Multi-Housing News: First Step to Expanding Affordable Housing: More Research

The number of Americans with severe housing insecurity increased by roughly 40 percent from 2005 to 2015, while the number of households receiving federal support dropped 15 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Worst Case Housing Needs 2017 report. At the same time, a new report by Urban Institute—The Case for More, Not Less—shows that currently only one in five eligible renter households receives housing assistance. Recent changes to tax legislation, the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s A Better Way plan are largely expected to negatively impact the low-income housing sector. The administration’s budget proposes cuts to non-defense discretionary programs—an initial cut of about 13 percent in 2018 ($57 billion) would be followed by annual 2 percent cuts through 2027—which Urban Institute research estimates will result in 1.8 million households losing housing assistance. Corianne Scally, a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at Urban Institute and author of the report, discussed with Multi-Housing News the affordable housing environment in this challenging context.