The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates President Trump’s budget proposal would allow HUD to increase rents for up to four million HUD-assisted low income families by an average of $84 per month. The proposal could result in an average increase of 53% ($101 per month) for HUD-assisted households with children, 28% ($83 per month) for seniors, and 26% ($72 per month) for households headed by a person with a disability. Working households could see an increase of 29% ($111 per month). The increase could be more than $200 per month for 170,000 households. The report also provides the average change in rents for HUD-assisted households in each state and Congressional District.
The proposed budget includes multiple rent-related changes to HUD’s subsidized housing programs. The proposed budget:
- Authorizes HUD to increase the tenant’s contribution toward rent from 30% of adjusted income to 35% of gross income, eliminating the deductions that HUD-assisted households can currently use to reduce the income on which their rent contribution is based. HUD-assisted households are currently allowed to deduct from their income unreimbursed child-care, medical, and disability-related expenses. The elimination of these deductions will harm families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities;
- Eliminates utility reimbursements to the lowest income renters who pay at least some of their own utilities;
- Requires minimum rents of $50 per month, regardless of the household’s income;
- Authorizes HUD to modify voucher rules which could increase rents, including lower payment standards, higher minimum rents, or greater tenant contributions above 35% of income; and
- Prohibits enhanced vouchers issued to households living in subsidized properties that are converting to the private-market from covering rents higher than the regular payment standards, putting more households at risk of displacement.
The hardships imposed by these rent increases will disproportionately impact families with young children, the elderly, and the lowest income households. The elimination of income deductions would impact 3.7 million HUD-assisted households. Elimination of utility reimbursements would eliminate assistance of $77 per month, on average, for 460,000 families, nearly all of whom live in deep poverty. This elimination could push housing expenses to more than 60% of a household’s income, increasing the risk that these financially vulnerable households will have to make difficult trade-offs between paying for adequate food and other necessities or paying the rent. A minimum rent of $50 disproportionately impacts the elderly and people with disabilities, because the two programs that target them (Section 202 and Section 811) currently do not have minimum rents.
CBPP’s Trump Budget’s Housing Proposals Would Raise Rents on Struggling Families, Seniors, and People with Disabilities is available at: http://bit.ly/2tTKCda.
The impacts of some of these changes by state and Congressional district are available in Table 2 of the report’s appendix at: http://bit.ly/2umBW1e.