Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to join you in welcoming the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro.
Before I start today, I’d like to say a few words about our democratic clerk, Kate Hallahan, who is retiring as of today. Kate has spent the past 29 years in public service, and she is a model of what public service is about. She started her career in the office of Rep. Al Swift of Washington and worked at the Department of Transportation and on the Senate Appropriations Committee before joining the staff of the House Appropriations Committee in 2006. Kate’s expertise on transportation policy and the appropriations process is unparalleled, and she seems to know just about everyone on the Hill. She is tireless, determined, and creative in finding a way to get the job done, even against formidable odds. And she does it all with good humor and a cooperative, engaging manner.
Thank you for your service and counsel Kate. I wish you the best, but I and many others will miss you. Congratulations on a well-earned retirement!
Now, turning to the request before us, the FY 2017 HUD budget request provides $38 billion in resources, a $628 million reduction from last year’s level. The lower number comes from higher anticipated receipts, although I expect the receipts number to change once CBO scores the request.
As in the Department of Transportation, the constraints of the budget agreement, which only partially corrects the distortions of sequestration, mean that it is likely that the bill we put forward will not sufficiently address the known needs for housing in our communities. An estimated three out of four eligible low-income households do not receive federal rental assistance due to funding limitations. And it’s well known that most public housing authorities are overwhelmed with multi-year wait lists for access to subsidized housing. The resources available to this subcommittee make it virtually certain that we can only address the most pressing needs, rather than thinking boldly about the future of housing.
Underscoring this reality, more than three-quarters of this budget request is dedicated simply toward maintaining current tenants in housing. In this budget environment, simply keeping pace with our existing obligations is a difficult task.
We know that we have a maintenance backlog of over $25 billion in our nation’s public housing stock. Unfortunately, in this era of fiscal fundamentalism, providing the budget resources to eliminate this backlog is impossible. Even the more manageable goal of simply keeping up with the annual accrual need-about $3 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund each year-remains out of reach.
Our states are struggling to provide housing and opportunities for people with disabilities. Yet, this budget would provide no additional resources to build new housing for this extremely vulnerable segment of the population. Similarly, we have built no new Section 202 rental housing for the elderly for years. This budget would not change that.
Even after the disaster in Flint-which exposed the dangers of underinvestment in our infrastructure and the persistent threat of lead in many communities-the budget requests flat funding for lead hazard reduction activities. This is despite the clear need for more resources. In fact, in FY 2015, the Department could only fund about half of the applicants seeking to remove the presence of lead from their local housing stocks.
I hope this request reflects a belief inside the Administration that Congress intends to deal with this issue, rather than a belief that we do not need increased resources to address this health hazard.
Simply put, this budget request lays bare the difficulty of allocating sufficient resources for our housing and community development priorities, especially when the Republican Majority continues to insist on misguided and arbitrary constraints on discretionary spending. Meanwhile, mandatory spendingand tax expenditures-the primary drivers of our long-term deficits-remain unaddressed.
Despite these concerns, there are several bright spots in the budget request I do want to highlight. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a program that revitalizes and transforms communities by modernizing aging public housing, received a modest increase.
The request also includes $88 million for new resources for homeless families with children. And to confront the challenges of housing in Indian country, the request includes targeted increases in programs for Native Americans to improve living conditions and provide economic opportunity.
I’m also pleased the budget request again proposes to update the statutory formula for the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS program-HOPWA-to ensure that our limited federal resources are allocated to jurisdictions with the most need. I’m hopeful HUD will continue to work closely with me and Members of the authorizing committees to ensure an updated formula is passed into law during this Congress.
Mr. Secretary, I look forward to hearing your testimony today and working with you on these important programs.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
