June 5, 2014. The full Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY15 Transportation-HUD bill. HAC will post details of the funding levels here as soon as they are available.

Committee chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced she is working with Senate leadership to bring this and other appropriations bills to the floor beginning on June 16.

June 3, 2014. On June 3 the Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee approved a bill to fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal year 2015. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will meet June 5 to consider the bill. Full details are not yet available, but a statement released by full committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has some highlights:

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): $3.02 billion
• HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME): $950 million (as opposed to $700 million in the House bill)
• Section 8 Rental Assistance: $19.6 billion for tenant base rental assistance (including $75 million for HUD-VASH to provide housing for 10,000 additional homeless veterans)
• Section 8 Project-based Rental Assistance (PBRA): $9.7 billion
• Homeless Assistance Grants: $2.15 billion
• Choice Neighborhoods: $90 million
• Public Housing: $1.9 billion for the public housing capital fund and $4.48 billion for the public housing operating fund
• Native American Housing Programs: $720 million, of which $70 million is for the Indian Community Development Block Grant program.

HAC will post further information as it becomes available.

May 7, 2014. The House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee approved a spending bill for FY 2015, with a number of cuts in programs. Notable is that HOME would be reduced by $300 million, a 30 percent reduction from 2014. Also receiving reductions below current 2014 spending are programs for fair housing, HOPWA, lead-hazard control, public housing capital, and project-based rental assistance. Housing programs for the elderly and the disabled got increases. HUD’s SHOP program is funded as a setaside within the HOME program, following a recommendation in the President’s budget.

The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to act on this measure during the week of May 19, as part of a fast start to this year’s appropriations calendar. The bill marked up today is available at https://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-113hr-sc-ap-fy2015-transhud-subcommitteedraft.pdf. The table below has details.

HUD Programs Have Some Cuts, Some Increases in Administration’s Budget Proposal

USDA Budget

March 4, 2014: President Obama’s FY 2015 budget also has requests for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The budget proposes some cuts in important areas, but there are also proposed increases for many programs.

The good news is that accounts such as homeless assistance, public housing operating and capital funds, Sec. 202 housing for seniors, Sec. 811 housing for the disabled, tenant-based rental assistance, fair housing, housing counselling, and lead hazard control all have proposed increases. The Housing Trust Fund would receive $1.0 billion.

The bad news is that Community Development Block Grants and HOME would be cut, and small rural programs are zeroed out. The Rural Innovation Fund and its predecessor, the Rural Housing and Economic Development program, are not mentioned at all. As proposed in the President’s budget for 2014, the SHOP program would receive an appropriation of $10 million, but only as a setaside within HOME (which would be cut).
The table below has details. [tdborder][/tdborder]