HUD FY 14 Budget

HAC Submits Testimony on FY14 Rural Housing Budget

April 26, 2013 – HAC submitted written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Agriculture, supporting strong funding levels for USDA’s rural housing programs in FY14. HAC told the subcommittee:

During the current recession it is particularly important to support the rural housing programs administered by USDA Rural Development’s Rural Housing Service (RD). The housing needs of low-income people in both urban and rural places predated the housing crash and will outlast it. RD’s programs have a long history of success in meeting these needs, and can help rural America not only to recover from the recession, but also to move forward. . . .

Related links to congressional hearings on FY14 funding for the rural housing programs:

• House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, April 16, testimony by USDA Secretary Vilsack
• House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, April 24, testimony by USDA Acting Under Secretary for Rural Development Doug O’Brien, Rural Housing Service Administrator Tammye Trevino, and others

Rural Housing Budget Disappointing, But Not Surprising

April 22, 2013 – Rooflines, the blog of Shelterforce magazine, published a HAC blog post analyzing the Administration’s FY14 budget request.

Administration’s Rural Housing Budget Emphasizes Loan Guarantees, Cuts Direct Loans and Self-Help

April 10, 2013 – The Obama Administration today released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2014. As expected, the budget cuts domestic spending, and the USDA rural housing programs are not spared.

The guarantee programs – Section 502 guaranteed for homebuyers and Section 538 for rental housing – remain the focus of the Administration’s rural housing strategy because they are “budget neutral.” Participants pay fees that cover the programs’ costs. The budget cuts the corresponding direct loan programs: Section 502 direct loans for homebuyers would fall from $900 million this year to only $360 million in FY14, and Section 515 direct loans for rental housing would fall from $31.3 million to $28.4 million.

The budget proposes to increase Section 521 Rental Assistance funding. The budget asserts that the proposed $1 billion will be enough to renew all RA contracts due to expire during FY14, but data are not available that would enable others to make their own calculations.

The MPR rental preservation demonstration program, which has seen wide fluctuations in funding from year to year, would receive a slight increase to $20 million from its FY13 level of $17.8 million, although the amount in this year’s budget is considerably lower than that in last year’s Administration budget.

The Administration again proposes to reduce funding for the Section 523 self-help program by two-thirds, from $30 million in FY13 to $10 million in FY14. The Section 514/516 farm labor housing program and Section 504 home repair loans and grants would be cut by lesser amounts.

The House and Senate are not required to use the Administration’s budget, or their own budget resolutions, as starting points for FY14 appropriations bills. [tdborder][/tdborder]

USDA Rural Devel. Program (dollars in millions)	FY11 Final Approp.a	FY12 Final Approp.	FY13 Admin. Budget	FY13 Approp. (H.R. 933)b	FY14 Admin. Budget
502 Single Fam. Direct (Self-Help Setaside) (Teacher Setaside)	$1,121 — —	$900 — —	$652.8 (141) (67)	$900 (5) 0	$360 0 0
502 Single Family Guar.	24,000	24,000	24,000	24,000	24,000
504 VLI Repair Loans	23.4	10	28	28	26.3
504 VLI Repair Grants	34	29.5	28.2	c	25
515 Rental Hsg. Direct	69.5	64.5	0	31.3	28.4
514 Farm Labor Hsg.	25.7	20.8	26	d	23.5
516 Farm Labor Hsg.	9.8	7.1	8.9	d	14
521 Rental Assistance (Preservation RA) (New Constr. 515 RA) (New Constr. 514/516 RA)	955.6 0 (2.03) (3)	904.7 0 (1.5) (2.5)	907.1 0 0 (3)	907.1 0 0 (3)	1,015 0 0 (3)
523 Self-Help TA	37	30	10	30	10
533 Hsg. Prsrv. Grants	10	3.6	0	c	0
538 Rental Hsg. Guar.	30.9	130	150	150	150
Rental Prsrv. Demo. (MPR)	15	2	34.4	17.8	20
Rental Prsrv. Revlg. Lns.	1	0	0	0	0
542 Rural Hsg. Vouchers	14	11	12.6	10	12.6
Rural Cmnty. Dev’t Init.	5	3.6	8	6.1	0
a. Figures do not include 0.2% across the board cut. b. Figures do not include 5% sequester or 2.5% across the board cut. c. Total for 504 grants and 533 grants is $33.1 million, the same as in FY12. d. The total budget authority for Sections 514 and 516 is $16.5 million in FY13, compared to $14.2 million in FY12.