The “other” Section 8 reform : Behind the scenes, HUD has been working to make small but important changes to the Housing Choice Voucher program to improve families’ housing choices and address the clustering of vouchers in high poverty neighborhoods. But the two most important changes have waited until the last year of the Obama Administration: the first regulation, an effort to shift to more rational, market-defined “Small Area Fair Market Rents,” was proposed in June, and the second – a reform to the Administrative Fee Rule, was proposed in July. This week,we joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in comments on the proposed administrative fee rule, accepting HUD’s invitation to propose a formula that would eliminate the disincentives to housing mobility that are built into the current system of fees paid to public housing agencies, and promote greater choice in the program. Our proposal calls for enhancements to the “base fee” paid to PHAs that are doing a great job helping families move to low poverty neighborhoods and communities, and a “supplemental fee” for lower-performing PHAs that are starting to do better in helping families move out of high poverty neighborhoods. Read our joint comments here.
New NCSD Policy Brief : Kathryn A. McDermott, Erica Frankenberg, and Elizabeth DeBray have prepared a new “Issue Brief” for the National Coalition on School Diversity, looking at the ways the Department of Education has learned from a weakly designed school diversity technical assistance program in 2009, in developing the new proposed “Stronger Together” competitive grants program. See the brief here.
Other events and resources:
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is hiring a housing policy analyst – a great position for anyone with the right qualifications who also enjoys reading these e-newsletters!
