Acting Secretary Todman, Key Lawmakers Meet with PHADA
PHADA President Mark Gillett.
PHADA held its annual Legislative Forum September 8–10. For the first time, we were at the new and bright Royal Sonesta Hotel on the Senate side of Capitol Hill. As always, the meeting was timely, providing us the opportunity to meet with HUD officials, members of Congress, and their staff as they work on HUD appropriations and other legislation. While in Washington, PHADA’s various committees also addressed some policy objectives and other organizational priorities.
The 2025 Budget and the Secretary
The major issue right now is the FY 25 federal budget. Members fanned out across Capitol Hill to advocate that lawmakers adopt a Continuing Resolution to buy more time so they can finish the appropriations process – we hope before this year’s end. We will press this point and ask Congress to enact appropriations that are more consistent with the Senate’s higher amounts for our programs. The figures are outlined in PHADA’s appropriations Position Paper, which is available here.
Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman kicked off our meeting and discussed the current appropriations situation, the voucher shortfall and, most urgently, the need to produce more affordable housing. We appreciated her remarks and the fact that she took the time to meet separately with members of the Executive Committee to listen to our suggestions and concerns.
PHADA’s Committee Work
The PHADA Board of Trustees considered some policy-related items coming out of our committee meetings. One of the most prominent issues, of course, is the unprecedented HCV shortfall.
Many HAs, including mine, are experiencing shortfalls in our voucher programs. As I wrote in my last column, there are several reasons for this predicament, including rental cost spikes, inadequate FMRs and low inflation factors. Our Board adopted a position to urge HUD to ensure that HAs are not unfairly penalized next year for lower leasing levels because of reserve offsets. Similarly, we will make the case that HAs should not see lower admin fees (based on lower leasing) in the 2025 budget cycle.
Our committees also raised questions about HUD’s current HIP/HOTMA timelines, and we continue to press the Department to inform HAs of the revised compliance date. As it stands now, the official date is January 1, but no one expects that to happen, which is why HUD needs to clarify the situation very soon.
The Build America Buy America (BABA) regulation is now technically in effect even though most of our funding is not yet subject to its provisions. PHADA believes the regulation, while well-intentioned, will result in cost increases and construction and maintenance delays, among other problems. At a minimum, we think HUD should provide HAs with more exemptions and waivers than the ones on the books. You can read more about the BABA timeline, available waivers, and other details here.
Other HUD Officials and Two Leading Representatives
We appreciated that Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for PIH, Richard Monocchio, and others addressed our group. Among other topics, they discussed inadequate Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) rents, the operating fund shortfall, and the need for more voucher funding. HUD staff also noted that the Streamlined Voluntary Conversion program has been halted by a recent court case (see the separate article on page 3). Other panels covered the latest revisions to RAD, NSPIRE and the pending rule on criminal background checks and tenant screening.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), who grew up in public housing, has been a recurring speaker at our meetings and once again made inspiring remarks about the need for Congress to dedicate more resources to public and assisted housing programs. We were also pleased that Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) addressed the group. Womack is the chairman of the House T-HUD appropriations subcommittee. Among other things, he voiced staunch support for repealing HUD’s ill-advised 30-day notice rule, which has driven up our tenant accounts receivable.
Conclusion
The Legislative Forum was quite productive. I want to thank the hundreds of members who took the time to come to Washington. I am looking forward to seeing even more of you, commissioners, and first-time attendees at our Commissioners’ Conference in Miami this coming January. We will have several informative sessions featuring the latest on the 2025 HUD budget, the new Administration and Congress, HOTMA, BABA, training for new EDs and other key issues. For ;schedule and registration information, please visit PHADA’s website.