by Sarah Jawaid, National Housing Conference
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) held a markup of its FY13 bill on April 17. Members of the committee acknowledge the difficulty of the decision and how the cuts ran deep with a total proposed budget authority of $53.4 billion, $3.9 billion less than 2012 enacted. The markup was brief with amendments to be considered at the full committee markup on Thursday. There were strong mentions of housing including: a rejection of short funding of Section 8 by Ranking Member Collins as an “ill-conceived budget gimmick,” strong support for CDBG, strong support of the HUD VASH program and homelessness prevention generally. Find the summary here.
- Section 8 Tenant-based rental assistance: $19.4 billion for housing choice vouchers. This level of funding is $482 million above the fiscal year 2012 enacted level.
- Public Housing: $1.99 billion for the public housing capital fund, an increase of $110 million above the fiscal year 2012 enacted level.
- Project-based rental assistance: $9.8 billion for the project-based section 8 program, including over $9.6 billion for the renewal of all project-based contracts for a full 12 months.
- Homeless Assistance grants: $2.15 billion for homeless assistance grants. This level of funding is $245 million above the fiscal year 2012 enacted level.
- Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $3.1 billion is provided for CDBG grant funding for States and communities across the Nation.
- HOME Investment Partnership: $1 billion for the HOME Investment Partnership program, which is equal to the fiscal year 2012 enacted level.
- Housing Counseling: A total of $135 million for housing counseling efforts.
- Sustainable Communities Initiative: $50 million within HUD’s Community Development Fund for the Sustainable Communities Initiative to promote integrated housing and transportation planning.
- Choice Neighborhoods: $120 million for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.