House Passes Section 8 Voucher Reform Act

Last night the House passed the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007, H.R. 1851, sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-35). The bill expands the number of families receiving vouchers by 20,000 a year for each of the next five years and ensures the program works effectively for the nation's low income working families with children, elderly and disabled. Specifically, it would reform the voucher funding formula to increase eligibility and eliminate inefficiency; authorize 20,000 incremental Section 8 vouchers in each of the next 5 years, for a total of 100,000 new vouchers; encourage economic self-sufficiency; promote homeownership; simplify the voucher, public housing, and Section 8 programs; increase tenant protections; expand the housing innovation program; and attach vouchers to housing units.

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House Passes Low-Income Housing Bill

Jim Abrams, Associated Press - July 13, 2007

The House voted Thursday to overhaul the housing voucher program, the federal government's largest effort to help low-income families find affordable housing.

The legislation, passed 333-83, seeks to make housing vouchers available to more families, and makes it easier for people to use vouchers for first-time home purchases. It also creates incentives for employment and higher education.

The bill, said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., makes "significant improvements in one of the most important social programs in the federal government."

It next goes to the Senate and must overcome opposition from the Bush administration, which has objected to formula changes that affect how funds are allocated among local public housing authorities.

Rep. Maxine Waters, sponsor of the legislation and Chairwoman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, speaks in favor of the bill:

Rep. Waters: "This bill addresses many of those problems and will return much needed stability to the Section 8 program and the two million low-income families who rely upon it. We heard from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, public housing agencies, national housing interest groups, and advocates, and other housing experts about the importance of reforming Section 8 programs. While there is consensus that the section 8 program needed to be reformed, HUD disagrees on how to reform the program. National housing organizations like the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which represent those directly affected by the change in the funding formula, agree that basing the funding for a program as important as the voucher program on data that is three years old is just simply bad policy."

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (TX-25) also speaks in favor:

Rep. Tubbs Jones: "In my district the problems with Section 8 housing have bubbled to the surface. Particularly in many of the entering suburbs such as Bedford, Bedford Heights, Euclid, Cleveland Heights, and Shaker Heights. They have seen an increase in Section 8 housing and are beginning to see a clash in culture between owners and renters. Between those who have a long time been owners and those who are new at renting property. It is very important that when we start to look at some of the urban centers, some of the older housing, we start looking at the entering suburbs and older housing and even the new suburban municipalities that we have an opportunity to reform how we have Section 8 housing and how it's used."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

"Housing is a fundamental human need, but as federal housing initiatives have shrunk and the cost of housing has soared in recent years, more Americans have found themselves without a roof over their heads. As the minimum wage stagnated over the past 10 years under the Republican-led Congress, the gap between families' earnings and the cost of housing has grown larger.

"Many working families pay more than half their income for rent or live in substandard rental housing. Too many low-income Americans -- many of them disabled, veterans, elderly, or children -- have been forced into substandard housing, homeless shelters, and onto the street.

"Democrats are narrowing this terrible gap from both directions. Overcoming stiff opposition from the Bush Administration, Congress passed an increase in the minimum wage, and on July 24, millions of hard-working Americans will receive a pay raise for the first time in a decade.

"Today's legislation will provide housing for 100,000 families over the next five years, in addition to the close to 2 million households already served by Section 8. The bill will improve the efficiency of the initiative, encourage self-sufficiency for low-income families, promote homeownership, and ensure that vouchers can be used to create new affordable housing developments for seniors, disabled, and homeless people.

"In the funding bill for the current fiscal year -- which the Republicans failed to finish last year -- the Democratic Congress significantly increased funding for Section 8. The House has also passed legislation to restore housing in the areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We plan to take up legislation to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that will build or preserve 1.5 million units of affordable housing over the next 10 years.

"We must not leave our fellow Americans out in the cold, or out in insufferable heat either. People without housing have great challenges obtaining employment, food, education, and so many other basic necessities that most Americans take for granted. We must address the affordable housing crisis, and this bill is a critical step in the right direction."