HUD Proposes Landmark Changes to Public Housing

National People's Action opposes the bill in its current form, but could support it with significant changes, said Damaris Reyes, a NYCHA resident who is the executive director of the Good Old Lower Eastside and who testified on behalf of National People's Action. She agreed that public housing has major capital repair needs.

“It is because the current Administration, previous Administrations, and Congress as a whole have failed to act. Previous Congresses have turned their back on millions of Americans by refusing to adequately fund public housing,” she told the House committee. She said she was highly skeptical of relying on the private market. “Let us not forget that this is the same private market that just crashed our economy, took billions of taxpayer funded bailouts and aren’t fixing the mess they created,” she testified.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition supports the proposal, calling it “bold and forward thinking” in a statement.NLIHC President Sheila Crowley Crowley said in a statement that the changes were not perfect, but would provide a framework for addressing important challenges facing public housing. “The TRA proposal demonstrates HUD’s dedication to preserving our nation’s underfunded public housing while protecting tenant rights and establishing mechanisms to provide extremely low income people with more housing options,” she said.