{"id":921,"date":"2018-04-25T22:41:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T02:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=921"},"modified":"2018-04-30T22:44:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T02:44:22","slug":"hud-floats-a-plan-intended-to-reduce-reliance-on-housing-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=921","title":{"rendered":"HUD Floats a Plan Intended to Reduce Reliance on Housing Assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
By\u00a0Glenn Thrush\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>April 25, 2018<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
Ben Carson, the secretary for housing and urban development, at a Senate hearing this month. The proposed legislation could triple rents on the poorest tenants in federally subsidized housing.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Erin Schaff for The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration has proposed legislation that could triple rents on the poorest tenants in federally subsidized housing as part of a push to redefine housing assistance as a temporary benefit instead of the permanent source of shelter it has become for millions of poor people.<\/p>\n

The legislation, spurred by Mr. Trump\u2019s conservative budget director, Mick Mulvaney, and drafted by aides to Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, would also allow local governments to impose work requirements on tenants in public housing deemed fit for work.<\/p>\n

The plan would also increase rents for elderly and disabled people after six years, agency officials said.<\/p>\n

But the new rules would hit the poorest residents hardest, with minimum monthly rents in public housing developments and for recipients of Section 8 vouchers rising to $150 a month from $50.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The increases would affect about 712,000 families over the next several years, HUD officials said. Rent hikes would gradually be phased in for tenants based on their income and other provisions that could effectively limit the amount of time some tenants would be allowed to remain in government-funded housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, it takes more money, millions of dollars more, to serve the same number of households,\u201d Mr. Carson told reporters Wednesday in a conference call. \u201cIt\u2019s clear from a budget perspective and a human point of view that the current system is unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal, geared at streamlining the agency and cutting the deficit, was intended to start the conversation and should not be regarded as final, Mr. Carson said.<\/p>\n

Housing advocates and congressional Democrats immediately condemned it. \u201cWhat pretends to be a hand up is really a foot in the back,\u201d said Shamus Roller, the executive director of the National Housing Law Project.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, even as Mr. Carson was promoting the plan, department officials acknowledged that it would probably be superseded by a somewhat scaled-back set of rent increases and work requirement proposals House Republicans plan to unveil next month. And the new plan stands little chance of being passed in the Senate, where moderate Republicans like Senator Susan Collins of Maine are likely to reject it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n