Home | En Español | Contact Us | A to Z 

HUD Archives: News Releases


HUD No. 98-148
Further Information:For Release
In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-06851:30pm Tuesday
Or contact your local HUD officeApril 7, 1998

CUOMO SAYS HOUSE BILL TAKING $2.2 BILLION FROM HUD COULD FORCE NEARLY 1 MILLION INTO HOMELESSNESS OR SUBSTANDARD HOUSING

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo said today that nearly 1 million impoverished Americans - primarily mothers and their children, senior citizens and people with disabilities - could be forced into homelessness or substandard housing under legislation approved by the House taking $2.2 billion from HUD.

The House action comes when HUD is seeking about 100,000 additional rental assistance vouchers under the Section 8 program in its proposed 1999 budget. Congress has approved virtually no new vouchers since 1994.

"A rescission of this magnitude could tear apart the social safety net for some of the most vulnerable Americans," Cuomo said of the House legislation. "Impoverished mothers and children, grandmothers and grandfathers, and people with disabilities should not be thrown out their apartments. They should not be forced to live on the streets, to plead for space in overflowing homeless shelters, or to live doubled and tripled-up in overcrowded, substandard apartments."

The House of Representatives bill would take $2.2 billion from HUD reserves, which have already been designated by the Clinton Administration for use in 1999 for the Section 8 rental assistance program. More than 75 percent of funds taken under the bill to offset other spending comes from housing assistance. The measure won narrow passage in the House on a 212-208 vote on March 31.

Legislation passed by the Senate to pay for the same programs funded in the House bill does not require budget cuts by HUD or any other agencies to offset the emergency spending. The differing bills will go to a House-Senate Conference Committee to enable lawmakers to seek agreement on a single version.

The Clinton Administration has stated in a Statement of Administration Policy on the House bill: "The Committee bill finances emergency defense requirements with reductions in important domestic programs and is a breach of the firewalls enacted into law in the Balanced Budget Act."

The Administration Statement continues: "We should be able to provide disaster assistance to communities here at home and support for our troops overseas without violating last year's budget agreement or attaching extraneous political provisions. We urge you to avoid actions that will result in gridlock and that will be detrimental to our troops abroad and our citizens at home in a time of need. The President's senior advisors would recommend the President veto this legislation if it contains such offsets."

HUD's Section 8 program provides rental assistance for about 6.4 million poor people around the nation in 2.8 million apartments.

Cuomo said the House bill could take Section 8 housing assistance away from as many as 969,000 poor people living in about 420,000 apartments. About 45 percent of people losing assistance under the House bill are parents (primarily mothers) and children, about 37 percent are elderly and about 12 percent are people with disabilities. About 40 percent of the non-elderly and non-disabled households targeted under the House measure have wage-earners working in low-paying jobs. About 75 percent of the households that would lose assistance are headed by women. Section 8 households have a median income of about $7,500.

"To respond to a severe shortage of affordable housing, President Clinton has asked Congress to increase the number of Section 8 vouchers by about 100,000 next year," Cuomo said. "To instead cut the number of vouchers by 420,000 would create an even more severe shortage."

A HUD report to Congress last month on the nationwide shortage of affordable housing said: "Housing affordability is a fundamental structural problem in U.S. housing markets. The number of very-low-income renter households with the most serious housing needs did not drop between 1993 and 1995 despite robust economic growth during that period. Instead, the number with the "worst case" needs remained at 5.3 million, its all-time high. Households with worst case needs are defined as unassisted renter households that pay more than half of their income for rent or live in severely substandard housing."

The President's proposed budget seeks $585 million in new funds for 103,400 new Section 8 vouchers next year. A total of 50,000 of the vouchers would be provided through a new welfare-to-work initiative to provide stable housing to families struggling to move off the welfare rolls and join the workforce. A second initiative would provide 34,000 new Section 8 rental assistance vouchers for homeless people moving from shelter care into permanent homes. This aid would help ensure that homeless people who have benefited from HUD's Continuum of Care transitional housing programs have stable housing to ease their transition into the mainstream. The 1999 budget also asks for 8,800 new vouchers targeted to elderly Americans, plus an additional 10,600 Section 8 vouchers.

Rental assistance from HUD's Section 8 program enables poor people to rent apartments on the private market. People pay about 30 percent of their income in rent, and HUD pays the rest.

BREAKDOWN BY STATES AND SELECTED CITIES OF SECTION 8 HOUSING ASSISTANCE THREATENED BY HOUSE BILL

Here is a breakdown for every state and territory and selected cities showing the number of apartments and the approximate number of people who could lose housing under a House bill taking $2.2 billion of reserves from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reserves have already been designated by the Clinton Administration for use in 1999 for the Section 8 rental assistance program.

 

NUMBER

APARTMENTS

NUMBER PEOPLE

ALASKA

658

1,564

ALABAMA

5,179

12,701

ARKANSAS

4,627

11,383

ARIZONA

3,728

9,112

CALIFORNIA

55,111

135,685

COLORADO

4,578

10,825

CONNECTICUT

5,973

14,578

DIST. COLUMBIA

2,413

5,445

DELAWARE

903

2,136

FLORIDA

17,827

43,440

GEORGIA

9,333

21,578

GUAM

260

702

HAWAII

1,848

4,651

IOWA

4,602

11,120

IDAHO

1,174

2,894

ILLINOIS

14,296

34,946

INDIANA

9,092

20,648

KANSAS

2,971

6,564

KENTUCKY

6,078

14,567

LOUSIANA

6,651

16,533

MASSACHUSETTS

15,099

36,115

MARYLAND

8,409

20,248

MAINE

2,316

5,875

MICHIGAN

10,442

23,542

MINNESOTA

6,761

16,096

MISSOURI

8,579

20,718

MISSISSIPPI

4,534

10,403

MONTANA

1,551

3,460

N. CAROLINA

9,736

24,218

N. DAKOTA

1,679

3,946

NEBRASKA

2,718

6,521

NEW HAMPSHIRE

1,811

4,346

NEW JERSEY

12,286

30,322

NEVADA

1,473

3,564

NEW MEXICO

2,666

6,329

NEW YORK

35,732

88,142

OHIO

20,360

45,846

OKLAHOMA

5,150

12,500

OREGON

4,952

12,462

PENNSYLVANIA

16,601

39,274

RHODE ISLAND

2,485

5,620

PUERTO RICO

5,901

14,809

S. CAROLINA

4,917

11,589

S. DAKOTA

1,556

3,546

TENNESSSEE

8,024

18,121

MARIANAS

20

50

TEXAS

24,769

60,150

UTAH

1,494

3,708

VIRGINIA

8,005

19,436

VIRGIN ISLANDS

239

484

VERMONT

915

2,326

WASHINGTON

6,804

16,082

WISCONSIN

6,945

15,934

W. VIRGINIA

3,003

7,402

WYOMING

481

1,079

TOTAL U.S.

420,065

969,007

SELECTED METROPOLITAN AREAS

 

NUMBER

APARTMENTS

NUMBER

PEOPLE

ATLANTA

4,110

8,887

BALTIMORE

4,629

10,739

BOSTON

4,901

10,183

CHICAGO

8,988

21,566

CINCINNATI

3,671

8,076

CLEVELAND

3,778

8,652

COLUMBUS, OH

3,386

7,486

DALLAS

4,237

10,209

DAYTON, OH

2,235

4,985

DETROIT

3,947

8,016

HOUSTON

5,198

12,693

INDIANAPOLIS

2,828

6,353

JACKSONVILLE, FL

2,369

5,181

KANSAS CITY

3,182

7,310

LOS ANGELES

18,131

44,430

MEMPHIS

2,378

5,270

MILWAUKEE

2,939

6,738

MINNEAPOLIS

4,197

10,044

NASHVILLE

2,212

4,959

NEW YORK

19,496

47,350

OAKLAND, CA

3,676

8,721

PHILADELPHIA

4,425

10,073

PITTSBURGH

4,378

9,958

PROVIDENCE,RI

2,258

4,992

SACRAMENTO

2,764

6,472

SAN DIEGO

4,280

10,226

SAN FRANCISCO

3,252

7,493

SAN JOSE, CA

2,681

6,342

SEATTLE

3,263

7,924

ST. LOUIS

3,835

9,373

WASHINGTON, DC

5,682

13,337

Content Archived: January 20, 2009

Whitehouse.gov
FOIA Privacy Web Policies and Important Links [logo: Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity]
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street S.W.
Washington, DC 20410
Telephone: (202) 708-1112 TTY: (202) 708-1455
usa.gov