A group of 34 U.S. senators and 138 representatives sent a letter on January 17 to President Donald Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson sharing the legislators’ concerns about the negative impacts on affordable housing programs resulting from the partial government shutdown. The letter highlights several impacts – including the lack of funding for contract renewals of project-based rental assistance properties, inadequate resources for public housing capital repairs, and delays in loan processing – and urges the administration to end the shutdown to prevent harm to seniors, families with children, people with disabilities, and others who rely on HUD programs.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to Secretary Carson that expands on the specific consequences for HUD of an extended shutdown. Senator Brown also requested a written response that describes the specific steps HUD has taken to mitigate the impacts of the shutdown and urges Secretary Carson to work with President Trump to reopen the government.
House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) also wrote a letter to Secretary Carson claiming that HUD is failing to follow its Contingency Plan by not renewing project-based rental assistance (PBRA) contracts or providing funding for HUD homeless assistance grants during the shutdown. Her letter states that under the contingency plan PBRA contracts should “continue to receive funding during the shutdown as long as HUD has carryover funding to do so.” But over 700 contracts have already expired with hundreds more expected to lapse later this month. Additionally, some recipients of the Continuum of Care (CoC) program are expected to run out of funding as early as this month, despite the contingency plan’s promise to continue funding homeless assistance grants.
Read the joint letter at: https://bit.ly/2Fzy2s2
Read Senator Brown’s letter at: https://bit.ly/2QVVvoE
Read Chair Waters’s letter at: https://bit.ly/2AT5cix