August 2022 Legislative Update
By Aaron Zappia, Senior Government Relations Manager
Summer recess is a great time to engage Federal and State Legislators
During August and early September, both state and federal lawmakers will return to their home states and districts for a break until mid-September when business resumes in the US Capitol and State House.
The U.S. House of Representatives is schedule to return to Washington for voting session on September 13th. The U.S. Senate will return September 5th.
The PA House is scheduled for session on September 12th and the State Senate on September 19th.
These next few weeks present an opportunity to engage policymakers on important housing issues. More advocacy is needed at the federal level to ensure that a final spending plan provides robust funding for HUD programs. The following Federal Update will provide more information on top budget priorities.
To support advocates, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has created an August Recess 2022 Toolkit for use during recess. The toolkit offers ideas about how advocates can participate, including:
- Scheduling in-district meetings with members of Congress.
- Inviting members of Congress to tour affordable housing developments serving households with the greatest needs, or Housing First programs.
- Amplifying on social media key messages about America’s housing and homelessness crisis and long-term solutions.
- Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability.
After achieving historic investments at the state level this spring with Whole Home Repairs, the new Housing Options Program, and funding for Development Cost Relief, a PHARE cap increase is still positioned for consideration as a free-standing bill this fall. Over the next month, state legislators need to hear from their constituents that a PHARE cap increase is critical to addressing our housing challenges. See more on PHARE below.
FY 2023 Funding Bills
The House voted out of committee all 12 of its fiscal year 2023 spending bills, and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) unveiled its draft spending bill for FY23 on July 28.
The Senate bill would provide $70 billion, including $10.3 billion in offsets, for HUD’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs – an increase of $4.3 billion over FY22-enacted levels but $3 billion less than the House bill and $1.9 billion less than the amount proposed in President Biden’s FY23 budget request.
The Senate bill would provide $30.18 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers, which is an increase of $2.8 billion over FY22-enacted levels and likely enough funding to renew all existing contracts. However, the proposal provides significantly less funding to expand vouchers to assist households than the funding proposed by the House or President Biden. The House bill would provide an additional 140,000 households with rental assistance, and President Biden’s budget request would provide an additional 200,000 households with rental assistance. The Senate bill would only expand rental assistance to approximately 5,000 additional households.
The Senate bill proposes to increase funding for some HUD programs compared to FY22, in some cases above the levels proposed by the House last month. The bill includes a $225 million increase to the HOME Investment Partnership program ($1.725 billion), which is $50 million more than the amount proposed by the House. The bill also proposes a $50 million increase to tribal housing programs ($1.052 billion), which is over $50 million more than the amount proposed by the House.
While some programs would receive an increase in funding compared to FY22, these programs are funded at levels lower than those proposed by the House. Project-Based Rental Assistance ($14.687 billion), Homeless Assistance Grants ($3.545 billion), the Housing for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program ($468 million), and the Public Housing Capital Fund ($3.405 billion) would receive more funding than in FY22, but less than the amounts proposed by the House bill.
Other programs would be provided less funding by the Senate bill than the FY22-enacted levels or the amounts proposed by the House. These include the Community Development Block Grant ($4.818 billion), Healthy Homes ($390 million), Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities ($288 million), and Choice Neighborhood Initiative Grant ($250 million) programs, as well as HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research ($115 million).
The Public Housing Operating Fund ($5.06 billion), Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program ($1.03 billion), and Fair Housing programs ($85 million) would receive level funding compared to FY22.
Because Appropriations Committee leaders have not yet reached a bipartisan agreement on topline spending numbers, the draft House and Senate bills were written by Democrats without input from Republicans. Any final spending bill must garner the support of at least 10 Senate Republicans to avoid a filibuster. Congress is expected to enact a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open past the start of the new fiscal year on October 1st and to provide leadership with more time to negotiate, draft, and enact final spending bills by the end of 2022.
Top funding priorities include:
- $32.13 billion for the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) program to renew all existing contracts and expand housing vouchers to an additional 200,000 households.
- $5.125 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund to preserve public housing, and $5.06 billion for the Public Housing Operating Fund.
- $3.6 billion for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants program to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
- $100 million for legal assistance to prevent evictions.
Eviction Prevention Bills
The Housing Alliance is closely monitoring two bills aimed at preventing eviction.
The Eviction Crisis Act, S.2182, was introduced by Senator Michael Bennet on June 22, 2021. Currently the legislation has three co-sponsors: Rob Portman (R, OH); Todd Young (R, IN); and Sherrod Brown (D, OH). This legislation creates several eviction-related grant programs and shields certain eviction records from consumer reports. The legislation would provide matching grants to state and local governments to support landlord-tenant focuses community courts.
On July 7, 2022, Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced the “Stable Families Act,” a companion bill to the Senate’s Eviction Crisis Act. If enacted, the Stable Families Act would establish a new, national Emergency Assistance Fund (EAF) – funded at $3 billion annually – to help stabilize households with extremely low incomes experiencing an economic shock before it leads to eviction, housing instability, and in worst cases, homelessness. This legislation has not yet received a bill number.
The Housing Alliance will encourage members of the PA Congressional Delegation to co-sponsor this legislation.
PHARE Cap Increase Pursued this Fall
HB 2665 and SB 1254 are both positioned for passage before the end of the 2021-22 legislative session. Despite not being included in the budget, PHARE can still be passed a “free standing bill” and signed into law.
Both HB 2665 and SB 1254 would increase the current $40 million funding cap for PHARE to $100 million over the course of three years.
Administered by PHFA, the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund (PHARE) supports new affordable housing construction, rehabilitation, and blight remediation projects in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. PHARE is one of the Commonwealth’s most effective programs to expand and preserve desperately needed affordable units.
Over 80 statewide and local organizations have lent their support to the Rase the Cap campaign since January of 2022. With housing issued having gained historic attention in the Legislature, now is the time to capitalize on current momentum.
Click here for sample letters of support and talking points to help you and your organization engage your Senators and Representatives asking that they support PHARE when the Legislature convenes this fall.