Public-Housing Nemesis Revived: Lazio ‘Reform’ Bill Likely To Pass

Public-Housing Nemesis Revived: Lazio ‘Reform’ Bill Likely To Pass
by Glenn Thrush

Congress has gone on vacation without passing its long-delayed overhaul of the nation’s public-housing system, but the reprieve will be short-lived, according to Congress-watchers.

For two years, public-housing bills have languished in Senate and House committees, the product of Republican infighting and widespread opposition from low-income housing advocates. But in late June, City Limits reported that Long Island Republican Rep. Rick Lazio’s proposal, which would give preference to greater numbers of affluent tenants in public housing, had popped up in the House’s annual federal housing appropriations bill. That funding bill was passed out of committee without the Lazio measure attached, but it is likely to be tacked on to the appropriations bill when Congress reconvenes in mid-July.

“For the first time in a year there are serious negotiations on this bill,” said Linda Couch of the progressive National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The staffs are meeting right now to talk about all of this.”

The HUD funding bill, which was passed by the House Appropriations Committee, contained $100 million for 17,000 Section 8 vouchers to be set aside for welfare recipients going off the dole. But it now appears that House Republicans were using the HUD increases as a Trojan horse to sneak through their public-housing bill. According to analysts with the Washington-based National Housing Law Project (NHLP), a pending House-Senate compromise bill will include the following:

Under the new law, people making less than a third of their area’s median income would be guaranteed no more than 35% of public-housing units and 55% of section 8 vouchers. Currently, tenants with incomes below 30% of the median are given 75% of apartments and vouchers.

Seventy-five new public-housing authorities will be given waivers, freeing them from all existing housing regulations and tenants’ rights guidelines. “Time limits, like the five-year welfare time limit, could be instituted,” the NHLP predicts.

A provision barring Section 8 landlords from discriminating against poor tenants would be repealed.

Reprinted with permission from City Limits Weekly.