big budget cuts that impact Medicaid eligibility, local school funding
and the child welfare system,” said Bob Palmer, policy director for
Housing Action. “Along with many others, we continued to talk
about the need for adequate revenue to fund a responsible budget
and we’ll continue to do this in the future.”
Housing Action also secured passage of legislation to preserve the
ability of smaller nonprofit agencies that administer the state’s
Rental Housing Support Program to use 10% of the program’s funds
for administrative expenses. This bill proved somewhat difficult to
pass when several legislators tried to portray it as a fee increase.
To the contrary, it will ensure that administering agencies do not
experience a reduction in allowable administrative expenses, a
significant victory given that many of them fundraise to cover the
costs to run the program. The program provides rental assistance to
approximately 2,500 extremely low income households.
For more information, contact Bob Palmer at bob@housingactionil.org
EVENTS
Meeting and Webinar on Tax Fairness Poll
Results Scheduled
The Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) coalition will host its national
monthly meeting on July 16. NLIHC has endorsed the Americans
for Tax Fairness campaign, which is comprised of more than 100
organizations opposed to the renewal of the Bush era tax cuts set to
expire at the end of the year (see Memo, 4/15, 7/6).
The meeting will be at 2 pm ET at 1201 16th Street NW, Washington,
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D.C. Readers interested in attending may register at the link at the
end of this article. Scheduled speakers are Geoff Garin of Hart
Research, Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, Chuck
Loveless of AFSCME, and Frank Clemente of ATF.
ATF and the Coalition on Human Needs will host a webinar,
“Winning the Tax Wars: A Three - Step Program for Fairness and a
Strong Economy,” on July 17. The webinar will be held at 3 pm ET.
Guy Molyneux of Hart Research Associates will discuss the findings
of a June 2012 survey that assesses whether the public supports the
extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the upper income Americans.
Register for the meeting at http://bit.ly/LOG1Ra.
Join ATF at http://bit.ly/LOG2Va.
Register for the webinar at http://bit.ly/LOG6UY.
Webinar on Housing for Older Adults
Scheduled
The Center for Housing Policy (CHP) will host a webinar, “Housing
Landscape for Older Adults,” on July 16. The webinar will be held at
1 pm ET.
Scheduled speakers are Ellen Dunham-Jones of the Georgia Institute
of Technology, Nancy Eldridge of the Cathedral Square Corporation
and Emily Salomon of the Center for Housing Policy.
Speakers will discuss findings from CHP’s report, Housing an Aging
Population: Are We Prepared? (see Memo, 4/6), and will also cover
policies and programs that improve access to suitable and affordable
housing for older adults.
Readers can register for the webinar at: https://www1.gotomeeting.
com/register/328213289.
The CHP report is available at: http://www.nhc.org/media/files/
AgingReport2012.pdf.
RESOURCES
New Study Reveals Incomes and Rent
Burdens of LIHTC Households
A paper recently released by Katherine O’Regan, Associate Professor
at NYU Wagner Graduate School and the Furman Center and
Keren Horn, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of
Massachusetts Boston, describes the incomes and rent burdens of
tenants living in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties.
This is the first time this type of analysis has been conducted on the
LIHTC program, which is currently the largest federal affordable
housing production program. The authors used tenant-level data
July 13, 2012
Volume 17, Issue No. 28
from 15 states, representing over 30% of all LIHTC units and all
regions of the country.
The authors found that LIHTC recipients tend to have higher
incomes than households assisted by other federal rental assistance
programs, but that the LIHTC program does serve a significant
number of extremely low income (ELI) households, those earning at
or below 30% of the area median income (AMI). Approximately 75%
of all households served by HUD programs such as public housing,
vouchers and project-based Section 8 are ELI, compared to 43% of
LIHTC households. Moving up the income scale, the study reveals
that 37% of LIHTC households earn between 31-50% of AMI, 14%
earn between 51-60% of AMI and the remaining 7% earn above 60%
of AMI.
According to the report, approximately 46% of LIHTC recipients
receive some other form of rental assistance. Only 10 out of the 15
states analyzed in this report had data on rental assistance, and of
the LIHTC households with rental assistance in those 10 states, close
to 78% were ELI, while just 31% of those without rental assistance
were ELI. Furthermore, rental assistance was higher among existing
tenants than among those first moving into LIHTC housing. The
authors suggest that this may be because turnover tends to be lower
for households with rental assistance than those without, resulting
in the majority of available units being without rental assistance.
Multiple studies also found that the larger the share of a state’s
LIHTC households receiving rental assistance, the larger the share
of ELI tenants.
The report also examines the rent burdens of tenants living in LIHTC
properties. Because the rents charged at LIHTC properties are not
based on the actual income of the household occupying the unit, as
is the case with most HUD programs, there is a greater chance that
LIHTC households will spend more than 30% of their income on
rent and utility costs. The analysis shows that 42% of LIHTC tenants
have a rent burden between 31% to 50%, while 17% are severely
rent burdened, paying over half of their income on housing costs.
The analysis also reveals that rent burdens vary depending on
income, with 31% of ELI households facing a severe rent burden,
compared to just 0.2% of households earning above 50% of AMI.
However, when examining just those LIHTC households without
rental assistance, the number of ELI households facing a severe
rent burden jumps to 57%. Because the federal statute sets LIHTC
maximum rents to be affordable at either 50% or 60% of AMI, one
would expect almost all ELI households without rental assistance to
face a severe cost burden.
The authors suggest two factors that may contribute to lower rent
burdens among these households. First, many developers may have
committed to lower rents when applying to the program. Second,
other owners may set rents below the federal levels for mission
or market-driven reasons. In fact, the report finds that in LIHTC
units without rental assistance almost all (99%) of households are
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paying rents at or below the maximum allowable rents, and 43% are
paying rents that are less than 80% of the maximum allowable rent.
Furthermore, 81% of units without rental assistance that charge
rents that are at least 50% below the allowable maximum rent are
occupied by ELI households.
The authors conclude by recognizing the limitations to this analysis,
including the fact that not all states are represented in this sample.
There is now a mandate from Congress that state housing agencies
collect and provide tenant data for LIHTC properties, so the hope is
that a more comprehensive analysis of these data will be possible in
the near future.
To read the full report, What Can We Learn about the Low Income
Housing Tax Credit Program by Looking at the Tenants?, go to http://
nlihc.org/sites/default/files/LIHTC_Tenant_Report_2012.pdf.
July 13, 2012
Volume 17, Issue No. 28
In conjunction with the conference, Demos developed an interactive
tool to depict the current poverty situation in the United States
using graphs to visualize data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s
Current Population Survey. Beginning with a chart that shows
the overview of the overall poverty rate, the tool includes poverty
statistics as they relate to race, education, gender, age and family
type. The statistics are broken down to show those in each category
that are in poverty, deep poverty and close to poverty, as well as the
percentage of the overall poverty rate comprised by each category.
The tool also includes poverty statistics from 1970 to 2010, allowing
comparisons over time.
Access the interactive tool via www.trackingpovertyandpolicy.org.
NLIHC NEWS
Poverty Conference Emphasizes Need
for Programs to Stabilize Low Income
Households
A July 10 conference, “Understanding and Addressing Poverty
in the 21st Century,” was organized by Demos, The American
Prospect magazine, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, and
Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public
Policy. The conference coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of
Michael Harrington’s landmark book on hidden poverty, The Other
America. The event covered the current state of American poverty,
and offered policies to lift people out of poverty.
NLIHC Welcomes New Executive
Assistant
Christina Sin joins NLIHC as Executive Assistant to the President.
Prior to coming to NLIHC, Christina was the Executive Assistant
in the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities and the Office
of Civility and Community Standards at the George Washington
University. Christina received her BA in International Affairs and
Women’s Studies with minors in Geography and History, and
her MA in American Studies, both from the George Washington
University. She is originally from New York City.
Welcome, Christina!
The opening panel featured a discussion of poverty trends, focusing
on the demographics of Americans living in poverty today. Poverty
is most common among women, children and racial minorities.
Panelists linked poverty to changes in the economy and changes
in public assistance policies. Nearly a quarter of all jobs do not pay
enough to sustain a family above the poverty line, according to
Peter Edelman of Georgetown University. Yet, due to changes in the
welfare system, less than 20% of the poor rely on public assistance
in the form of cash assistance. More low income households today
cobble together other forms of assistance like Supplemental Security
Income (SSI), Medicaid and food stamps.
The conference transitioned to a focus on the labor market, and
the need to improve wages and working conditions for low income
workers. The discussion highlighted workers in the growing “caring”
field, such as health aides and child care providers. A later panel on
the social safety net discussed the need for a wide range of social
supports ranging from child care subsidies to affordable health
care to paid sick days and housing assistance. This panel, and the
conference overall, stressed the need for policies that increase the
stability of low income households.
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July 13, 2012
Volume 17, Issue No. 28
FACT OF THE WEEK
Majority of LIHTC Tenants with Rental Assistance Have Extremely Low Incomes
Distribution of Income by Receipt of Rental Assistance in LIHTC Properties
Share of Households
30% AMI or Below
31-40% AMI
41-50% AMI
51-60% AMI
61% AMI or Above
Total Units
All LIHTC
Households
LIHTC Households
with Rental Assistance
LIHTC Households
w/o Rental Assistance
100%
52.5%
18.5%
14.8%
9.3%
4.9%
252,097
45.7%
77.7%
13.5%
6.2%
2.0%
0.6%
115,231
54.3%
31.3%
22.7%
22.0%
15.5%
8.6%
136,866
Note: Based on LIHTC tenant data from 10 states
Source: O’Regan, K.M. & Horn, K.M. (2012). What Can We Learn about the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program by Looking at the Tenants?
NLIHC STAFF
ABOUT NLIHC
Megan Bolton, Research Director, x245
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to
achieving equitable federal policy that assures affordable, accessible,
and healthy homes for the people with the lowest incomes in the
United States.
Elina Bravve, Research Analyst, x244
Sarah Brundage, Communications Project Manager, x246
Amy Clark, Communications Director, x227
Linda Couch, Senior Vice President of Policy and Research, x228
Sheila Crowley, President, x224
Chelsea Dalziel, Research Intern, x250
Thaddeus Elliott, Policy Intern, x252
Ed Gramlich, Director of Regulatory Affairs, x314
Riley Keenan, Research Intern, x249
Mary Kolar, Outreach Associate x233
Rebecca Larew, Outreach Intern x229
Linda Leaks, Outreach Associate, x316
Sham Manglik, Policy Analyst, x243
Taylor Materio, Communications Consultant
Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates,
organizes, and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing
within healthy neighborhoods for everyone.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
NLIHC membership is the best way to stay informed about
affordable housing issues, keep in touch with advocates around the
country, and support NLIHC’s work.
NLIHC membership information is available at www.nlihc.org/join.
You can also e-mail us at outreach@nlihc.org or call 202-662-1530
to request membership materials to distribute at meetings and
conferences.
Marcus Mello, Outreach Intern x223
Khara Norris, Director of Administration, x242
Melissa Quirk, Senior Policy Analyst, x230
Michael Sarna, Outreach/Administration Intern, x241
Bill Shields, Vice President of Operations, x232
Christina Sin, Executive Assistant, x224
La’Teashia Sykes, State Coalition Project Director, x247
Kate Traynor, Development Coordinator, x234
Follow @NLIHC on Twitter!
Become a fan of NLIHC on
Facebook!
Check out NLIHC’s blog, On the Home
Front, at www.nlihc.wordpress.com!
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