May 12, 2023
Marcia Fudge, Secretary
Adrienne Todman, Deputy Secretary
Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street SW
Washington, DC 20410
Dear Secretary Fudge and Deputy Secretary Todman,
As national civil rights and housing advocacy organizations deeply committed to fair housing, we are writing today to urge you to follow through on important regulatory reforms in HUD’s largest housing program, the Housing Choice Voucher program, to advance that program’s largely unrealized promise to affirmatively further fair housing and expand housing choices for low income families, the majority of whom are people of color.1
We understand that two long overdue civil rights advances in the voucher program are currently pending at the HUD – reforms to the Section 8 Management Assessment Program (SEMAP) and the scheduled expansion of the Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) program. Some of us have participated in “listening sessions” held by HUD on of both these pending programs, but we want to take this opportunity to further underscore the importance of these two programs in advancing civil rights and housing justice for the families you serve. As we will note below, both SEMAP and the expansion of the Small Area FMR program are necessary to meet HUD’s obligations to affirmatively further fair housing in the voucher program.
First, the SEMAP regulation: Based on the listening sessions held by HUD last year, we understand that HUD is finally considering, in the annual review of public housing agency (PHA) performance, a) progress in reducing voucher concentration (the proportion of families living in higher poverty neighborhoods) and b) progress in increasing the proportion of families who are able to access lower poverty neighborhoods, as mandatory factors in grading PHA performance. These measures are particularly important for programs located in metropolitan areas, where racial and economic segregation are often recognizable characteristics of the voucher program, and where voucher holders often struggle to use their vouchers to rent apartments in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Accountability for locational outcomes is crucial, especially for PHAs that take little responsibility for their fair housing obligations and continue, year after year, with policies and practices that steer families to high poverty, segregated neighborhoods. The Housing Choice Voucher program is supposed to provide real choice, and to affirmatively promote fair housing. Recent research has confirmed the long term benefits for families who move from higher to lower poverty neighborhoods,2 and confirmed that many families are indeed interested in making these moves.3 SEMAP is a crucial accountability mechanism to encourage PHAs to provide these opportunities. We recognize that metropolitan PHAs have different areas of operations and different regional contexts – but these differences shouldn’t matter if PHAs are measured on their annual progress in helping families access lower poverty, often higher-opportunity neighborhoods, with significant
