On March 3, Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Robert Aderholt (R-AL) introduced a bill (H.R. 4704) to update the funding formula for HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program to better target resources to people living with HIV/AIDS. The “Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Modernization Act of 2016” would require HUD to count cases of people living with HIV/AIDS rather than cumulative AIDS cases. Currently, HOPWA funds are distributed based on cumulative AIDS cases, representing people who are living with and who have died from AIDS. AIDS housing advocates have been working for years to update the formula. The change will allow jurisdictions with increasing populations of people living with HIV/AIDS to receive more funding.
H.R. 4704 would also require HUD to develop regulations that incorporate a poverty factor and a housing cost factor in the updated formula. HOPWA grantees who received an allocation in FY16 may still be eligible to receive future funds, subject to approval by HUD and the amount of funding Congress allocates to the program. HUD must reassess a grantee’s eligibility at least once every 10 years.
Mr. Price and Mr. Aderholt previously had sponsored a similar proposal that was attached as an amendment to the “Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act of 2015” (H.R. 3700). H.R. 3700 passed the House with bipartisan support and now awaits action in the Senate.
H.R. 4704 has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Learn more about the bill here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4707