HUD FY 2023 budget saves subsidized housing units for the poor

HUD FY 2023 budget saves subsidized housing units for the poor

By Lynda Carson - December 24, 2022 (Christmas Eve Special - Housing News Report)

Oakland - In recent days, Congressional leaders passed the omnibus spending bill that includes funding until late September 2023 for HUD’s subsidized housing and homeless programs in Oakland, and across the nation. Thankfully, the nation’s poor in HUD’s subsidized housing programs are spared from becoming homeless due to massive budget cuts that may have occurred if the Republicans had it their way in this years federal budget process.

Thanks to the Democrats and a few Republicans, over the objections of right-wing fascist Republican. Kevin McCarthy and other GOP fascists, the Democrats passed the final omnibus spending bill providing HUD’s subsidized housing programs with $61.8 billion in funding, around $8.1 billion in funding more than the FY 2022 levels.

In contrast to the $858 billion dollar defense budget for the over bloated Pentagon and the greedy arms manufactures that have corrupted and bought off our nation’s Congressional leaders, HUD’s budget for it’s subsidized housing and homeless programs appear to be a mere pittance in comparison.

Especially, during such a militaristic period in our country, that appears to be on the verge of exploding into a nuclear war with the Russians over the war in the Ukraine, at any given moment.

According to Defense News, the omnibus spending bill includes emergency funding of $27.9 billion for Ukraine in addition to a whopping $69.3 billion budget increase over last years over bloated military budget for the Pentagon. This over bloated militaristic budget legislation may just keep the greedy arms manufacturers and their share holders happy for the next FY 2023 budget season. Meanwhile, the middle class and the poor tax payers get stuck paying off the Pentagon budget spending bill because the rich continue to get away with not paying their fair share of taxes.

HUD’s Housing Budget For FY 2023

According to a December 22, 2022 report from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), in part it reads, “The final spending bill provides funding increases to many programs compared to FY22, including significant funding for NLIHC’s top priorities. Enough funding is provided to renew all existing contracts provided through Housing Choice Vouchers ($30.3 billion) and Project-Based Rental Assistance ($14.9 billion), and the bill expands rental assistance vouchers to an additional 12,000 households targeted to individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Other programs also received an increase in funding, including Homeless Assistance Grants ($3.6 billion), Public Housing Operating Funds ($5.1 billion), Native American housing block grants ($787 million), Housing for Persons with AIDS ($499 million), Section 202 Housing for the Elderly ($1.08 billion), Section 811 Housing for People with Disabilities ($360 million), and fair housing programs ($86 million).

Some programs received level funding compared to FY22, including the Community Development Block Grants program ($3.3 billion), HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program ($1.5 billion), Choice Neighborhood program ($350 million), and competitive tribal funds ($150 million).
Two programs received a slight decrease in funding: Healthy Homes ($410 million, down from $415 million in FY22) and Public Housing Capital Funds ($3.38 billion, down from $8 million compared to FY22).”

Local Housing Choice Voucher/Section 8 Units And Low-Rent Subsidized Housing Units

According to HUD’s current subsidized housing records for some of the local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), there are around 14,011 section 8 units in Oakland, plus 1,970 other subsidized low-rent housing units. San Francisco has around 15,878 section 8 units, plus 640 low-rent units. South San Francisco has 80 low-rent units. Alameda has 1,893 section 8 units. Berkeley has 2,080 section 8 units. Richmond has 409 low-rent units. Alameda County has 7,013 section 8 units. Marin County Housing has 2,384 section 8 units, plus 496 low-rent units. And Contra Costa County has 9,417 section 8 units, plus 963 low-rent units.

In contrast during February of 2017, the following information below allows you to see the differences compared to the subsidized housing records listed above; As an example, the above records reveal that the City of Richmond no longer has the section 8 units that appeared in the following records below.

According to HUD, in 2017 there were approximately 1.2 million households living in public housing units, managed by around 3,300 Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) across the nation.

According to HUD, the Oakland Housing Authority had 13,422 federally subsidized housing units in it’s section 8 inventory, and 2,122 units in it’s low rent inventory, formerly known as public housing units.

San Francisco had 9,711 units in it’s section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and 3,756 units in it’s low rent inventory. San Francisco is in the process of privatizing more than 4,584 public housing units under the RAD program. South San Francisco has 80 units in it’s low rent inventory.

The Richmond Housing Authority had 1,851 units in it’s section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and 559 units in it’s low rent inventory.

Berkeley Housing Authority had 1,935 units in it’s section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and has sold it’s 75 public housing town homes to some out of state billionaires.

Alameda Housing Authority had 1,845 units in it’s section 8 subsidized housing inventory. The Alameda County Housing Authority has 6,341 units in it’s section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and one low rent housing development managed by the agency.

In Contra Costa County, there were 6,921 units in their section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and 1,177 low rent units.

In Marin County, there were 2,162 units in their section 8 subsidized housing inventory, and 496 low rent units.

More Local Housing News:

Reportedly, in other local housing news, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors recently fast-tracked the approval of three ordinances that would place significant new restrictions on greedy landlords, including some ordinances to implement “just cause” for eviction protections, a rent registry, and a ban on landlords using criminal background checks in Alameda County.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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