Administration Proposal Would Cut Housing Lifeline for People with Disabilities

The Bush Administration’s FY 2005 HUD Budget proposal calls for deep cuts in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.  The budget also would radically alter the fundamental design of the program by converting it to a block grant administered by Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) for the benefit of higher income households. The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force (CCD Housing Task Force) is strongly opposed to the Administrations budget proposal which would cut more than $1 billion from current funding levels.  We are also strongly opposed to the Administration’s ill-conceived proposal to convert the program to the Flexible Voucher Program – a block-grant type approach which would eliminate many of the critical protections people with disabilities have under the current Section 8 program. 

The CCD Housing Task Force is a coalition of national disability organizations working to promote access to affordable and accessible housing opportunities and community supports for people with disabilities.  People with disabilities have the highest level unmet need for housing assistance of any group eligible for federally subsidized housing.  In 2002, approximately 3.7 million non-elderly people with disabilities relied solely on federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits worth $545 per month. Priced Out in 2002(published by the CCD Housing Task Force and the Technical Assistance Collaborative) found that SSI recipients on average would need to pay 105 percent of their monthly SSI income to rent a modest one bedroom unit.  The individuals whom we represent, many of whom depend solely on SSI or other disability benefits, are current participants in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program or on Section 8 waiting lists. The Section 8 voucher program is central to their ability to have an opportunity to find affordable and accessible housing in the community.

Administration Proposal Would Seriously Harm People with Disabilities

The CCD Housing Task Force strongly believes that the Administration’s Flexible Voucher Program proposal would significantly erode housing assistance for the poorest people with disabilities.  We believe this proposal actually undermines stated Administration disability policy goals designed to promote community integration under the New Freedom Initiative and end chronic homelessness.

The Administration’s proposal would cause serious harm to people with disabilities in the following ways:

• Proposed reductions in funding of over $1 billion for FY 2005 would mean that at least 250,000 households, including at least 50,000 households with disabilities, would lose their Section 8 assistance within the next year.

• The Administration’s Flexible Voucher Program proposal would eliminate targeting to the lowest income households. The federal targeting is a current Section 8 program requirement that has helped people with disabilities to live in the community.  The new program could be used for households up to 80 percent of median income and dedicated exclusively to homeownership – closing the doors on many people with disabilities. 

• Under the Administration’s Flexible Voucher Program, people with disabilities could be required to pay much higher rents than they can afford.  Current rules limiting tenant rents to 30-40 percent of income would be eliminated.

• PHAs would be given incentives to assist higher income households, a policy that would result in fewer people with disabilities receiving vouchers.

• PHAs could establish time limits on voucher holders. When a person’s disability is permanent, their housing assistance should not be time limited.  A time limited voucher could force people with disabilities back into nursing homes, institutions and other restrictive settings, and homeless shelters.

• Congress would no longer have the authority - as it has for the past seven years  -- to target Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities who have lost housing due to elderly-only policies.  Over 50,000 people with currently funded disability vouchers would be at-risk.

Over the long term, the Administration’s budget projections for 2005-2009 clearly show further erosion in voucher funding – putting more people with disabilities at-risk of losing their Section 8 assistance.  By 2009, Section 8 expenditures would be more than $4.6 billion below what the Congressional Budget Office estimates would be needed to maintain the program’s current level of funding.  The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) projects that cuts of this magnitude would mean that 600,000 vouchers – or 30 percent of the vouchers currently authorized – would be eliminated.

People with Disabilities Need Section 8 Vouchers

People with disabilities have the highest level of unmet need for housing assistance of any group eligible for federally subsidized housing. The CCD Housing Task Force estimates that more than 3 million people with disabilities receiving SSI do not currently receive any housing assistance from HUD.  The current Section 8 program is literally a “lifeline” for people with disabilities who rely on SSI, as well as other low income people with disabilities who simply cannot afford the cost of rental housing. Section 8 Vouchers are needed by people with disabilities who have been negatively affected by the loss of housing opportunities because of federal “elderly only” housing policies.  Over 500,000 units of HUD public and assisted housing have “elderly only” policies, and more units are being designated “elderly only” every day.

The Administration’s Flawed Rationale

The Administration’s proposal and their statements defending it are seriously flawed.  The CCD Housing Task Force urges Members of Congress to treat this proposal with the same degree of skepticism and concern as it treated last year’s Housing Assistance for Needy Families (HANF) proposal.  One senior HUD official’s public statement, that the current program’s income-targeting requirements should be eliminated because they are not needed, can be rebutted by the fact that over 3 million people with disabilities below 30 percent of median income still do not receive federal housing assistance.1

HUD officials state that converting the current voucher program to a block grant is needed to control the programs “upward spiral in costs over the past two years”.  This statement is also misleading.  HUD’s failure to produce accurate data and projections on Section 8 program costs cannot be used to imply that Section 8 program spending is “out of control”.  The rising costs in the Section 8 program during the past few years are due in part to improved PHA voucher utilization -- as urged by the Congress -- and leasing of new vouchers authorized from 1999-2002. Other cost factors include the escalating rental market of the late 1990s (which has now stabilized) and higher subsidy levels needed by households who have recently lost employment.  CBPP’s analysis projects that spending for the voucher program for FY 2005 will grow by only 1.6 percent, which is lower than the rate of inflation.

Conclusion

The current Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is the most important federal housing resource to address the housing needs of those with low incomes. We believe that Congress should maintain its responsibility to protect people with disabilities who receive or need Section 8 assistance.  The CCD Housing Task Force urges Congress to fully fund the Section 8 voucher program in FY 2005, which means a $600 million increase over FY 2004 appropriation levels.

We also urge Congress to reject the Administration’s Flexible Voucher Program proposal.  This proposal is nothing more than another attempt by the Administration to achieve what they could not achieve in Congress last year, when bipartisan opposition to the HANF block grant proposal ensured its failure. We believe that Congress should continue to have the direct authority to ensure adequate funding for the program and to make decisions on how the Section 8 program is utilized. 

HUD’s role in administering the Section 8 program and monitoring the use of vouchers by PHAs is critically important.  HUD should be held responsible for devoting the necessary resources to carry out these responsibilities successfully. Many of the current problems with the Section 8 program can be attributed to HUD’s mis-management– including long-standing mismanagement of over 50,000 vouchers targeted to people with disabilities.  Most importantly, the Section 8 program should continue to be targeted to addressing the most critical housing needs in our country today – those of extremely low-income people including people with disabilities. 

CCD Housing Task Force:
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Association on Mental Retardation
American Network of Community Options and Resources
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Brain Injury Association of America
Easter Seals
Epilepsy Foundation
International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems
National Mental Health Association
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Spina Bifida Association of America
Technical Assistance Collaborative
The Arc of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy
United Spinal Association (formerly Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association)

 March 2004

1 All unassisted SSI recipients have incomes below 30 percent of median, according to TAC’s Priced Out in 2002 study.