Public Housing

Program Summary and Purpose

Public housing is housing that is owned by the federal government and is operated by local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs).  Persons living in public housing generally pay 30% of their monthly income toward rent, with the remaining costs being covered by the federal government.  There are over 3,200 Public Housing Authorities nationwide managing 1.2 million units of public housing.  In Minnesota public housing provides safe and affordable housing to 36,000 low- income people, including 12,000 children. There is public housing stock in 210 Minnesota communities, where it is owned and operated by 124 housing authorities.

The demand for public housing is far greater than the number of units available across the United States.  Wait times to get into public housing can often times be as long as 10 years in large cities.  According to federal guidelines, tenants who live in public housing must have incomes less than 80% of an area’s median income (AMI).  And, each year, 40% of new accepted applicants must be extremely low income (income at or less than 30% of AMI).  In addition to these federal restrictions, local PHAs can set additional application criteria as they see fit.

The construction of new public housing slowed significantly in the late 1970s (and ended entirely in the 1980s) after President Richard Nixon signed legislation into law to create the Section-8 housing program in 1974, which focuses on privately built affordable housing.  Since the mid-1990s, the number of Federal Public Housing units has been declining as units are demolished, rebuilt on a smaller scale, or converted into private housing that accepts Section-8 vouchers.

Current Status

Since no new public housing has been built in the last 20 years, housing policy advocates are focused on maintaining and revitalizing current public housing.  It is estimated that there is a backlog of nearly $22 billion in capital repairs needed to maintain the country’s aging public housing stock.  Capital funding for such repairs was only $2.5 billion in 2010.

The recent deterioration of public housing, coupled with the large sum of money needed to repair the housing stock, has led policymakers to seek new alternative uses for public housing.  Current programs such as HOPE VI have aimed to rehabilitate public housing by turning it into privately managed mixed-income developments.   Policymakers are looking to expand the HOPE VI program under the Choice Neighborhoods initiative.

What advocates need to know

The future of federal public housing in the United States is uncertain.  While the program provides large amounts of much-needed affordable housing, federal housing policy has shifted away from building and maintaining housing, instead focusing on offering Section-8 vouchers to tenants and leaving the construction and upkeep of affordable housing to the private sector.  The high cost of maintaining public housing has led policymakers to search for ways to reform the nation’s public housing stock in a way that is both financially viable and helpful those in need of affordable housing.

Advocates should contact their legislators and ask them to support the proper upkeep and maintenance of our country’s public housing and work to decrease the large backlog of repairs required by public housing units across the country.