NLIHC President Sheila Crowley Testifies on Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Proposal

National Low Income Housing Coalition President
Sheila Crowley testified before the House Financial
Services Committee today on the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI),
which is
the Obama Administration's proposal for the next iteration of the
controversial HOPE VI public housing program. As written, CNI is
intended to
transform neighborhoods with distressed housing, including federal
public or assisted
housing. However, it would ultimately provide little help to the
millions of
low and extremely low income people most in need across the country.

Ms.
Crowley
offered suggestions for improving the CNI proposal, but also renewed
her call for the Administration to secure $1 billion in funding for the
National
Housing Trust Fund and 250,000 new housing vouchers. Each would have a
positive
impact on the lives of many more people with extremely low incomes, she
said.

CNI is intended to transform neighborhoods with
distressed housing,
including federal public or assisted housing, into thriving communities.
CNI is
based on the HOPE VI program, which was developed in the early 1990s and
of
which NLIHC has been critical. While HOPE VI is credited by some with
creating
"restored" communities, the program came with a very high cost. In
many HOPE VI projects, original residents were displaced, and the
demolition of
units helped to contribute to the shortage of rental homes that the
lowest
income people could afford.

Ms. Crowley testified
that in addition to CNI being rooted in the HOPE VI program, the
proposal has
its own flaws. Ms. Crowley made several recommendations to increase the
potential of the program. These include:

• CNI grantees should be required to
  develop and adhere to a long term Affordability Plan, which would
  include an
  initial assessment of housing affordable to extremely low and very low
  income
  households (both assisted and unassisted) in the neighborhood. It is
  critical
  that communities preserve and work to increase subsidized and private
  housing
  that is affordable to the lowest income people.
• The proposal's one-for-one
  replacement of each unit of housing provision needs to be made
  stronger and clearer. The
  new proposal does not make any changes to the original CNI draft
  provision on
  one-for-one replacement, which NLIHC fears could potentially result in
  the loss
  of units, or strengthen CNI's resident participation requirements, which
  NLIHC recommends.
• The funds provided for resident
  participation and services should be realistically based. The proposal
  would
  place restrictions on the use of CNI funds: no funds could be used to
  construct
  or rehabilitate a school; not more than 15% could be used for supportive
  services; and not more than 15% could be used for non-housing
  activities, such
  as parks, commercial facilities, and public transit.

Ms. Crowley concluded her testimony by stating
that the affordable
housing crisis has reached a critical tipping point. The Administration
and
Congress must act now if a real solution to help those in dire need of
assistance is to become a reality.

"The Obama Administration and Congress should tackle the macro problem
of
the shortage of homes that are affordable to the neediest of our
citizens. We
urge that an agreement be reached soon on how to provide the initial
capitalization of the National Housing Trust Fund," said Ms. Crowley.
"This should be followed quickly by agreement on long term revenue
sources to allow the program to go the scale needed to actually change
the
supply side of the supply and demand equation for housing that the
lowest
income people can afford. Revenue sources need to be sufficient to reach
the
goal of 1.5 million new homes over ten years."

Other
witnesses
at the hearing include: Shaun Donovan, Secretary, U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development; Orlando Cabrera, former Assistant
Secretary for
Public and Assisted Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development
and CEO, National Community Renaissance; Sheila
Crowley, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing
Coalition; Edward Goetz, Director, Center for Urban and Regional
Affairs,
University of Minnesota; Nancy Rockett Eldridge, Executive Director,
Cathedral
Square Corporation; Jill Khadduri, Principal Associate, Abt Associates;
Saul
Ramirez, Executive Director, National Association of Housing and
Redevelopment
Officials; and Kristin Siglin, Vice President and Senior Policy Adviser,
Enterprise Community Partners.

Ms.
Crowley's
full testimony is available at: https://www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=6859&id=130