Raising voucher rent caps: HUD has been signaling increased flexibility on Housing Choice Voucher “payment standards” to deal with an increasingly tight rental market. PRRAC and the National Housing Law Project have put together a short overview of the new options that public housing authorities can use to increase payment standards – particularly in higher cost neighborhoods. In the meantime, HUD is also proposing changes in the calculation of voucher rent caps (Fair Market Rents and Small Area FMRs) for 2023 to address rapidly escalating rents in many regions of the country. We are hopeful that these changes will be meaningful enough to enable families to both stay in their current neighborhoods and also gain access to higher cost communities.
U.N. review of U.S. compliance with the CERD treaty: A U.S. government delegation appears before the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination next month in Geneva to review compliance with the race discrimination treaty the U.S. Senate ratified in 1994. This week “shadow reports” were submitted to the Committee by interested NGOs. We submitted reports on housing segregation and discrimination in the U.S. (with the National Housing Law Project and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights), and on school segregation and its consequences. See our submissions here.
Mobility Works training institute: Save the date for a two day training this fall in Baltimore October 24-25, 2022 covering best practices in pre and post move counseling, landlord outreach and recruitment strategies, tenant/client leadership, and taking advantage of voucher administrative flexibility. More details coming soon!
Other news and resources
New GAO report on school segregation: Following up on its 2016 report on segregation in K-12 public schools, a new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that, in the 2020-21 school year, “More than a third of students attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school—where 75 percent or more of the student population is of a single race/ethnicity” and “14 percent of students attended schools where 90 percent or more of the students were of a single race/ethnicity.” The report also analyzes the segregative impact of school district secessions over the past ten years.
More social housing resources: Partners for Dignity & Rights (formerly NESRI) has published a helpful report, “From the Ground Up: Community Centered Policies to Scale Equitable Development,” analyzing the speculative housing market, and documenting local campaigns in Baltimore to take back control of the land. The report will also be presented in a webinar next week.
