Focused On Housing Crisis, HUD Unveils 2024 Fiscal Year Proposed Budget

Posted on by TMN Editor

By SCOTT KIMBLER

Leaders at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have unveiled their proposed budget for FY 2024 and say funds will be directed at solving the nation’s housing crisis.

Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement that the proposed budget will help ensure every American has access to housing.

“The budget invests in Americans at every station in life – from those seeking to purchase a home to those who receive HUD rental assistance – and will ensure families across the country can live in communities that are safe, affordable, and resilient,” Fudge said.

HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman said during a press call that the budget reflects the Biden administration’s values and provides a blueprint of how federal officials wish to invest in America and lower costs for families.

“The president and Secretary Fudge believe that everyone deserves to live in a safe and affordable home,” Todman said. “Whether you rent or own, having a place to live that you can afford in a neighborhood with opportunities is the foundation of so much of our lives.”

Todman went on to explain the proposed budget takes an end-to-end approach.

“From homelessness to home ownership, from economic development to disaster recovery, it relies heavily on all of our partnerships across the country to help the people. It expands rental assistance to low-income households and increases the affordability of housing supply to reduce housing costs. It advances efforts to prevent and end homelessness. It prevents and reduces housing-related discrimination and expands ownership opportunities,” Todman said.

$73.3 billion is being requested for HUD, approximately $1.1 billion more than the 2023 enacted funding level. In addition, $104 billion for new mandatory affordable housing investments is being asked for by the administration.

Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner of HUD Julia Gordon spoke during the call about how the budget addresses aspects of the current housing crisis and how officials feel the government can close the gap between wanting a house and buying a house when costs have been driven so high, putting home ownership out of reach of many people, especially first-time buyers.

“The budget includes $10 billion in mandatory funding for a new first-generation down payment assistance program,” Gordon said. “This would provide down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers whose parents do not own a home and are at or below 120% of the area median income or 140% of the area median income in high-cost areas. This is particularly important for people who come from a low-wealth background who find the down payment to be an unsurmountable obstacle to home ownership.”

Gordon said officials have already acted to make homeownership more affordable for underserved borrowers who use FHA-insured mortgages by reducing the cost of mortgage insurance premiums by about one-third.

“Outside of the context of FHA, Ginny Mae (The Government National Mortgage Association) is requesting $550 million in commitment authority. This enables Ginny to do the incredibly important task of securitizing the many loans that FHA makes to borrowers, as well as all the other federal programs that support home ownership, and this commitment authority will allow them to fund approximately two million loans to borrowers from all these channels,” Gordon said.

General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Dominique Blom broke down the numbers on how the budget expands access to affordable housing and rental assistance.

“The proposed (budget) does this first through a housing voucher program,” Blom said. “This program serves 2.3 million low-income families today and with this budget we are seeking a $2.4 billion increase over the 2023 enacted level, to be an amount of $32.7 billion for the program, which includes an additional 50,000 vouchers for families to be served.”

Blom said the budget will expand rental assistance for all households in need. The budget includes $9 billion in mandatory funding to establish a housing choice program for all youth aging out of foster care and provides $13 billion to expand rental assistance for extremely low-income veterans.

Blom said the proposed budget could mean enhanced support for Native American communities.

“For our tribal communities, the budget requests over $1 billion for Native American Programs, which is $33 million more than the 2023 enacted level,” Blom said. “It includes $820 million for the Indian Housing Block Grant Program. This is the single largest source of Indian Housing Assistance.”

Blom said there are 1.7 million Americans who live in public housing. Half of those households are led by seniors and people living with disabilities.

Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Chang Chiu said the budget includes $90 million to support state and local fair housing enforcement entities and to further education, outreach, and training on rights and responsibilities under Federal Fair Housing laws.

Chiu broke down how the $90 million will be distributed if the budget is approved.

“The Housing Initiatives Program will receive $58.5 million to support grants to private fair housing organizations for enforcement and education and outreach on fair housing rights and responsibilities. This is $2.5 million more than the 2023 enacted level. The Fair Housing Assistance Program would receive $27.5 million and would support state and local civil rights enforcement agencies with grants, training, and technical assistance. This is $1.5 million more than the 2023 enacted level,” Chiu said.

The Limited English Proficiency program at HUD would receive $1 million to support language access services to increase awareness of HUD programs, Chiu said.

Chiu finished by adding the National Fair Housing Training Academy would receive $3 million to support training on fair housing and conciliation techniques.

On March 9, the Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. To read the full proposal, click here.

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