US Federal housing expenditures: Difference between revisions
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It is often said that United States Federal spending on low-income housing was ''cut dramatically, by 2/3 or more, in the early 1980s'' as part of President Ronald Reagan's general scaleback of social-services spending. This has long and influentially been asserted, for example, by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) in their "Without Housing" campaign: see "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness, and Policy Failures" [
However, the claim of large spending cuts is at least misleading, often made without evidence, and is strongly disputed by many analyses. In this article we will review various discussions of the point, and what evidence is referenced to conclude that low-income funding was or was not greatly reduced.
However, this is at least misleading, and arguably a mostly false claim. As various sources cited below explain, US Federal expenditures on low-income housing have increased substantially, in absolute and inflation-adjusted dollar terms, from the 1970s through Reagan's presidency, and to 2019. They have increased substantially in ''direct expenditures ''(spending, mostly through [[United_States_Department_of_Housing_and_Urban_Development_(HUD)|US Department of Housing and Urban Development]]), and additionally via ''tax expenditures ''with the [[Low-Income_Housing_Tax_Credit|Low Income Housing Tax Credit]] (LIHTC) program established in 1986. ▼
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However,
However, expenditures have mostly shifted away from creating publicly-owned housing, the numbers of which have decreased since the 1990s, and have shifted towards tenant vouchers (Housing Choice Vouchers) mostly used in private housing, and privately-developed, dedicated affordable housing supported by LIHTC. LIHTC has subsidized most of the new dedicated affordable housing built in the US since 1986, around 2.4M homes, but unlike older public housing and vouchers, it typically does not provide "deep affordability" i.e. for the poorest households, but rather serves households up to 60% MFI (Median Family Income). ▼
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It is often said that Federal funding of affordable housing has been sharply cut since 1980 -- to only 1/3 of pre-1980 levels, or cut 75% or 80%. However, upon inspection, these claims usually appear to refer to one of several views: <br/> <br/> a) cuts in HUD Budget Authority, which is the sum of all future contracted spending. This dropped sharply at several points starting in early 1980s, as Reagan and other administrations sought to scale back HUD expansion. This meant that, or was handled by, slowing the rate of issuance of new housing vouchers (which automatically renew so require large future budget authority), and by steadily reducing the lengths of HUD contracts. Actual spending outlays, however, on average have continued to rise. See [https://www.yimby.wiki/wiki/US_Federal_housing_expenditures#HUD_Budget_Outlays_vs_Budget_Authority HUD Budget Outlays vs Budget Authority] section below for further discussion. <br/> <br/> b) reductions in spending specifically on public housing, and in the total remaining number of public housing units.
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== References ==
Tucker, William.<sup>1</sup> (1990). "The Source of America's Housing Problem: Look in Your Own Back Yard." ''Policy Review'' (The Cato Institute), February 6, 1990. https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa127.pdf. <sup>1</sup>William Tucker is a former media fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of ''The Excluded Americans''.
Homelessness and Housing Policies, forthcoming from Regnery Gateway
▲*Badger, Emily. "Microsoft’s Leap Into Housing Illuminates Government’s Retreat." ''The New York Times'', Jan. 18, 2019. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/upshot/microsoft-seattle-affordable-housing-plan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/upshot/microsoft-seattle-affordable-housing-plan.html].<br/>
▲*Bell, Allison. "2019 Bill Largely Sustains 2018 HUD Funding Gains." ''Center on Budget and Policy Priorities'', February 15 2019. [https://www.cbpp.org/blog/2019-bill-largely-sustains-2018-hud-funding-gains https://www.cbpp.org/blog/2019-bill-largely-sustains-2018-hud-funding-gains].<br/>
▲*Congressional Research Service. "Overview of Federal Housing Assistance Programs and Policy." March 27, 2019. [https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL34591 https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL34591].<br/>
▲*Dolbeare, Cushing N<sup>1</sup>., and Sheila Crowley<sup>2</sup> (2002). "Changing Priorities: The Federal Budget and Housing Assistance 1976-2007." National Low Income Housing Coalition, August 2002. [https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Changing-Priorities-Report_August-2002.pdf. https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Changing-Priorities-Report_August-2002.pdf. ]<br/> <sup>1</sup>Founder and Chair Emeritus, National Low Income Housing Coalition<br/> <sup>2</sup>President, National Low Income Housing Coalition. <br/>
▲*Kimura, Donna. "Fiscal 2019 HUD Budget Approved: A spending package funds HUD at $44.2 billion, an increase from 2018."'' Affordable Housing Finance, ''February 20, 2019''. ''[https://www.housingfinance.com/news/fiscal-2019-hud-budget-approved_o https://www.housingfinance.com/news/fiscal-2019-hud-budget-approved_o]. <br/>
▲*NLIHC (2002): see [Dolbeare & Crowley, 200].<br/>
▲*Rice, Douglas. "Chart Book: Cuts in Federal Assistance Have Exacerbated Families’ Struggles to Afford Housing." Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, April 12, 2016.<br/> [https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/chart-book-cuts-in-federal-assistance-have-exacerbated-families-struggles-to-afford https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/chart-book-cuts-in-federal-assistance-have-exacerbated-families-struggles-to-afford].<br/>
▲*Rubin, Irene S. (2002). ''Balancing the Federal Budget: Trimming the Herds or Eating the Seed Corn?'' NY: Seven Bridges Press, 2002. <br/> Ch.8: Department of Housing and Urban Development. <br/> [https://books.google.com/books?id=owemAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA223&ots=52rFl1YuQ0&dq=HUD%20budget%20authority%20vs%20outlays&pg=PA220#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=owemAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA223&ots=52rFl1YuQ0&dq=HUD%20budget%20authority%20vs%20outlays&pg=PA220#v=onepage&q&f=false]<br/>
▲*Shashaty, Andre. "U.S. Cuts Back and Shifts Course on Housing Aid." The New York Times, Oct. 18, 1981. [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/18/realestate/us-cuts-back-and-shifts-course-on-housing-aid.html https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/18/realestate/us-cuts-back-and-shifts-course-on-housing-aid.html].<br/>
▲*Thompson, Lawrence L. (2006). "A History of HUD." Self-published, by 25-year employee of HUD. [http://monarchhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/hud-history.pdf. http://monarchhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/hud-history.pdf.]<br/>
▲*Western Regional Advocacy Project - WRAP. (2010). "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness, and Policy Failures." San Francisco: WRAP, 2010. [https://wraphome.org//wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Without-Housing.pdf. https://wraphome.org//wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Without-Housing.pdf. ]<br/>
▲*Yentel, Diane (2018). "Testimony of Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition Presented to the Financial Services Committee, United States House of Representatives. " December 21, 2018. [https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/12.21.201_diane_yentel_testimony.pdf https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/12.21.201_diane_yentel_testimony.pdf].
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