Other State and Local Solutions

The federal programs currently in place to provide affordable housing to Americans are already woefully inadequate. The Bush administration is threatening to further weaken these programs.  The responsibility is on state and local officials to address this affordable housing crisis. Listed below are some innovative programs that have proven successful from around the country.

Affordable Housing Trust Funds

• The Los Angeles City Council approved spending for a $100 million  housing trust fundon February 11th, 2003.  The plan calls for spending 60 percent for multifamily rental projects; 20 percent for homeownership projects; 5 percent for emergency rental assistance; and 5 percent for administrative costs. The remaining 10 percent would remain flexible, with some priority to preserving existing affordable housing.  The program will be in part funded from the  California Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fundthat was passed by voters in 2002 under Proposition 46. The state created the fund by issuing a bond for $2.1 billion.  This bond will cost the state about $157 million/year over the next thirty years to pay off.

• Minneapolis City Council approved the creation of an affordable-housing trust fund on January 31st, 2003.  $10 million have been dedicated for 2003.

• Hard-Won Victories in DC and LA as reported in the  NLIHC newletter from 1/18/02:

Housing advocates in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., each won major local housing trust fund victories this month, completing campaigns that began in the 1990s.

Three-and-a-half years ago, the leadership of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing recognized that the housing crisis in Los Angeles would remain intractable until substantial quantities of affordable housing could be built there.  The goal was $100 million a year. Victory was targeted for December 2001.

In the 40 months since, advocates conducted 46 housing tours, were part of more than 60 media stories and op-eds, hosted a housing/business summit, convened scores of meetings, made dozens of presentations and thousands of phone calls-and built Housing LA-a campaign coalition of housing, tenant, labor, religious, environmental, and business advocates.

Throughout the campaign, advocates had to navigate a changed political climate as the city's budget went from surpluses to recession. "We accommodated the change but kept our eyes on the prize," said SCANPH Executive Director Jan Breidenbach. Then-just two weeks after the original deadline-victory came. On January 17, Mayor James Hahn announced the creation of the Housing Trust Fund. Phased in over the next 2 1/2 years, the full $100 million annual allocation commences July 2004. In his speech, he cited figures from NLIHC's Out of Reach 2001 that demonstrate the need for affordable housing in Los Angeles.

"The trust fund happened because almost one hundred committed activists and supporters worked to make it so," Ms. Breidenbach said. "The victory belongs to everyone."

In the District of Columbia, advocates have been working since fall of 2000 to get City Council to include in its housing legislation amendments that would ensure that city housing funds help residents with the greatest need, would help renters as well as homeowners, and would not displace current residents.

In mid-January, the community won funding and favorable targeting for the Housing Production Trust Fund, which could provide up to 1,000 units a year. With the victory, 40% of the funds must be spent on families at or below 30% of area median income. The mayor had proposed allowing all allocations to benefit residents at up to 80% of area median income, or $68,500 for a family of four. In addition, at least half the trust fund dollars must be spent on rental projects.

Mayor Anthony Williams opposed the rental and income targeting because he feared the restrictions were inflexible and would limit construction opportunities.

From the time Mayor Williams' plan was unveiled in October of 2000, residents attended workshops on the legislation, sent more than 1,000 postcards to Council members, filled petitions, and testified at every city council and committee meeting. Sczerina Perot of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, one of the coalition's lead organizations, said more than 50 residents signed up to testify at each hearing.

"People were really ripe to do something because they had been awakened by recent property condemnations and a hot housing market that threatened to displace many residents," Ms. Perot said. "This was a pretty charged constituency."

The community included residents from the city's many gentrifying neighborhoods and organizations as wide-ranging as the Council of Latino Agencies, the League of Women Voters, and the Washington Regional Network. A full-time organizer from Washington Inner-City Self Help was instrumental in bringing supporters together.

Significantly, advocates in D.C. also won a non-discrimination clause for Section 8 residents. Federal law offers no such protections.

• The National Housing Trust Fund Campaignhas outlined the logistics of creating a national trust fund.

Section 8 Anti-Discrimination Laws

One policy gaining momentum is legislation that makes it illegal to discriminate against prospective renters based upon their source of income, such as a Section 8 voucher.

Cities and states with Section 8 anti-discrimination laws

Gautreaux Program

The Chicago Gautreaux programwas established in the late 1970’s on a court order to desegregate the metropolitan area. Under the program, black families that are eligible for public housing receive Section 8 vouchers for use only if they are willing to move to a racially mixed or predominantly white neighborhood.  Families are assisted in using their vouchers by the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities.  Between 1976-1998, 7500 families have moved as part of the program.  The results from the program seemed to show that adults have more employment success and children were more likely to complete high school and more likely to attend college.  More recently, in late November of 2001, the program was resurrected by the Chicago Housing Authority and the Leadership Council.  The CHA is currently being sued however, for pushing public housing residents into mostly black and crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Moving to Opportunity Program

Inspired by the success of Chicago’s Gautreaux Program, HUD has been authorized to implement the  Moving to Opportunity Programby Section 152 of the 1992 Housing and Community Development Act, which helps families eligible for public housing move from neighborhoods where 40% or more of the population is poor to neighborhoods with 10% or less poverty rates.  The sites for the program chosen were Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.  For more info, go to the  HUD site.

The materials in this package come in large part from the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University,  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,  National Low Income Housing Institute,  National Housing Law Project,  Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and  the Innovative Housing Institute.  The Service Center would like to thank these groups for mapping out the high road on reforming the state affordable housing system.

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