Opening Doors             A HOUSING PUBLICATION FOR THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY
	SEPTEMBER  2004 ISSUE 25
Section 8 Problems Negatively Affect People With Disabilities  By Emily Cooper and Ann O'Hara Introduction The federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program is critically important to people with disabilities.  Proposals made this year by the Bush Administration will seriously undermine the voucher program if they are adopted by Congress.  Highlighted in Section 8 At Risk!, the March 2004 issue of Opening Doors, these proposals could cut over $1.6 billion from the Section 8 budget and convert the program to a block grant administered by Public Housing Agencies (PHAs). This issue of Opening Doors provides a status report on the Section 8 voucher program, including up-to-the-minute information on three important topics: An update on the Section 8 “battle” being played out in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Fiscal Year 2005 budget moves slowly through Congress; The disastrous effect of recent HUD Section 8 fiscal guidance to PHAs that places voucher holders – including people with disabilities – at risk of losing their housing; and HUD’s continued mismanagement of more than 60,000 Section 8 vouchers set aside by Congress for people with disabilities. Most importantly, this issue is about how readers of Opening Doors can help to remedy these serious problems and also help to advocate for new Section 8 vouchers in the federal budget.  The Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc. (TAC) and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force (CCD Housing Task Force) – the publishers of Opening Doors – believe that the entire disability community must join with other interest groups to protect and expand the Section 8 program, both now and in the future.  Toward that end, this issue provides specific and detailed “advocacy action steps” that can be implemented at both the local and federal levels to ensure the future of this vitally important federal housing program.  If you care about decent, safe, affordable, and accessible housing for people with disabilities, we need your help and we need it now!	A publication of the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc. and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force What's Inside? More People With Disabilities Have Vouchers! Status Report from Washington Update on HUD's Section 8 Proposals PHA Funding Shortfalls HUD Mismanagement of 60,000 Disability Vouchers Negative Effect on People with Disabilities In this issue: Section 8 Budget Battle Not Over HUD Causes Fiscal Chaos in PHA Section 8 Programs HUD Mismanages Disability Vouchers

Background

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is, without a doubt, the most important federal housing program in the United States today for people with extremely low incomes.  With two million vouchers now in use, the program makes up approximately 50 percent of the entire supply of federally subsidized housing in the country.  As other HUD-funded subsidy programs have either been eliminated or cut back, the Section 8 voucher program has become the major HUD program available to address the country’s most urgent housing needs – those of people with disabilities.

The Section 8 voucher program works by providing monthly rental assistance payments to private landlords.  It is not an entitlement program and there are long waiting lists for Section 8 assistance.  But the long wait is definitely worth it! 

Households obtain Section 8 vouchers primarily through a network of 2,600 PHAs across the country.  With a voucher, a household selects housing in the private rental market and typically pays between 30 – 40 percent of income toward the rent. The balance of the rent is paid by the PHA directly to the landlord with Section 8 voucher program funds from HUD.  People with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) typically pay between $150 – $200 per month towards monthly housing costs when they receive assistance through the Section 8 program.   

For More Information ...  For more information on how the voucher program works, refer to the following TAC publications available on TAC’s website (www.tacinc.org): Opening Doors issue #17: Section 8 Program at Risk! Administration Proposal Will Harm People with Disabilities Section 8 Made Simple: Using the Housing Choice Voucher Program to Assist People with Disabilities

More People With Disabilities Have Vouchers!

The Section 8 voucher program has become increasingly important – and increasingly available – to people with disabilities over the past eight years.  According to HUD data, participation in the voucher program by people with disabilities in recent years has almost doubled.  In the early 1990s, approximately 11 percent of the Section 8 vouchers[1] funded by Congress were being used by households with disabilities.  Today, an estimated 22 percent of Section 8 vouchers are assisting people with disabilities.  In real numbers, this means that approximately 440,000 of the two million vouchers now being used are assisting people with disabilities – a significant increase in a relatively short time period.  

There are two key reasons for the increase in the number of people with disabilities who receive housing assistance under the Section 8 voucher program:

1. From 1997 – 2001, Congress created over 60,000 new vouchers exclusively for people with disabilities.  In addition to being eligible for all “regular” vouchers, people with disabilities were intended to have exclusive access to these 60,000 additional vouchers; and

2. People with disabilities and their housing advocates have become more educated and skilled at “navigating” the complexities of the Section 8 process.  Many have also formed partnerships with PHAs.  Better access to information – including publications like TAC’s Section 8 Made Simple guidebook – has helped to make this progress possible.

What is at Stake

Because 440,000 people with disabilities currently have Section 8 vouchers, the disability community has a much bigger “stake” in the outcomes of any proposed changes to the voucher program.  Certainly, without vouchers, many of these 440,000 households would undoubtedly be homeless.  In addition to concerns about current voucher holders, there are thousands and thousands of people with disabilities on PHA voucher waiting lists who would be adversely affected by the changes to the program being proposed by HUD.  Finally, there are several million people with disabilities with SSI-level incomes who need housing assistance.  The Section 8 program must be expanded in order to help address this need. So the stakes are high indeed.

Major changes in the voucher program, whether they concern funding levels or how the program works, are decided in Washington , D.C. by the Administration and by Congress.  It is important to pay attention to the Section 8 budget process and any other Section 8 legislation that is proposed.  The disability community literally cannot afford to take the voucher program for granted!  

There is also more at stake for people with disabilities in the voucher program than the outcomes of current Section 8 policy and budget battles in Washington.  Because of years of mismanagement at HUD, the previously mentioned 60,000 vouchers created by Congress as a set-aside for people with disabilities are also at risk.  Despite a mandate from Congress, HUD’s failure to manage and monitor these vouchers effectively means that some disability vouchers may have been given to non-disabled households.  TAC, the CCD Housing Task Force, and key members of Congress are trying to repair the damage done by HUD and ensure that these vouchers are given only to people with disabilities.  But we need your help!  We also need your help to win the “battle” for the future of the Section 8 voucher program that continues to be fought in Washington, D.C.

Status Report from Washington

As mentioned earlier, the March 2004 issue of Opening Doors (available online at www.tacinc.org/index/admin/index/_uploads/docs/ACF10D7.pdf) described HUD’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget proposal to cut more than $1.6 billion from the voucher program – a funding cut of approximately 12 percent.  That issue also provided an analysis of HUD’s Flexible Voucher Program proposal to convert the Section 8 voucher program to a federal block grant administered by PHAs.  If enacted, these proposals would cause great harm to people with disabilities.

Last year, a similar effort by the Administration to convert the Section 8 voucher program to a state-administered block grant – the so-called Housing Assistance for Needy Families program – was rejected by Congress, after strong opposition was expressed by advocates from both housing and human services groups at the national and local levels.  These HUD block grant proposals demonstrate the Administration’s budgetary goal to “downsize” the federal government’s commitment to provide affordable housing funding for the lowest-income people. In fact, HUD officials have recently stated publicly that the Section 8 program should be targeted to households with incomes above 30 percent of median income, rather than continue to be targeted to the lowest-income people!

During the past few months, while Congress has been considering HUD’s latest Section 8 block grant proposal and the $1.6 billion cut in funding for the upcoming fiscal year, HUD has been busy causing serious fiscal problems with PHAs’ Section 8 voucher program funding for this fiscal year.  To advocates who have been involved with the Section 8 program for many years, it appears that HUD is determined – through one method or another – to undermine one of the most successful federal housing programs ever created.  An update on the status of HUD’s Section 8 proposals for next year, as well as information on the current Section 8 fiscal problems for PHAs, is provided below.

Update on HUD’s Section 8 Proposals

Although the struggle to preserve the Section 8 voucher program is far from over, advocates finally received some good news in July when the U. S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee rejected HUD’s Section 8 voucher program budget cuts and its Flexible Voucher Program proposal.  The Committee acted in response to a sustained advocacy effort from around the country, including actions by advocates for people with disabilities.  Unfortunately, in order to fully fund all current Section 8 vouchers that are leased, the Committee cut most of HUD’s other programs by 4.3 percent, including the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, the McKinney/Vento Homeless Assistance programs, and the HOME program.

The full House has not yet acted on the Appropriation’s Committee recommendations for the Section 8 voucher program.  The Senate has also not acted on any HUD appropriations legislation, which means that the Section 8 battle.  To add to the uncertainty, Congress may not be able to reach agreement on a final federal budget for FY 2005 until after the November elections.

These federal funding decisions facing Congress cannot be put off forever.  Housing advocates at both the national and local levels must remain vigilant and continue to advocate to preserve and expand the Section 8 voucher program. Cuts to Section 8 funding and some version of the Flexible Voucher Program may be “back on the table” for discussion before the FY 2005 budget process finally concludes.  Once FY 2005’s budget is a reality, advocates for people with disabilities must be prepared to work even harder so that new Section 8 vouchers can be obtained in the FY 2006 budget – a process that will begin in early 2005.

PHA Funding Shortfalls  

In addition to concerns about the FY 2005 HUD budget, Section 8 advocates have also been trying to deal with serious fiscal problems at many PHAs related to their current Section 8 budget for this fiscal year.  Shortfalls in Section 8 funding for vouchers currently leased are occurring at many PHAs and will continue to be a problem through the Fall of 2004.  These problems are forcing many PHAs to:

·        Consider terminating vouchers currently under lease;

·        “Hold” unleased vouchers rather than issue them to households on the Section 8 waiting lists;

·        Immediately lower rents to landlords;

·        Eventually raise tenant rents; and/or

·        Make other changes that will ultimately reduce landlord participation and make it much more difficult for vouchers to be used.

The fiscal problems of PHA voucher programs are complex but are primarily an outcome of new HUD policies announced in an April 22 HUD Notice to PHAs (PIH Notice 2004-7: Implementation of FFY 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act Provisions for the Housing Choice Voucher Program).  HUD has stated that these new policies are mandated by Congress, and that HUD is merely following Congressional instructions, but many Members of Congress disagree with HUD’s actions.  Advocates believe that HUD’s willingness to provoke complete fiscal chaos in PHAs’ Section 8 voucher programs and – more importantly – cause two million low-income households to worry about the security of their housing voucher – is completely indefensible.

As PHAs began to run out of funds in June of 2004, HUD did modify its fiscal guidance somewhat, but not until after many Section 8 voucher holders were put at risk of losing their vouchers.  As we go to press with this issue in August of 2004, these serious fiscal problems may continue to plague some PHAs across the nation.  Until this problem is finally resolved, some PHAs are at risk of not receive all the funding they need to pay for all vouchers currently leased.

What You Can Do

The disability community must remain vigilant and active in its advocacy efforts around Section 8 vouchers.  Congress is beginning to get the message that the Section 8 program is important to many constituencies – including people with disabilities.  But more advocacy is needed to protect the program now and expand the program in the future.

If you have not yet contacted your members of Congress to underscore the importance of the Section 8 voucher program for people with disabilities and urge their support for full funding, please do it now!  A sample letter to Congress is included on page 2.  If you have already expressed your support, we recommend that you continue to pay attention to Section 8 program related developments in Washington , and get back in touch with your legislators as important developments occur.  The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington , D.C. www.cbpp.org maintains an excellent website with up-to-the-minute information on this important issue.  TAC’s website (www.tacinc.org) and the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) website (www.nlihc.org) are also good sources of information.  The NLIHC site can help you learn how to contact Members of Congress.

You can also contact your PHA to find out whether they are being negatively effected by HUD’s new fiscal policies for the voucher program.  You can begin this conversation with your PHA by asking this simple question: “Will the PHA’s Section 8 program be adversely effected by HUD’s April 22, 2004 notice?”  If the answer is yes, ask for more information regarding exactly what the PHA plans to do to cut Section 8 voucher program costs.  You want to take note of any effort to terminate current Section 8 tenants, lower rents to landlords, raise tenant rents, or hold back “turnover” vouchers.  Ask the PHA what they are doing, if anything, to contact their Congressional delegation and offer to help.  Let the PHA know that disability organizations can sometimes have a greater impact on this issue with Members of Congress than PHAs – because people with disabilities and their families may be harmed by HUD’s actions.

HUD Mismanagement of 60,000 Disability Vouchers

Another critical Section 8 problem that the disability community can help to remedy is HUD’s continuing mismanagement of approximately 60,000 Section 8 disability vouchers.  These valuable housing resources were created by Congress specifically for people with disabilities. Despite this Congressional mandate, many of these vouchers may have been given to households without disabilities.  Housing advocates for people with disabilities can help re-direct these vouchers to people with disabilities by helping to educate and monitor the PHAs that administer them.

These disability vouchers fall into two basic categories:

1. An estimated 12,090 “Mainstream” Section 8 vouchers that are actually funded from HUD’s Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program (see box at right for more information).  The table on page 8 lists those PHAs with Mainstream vouchers; and
2. An estimated 49,590 additional Section 8 vouchers set-aside by Congress for people with disabilities (see page 16 for more information).  The table on page 12 lists those PHAs with additional disability vouchers.

HUD’s Lack of Guidance  

Although there are very specific aspects of HUD’s mismanagement of disability vouchers, these problems can be summed up in one simple sentence: HUD has done an extremely poor job communicating with PHAs regarding disability vouchers.  In fact, until recently, no HUD program guidance on these vouchers set aside for people with disabilities had been issued by HUD other than the original Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs), some of which were published as far back as 1997!

On August 5, 2004 HUD finally released some limited guidance regarding these vouchers in PIH Notice 2004-13: New Codes for Special Programs Reported on the Family Report.  This Notice provides brief instructions for PHAs to collect and submit data to HUD on vouchers set aside by Congress for people with disabilities.  This Notice states that the requested data will allow HUD to “track the usage of funds awarded or assigned to PHAs through the Housing Choice Voucher program for special populations, particularly non-elderly disabled families.”  Although this Notice is a step in the right direction, it is unclear how it will improve access by people with disabilities to these set aside vouchers if they are no longer being targeted to people with disabilities by PHAs.

Despite the recent HUD’s Notice, many PHAs may still:

• Not even know they have these vouchers in their Section 8 program; and

• Not be aware of their legal obligations regarding these Section 8 vouchers that Congress set aside for people with disabilities.

HUD’s lack of comprehensive guidance to PHAs means that disability housing advocates must first help PHAs determine if they have any vouchers from one or more of these disability set-aside programs.  To assist with this task we are publishing the complete list of PHAs with set-aside vouchers in this issue of Opening Doors.  If a PHA in your area is listed, disability advocates should contact them as soon as possible.  Bring this issue of Opening Doors with you so that the PHA can see exactly what disability vouchers HUD awarded them in prior years.

Section 8 Mainstream Housing Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Program 
(Section 811-funded vouchers with five-year renewable Annual Contributions Contracts)