By Charles Tassell
Back in 1994 Newt Gingrich kicked off what was ultimately a bipartisan revamp of the welfare system – except it didn’t address housing. The entitlement behemoth at HUD has since doubled in size and almost did again according to the 2024 Presidential budget requests. Congress has tinkered with programmatic tweaks, but little has changed, HUD is now at its largest staffing and growing. Programs lack results while encased in ever increasing red tape. The political ideal that HUD expand the American dream has collapsed into the swamp. In a DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) environment it’s time to consider more substantial changes that deliver on the core principle of smaller government serving closer to the community it supports.While housing may be called into question as a proper governmental prerogative, over 3 million families depend on HUD nightly and millions are impacted by Fannie and Freddie financing the majority of US mortgages. Communities across the country have come to depend on funding from DC for local programming that is often a misshapen one size fits all regulatory burden spawning a cottage industry of grant writers and compliance gurus; and too bad for those areas not wealthy enough to afford them – they don’t even know what to ask for, let alone how to do so!
With the winds of change in this new Trump administration, there are a number of programmatic changes that could start at the oft overlooked and often besmirched HUD, here are a few to consider. They could save money in the budget, lower the cost of housing and improve the services to those who truly need them. The American dream can be made great again and brought into the reach of everyday Americans.
- Require proof of citizenship or active Visa
All HUD subsidized housing through any agency fund, grant, loan, or insurance, shall require proof of US citizenship or active Visa.
- Made in American by Americans
All construction and rehab shall be performed by US citizens or active Visa residents.
- Stop taxpayer subsidy of drug use
Taxpayers across the country are required to take drug tests and yet their taxes support drug users living in government funded housing. State-based drug testing can be required of residents living in all forms of government subsidized housing, including public housing and Housing Choice Vouchers.
- Remove marriage penalty from housing.
The economic qualifications need to be redrafted to eliminate the penalty for married couples to be pushed out in favor of single parent residents. The structural opposition to the family and marriage is further destroying those in poverty – when studies have shown that couples are much more likely to rise out of poverty given the opportunity. The results of generations of governmental policy opposing family-focused housing have only increased the demand for more impoverished housing.
- Stop intergenerational housing, term limits on housing.
For the elderly and the disabled, the generous support of the American people will not stop. However, as President Ronald Reagan said, “Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them.” Allowing for unlimited subsidy allows for unlimited abuse. Housing was meant to be a safety net not a lifestyle. The bureaucracy has focused more on compliance and support, investing in growing the need to justify itself, rather than actually helping people. Every adult and child know the motivation of a deadline. No longer will the able be allowed to take advantage of the American Taxpayer and government housing. Work requirements have been waived and minimized, to the extent that intergenerational housing has become commonplace. Public housing, a resource contingent upon the US taxpayer, will be limited to 5-7 years for the able-bodied. Public housing support should be an escalator up to success, not an introduction to generational poverty.
- State Block Grants of Housing
All housing programs will be block-granted to states over a 3-year period, with a 10-year contract at current budget levels. Funding algorithms will be recalculated with duplicative programs consolidated, as per the 2020 Senate Budget Committee Report, “Housing Programs – The Need for One Roof”. States stepping up in the first year will receive a one-time 5% bonus to assist with transitional costs. In the third year, states will receive a 10% reduction in funds. States that refuse to accept the block grants will be considered to have no need for federal housing assistance.
- K-3 Education Prioritized Housing Grants – Breaking Cycle of Poverty
There are a few issues that destabilize a child’s education before third grade as much as unstable housing. Moving schools within a school year, especially for K through Third grade is significantly impactful for the educational development of the child.
Getting the first child of a family to learn to read is critical. That allows the next children in the family to prosper and be encouraged to be educated rather than poisoned against education. Staying in the same school is critical for consistent education, as well as an intra-grade focus on development.
Most public housing authorities have multi-year wait lists, especially in larger cities, that result in families with young children being delayed the opportunity to participate in stable housing. No longer. Families and single parents with an oldest child under the age of 5 will be enrolled in a 5–7-year Continuous Housing Education Program (CHEP). PHAs will be required to provide at least 10% of funds to this program. A key aspect of CHEP is to keep the participant in the same house, preferably, or at least the same school if a move is required. A time commitment is required from both the resident and the Housing Provider.
- Private actions not funded by the government.
The government shall not fund directly or indirectly private actions against violations. The Federal Bureau of Investigations is the current entity funded to investigate and address potential violations. The government does not need to fund vigilante services against private parties. Therefore, no HUD funds may be used for private actions. Everyone has a right to legal defense for criminal proceedings. Civil matters are personal and private and the government should not bring its weight to bear on civil matters.
- Banish Administrative Kangaroo Courts, per Chevron Deference.
Chevron Deference has made it clear that administrative courts are unconstitutional, and those who have been forced to try to prove their innocence in Fair Housing administrative courts know the unfairness. HUD will no longer fund administrative courts for fair housing cases nor provide funding in communities that utilize administrative courts for fair housing cases.
- Voluntary nature of HUD programs
HUD was designed, voted on and approved as a volunteer program. Any community that violates the volunteer nature of participation in HUD housing for the resident or the housing provider will lose all HUD funding.
- Market Support of HUD Programs
As the quintessential urban development department, HUD fully engages the necessities of market forces in growing, developing and redeveloping communities. HUD will support communities engaging in catalyzing and growing communities. However, HUD will no longer fund, support or participate in communities that stifle, reduce or cap housing prices, rents or developments. This is after all the “fastest way to destroy a community” and that is the opposite of HUD’s mission.
- Renewing and re-engaging Housing Providers
In many communities the Housing Choice Voucher goes unused by residents because it is declined by housing providers due to burdensome and delayed processing of applications, institutional disregard for contracts as well as the complicated and changing inspection regimes. The contract between a resident, a PHA and a housing provider shall not be changed after signing without at least a 60-day notice after the first year. The habit of changing lease amounts after a contract is signed will result in the removal of funding from the PHA and an inquiry of fraudulent action by the Inspector General.
- Removal of Expensive and Redundant Inspection Regimes
As the Housing Choice Vouchers are meant to allow resident to blend into the community and become part of the community, HCVs shall follow the building code standards of the local community and are not required to have any additional inspections. Project-Based rental programs shall be transitioned to municipal compliance as well. Compliance with local building and property codes will be considered acceptable for that community. The cottage industry of consultants feeding on this process shall be eliminated creating real savings for affordable housing.
- Community Protection Act – Securing Background Checks
HUD programs are to be best in class and should never represent a threat to the community. Housing providers and PHAs are required to complete civil and criminal background checks on residents upon initial rental and every three years thereafter. States or municipalities that reduce, interfere or eliminate the ability of housing providers or PHAs to run background checks will be exempted from all HUD programs and funds.
- Grant Compliance Simplification
As current processes are a byzantine and varied structure for bureaucratic control that requires outside consultants to comply, eating into the very limited grant funds, a few changes are in order:
- HUD will use the same definition for homelessness as the VA and Education grants, i.e. class 1, 2, & 4.
- Compliance will be annual, not monthly or quarterly.
- A simplified and uniform compliance form shall be developed.
- Unified Funding Agents (UFA) shall be designated for all 400 grant areas – expanded from the current 14, thereby allowing greater local flexibility.
- Allow UFAs greater flexibility to address preventive measures around homelessness.
- Promoting Greater Development and Redevelopment of Housing
As the majority of Public Housing has a backlog of renovation requirements far exceeding Congressional funding levels, PHAs will be encouraged to sell properties to private entities or cooperatives, to the extent possible purchasers shall be offered Renovation loans as part of the package. Several PHAs have led in this area, including Columbus Ohio which manages vouchers, not property. History has proven that government is a poor landlord and property divesture needs to be expedited.
- Consolidation of Programs
Per the Senate Budget Committee 2020 & OMB 2018 recommendations HUD, USDA and VA should coordinate a process to allow HUD to administer housing for all 3 programs at a reduced compliance level.
- Transition from Brick-based bureaucracies to digital services
The welfare system has traditionally been a brick and mortar, 8:00 – 4:00 location-based solution that works for bureaucrats but doesn’t help travel challenged individuals, especially the poorest among us. A tech solution, rethinking services for all programs, must be available to every American – empowerment is the opposite of standing in a line.
