Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): FY2017 Budget Request Overview and Resources

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): FY2017 Budget Request Overview and Resources

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): FY2017 Budget Request Overview and Resources

February 9, 2016 (R44380)

Contents

Introduction

HUD

President's FY2017 Budget

Totals

Section 8 and Public Housing

Homeless Assistance

Block Grants

Legislative Proposals

Figures

Figure 1. Total HUD Discretionary Funding, With and Without Savings from Offsets, FY2016 Enacted and FY2017 Request

Introduction

This report provides a brief overview of the FY2017 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with links to relevant Administration budget documents and CRS reports. A list of CRS analysts with expertise on various aspects of the HUD budget is also provided (see "Key Policy Staff").

Note that this report will not be updated to track legislative action. For information on HUD appropriations, including FY2016 appropriations, see the Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies page on the CRS website.

HUD

Most of the funding for HUD's programs and activities comes from discretionary appropriations provided each year in the annual appropriations acts enacted by Congress. HUD's annual appropriations are generally provided along with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and several related agencies (including the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, also known as NeighborWorks America) by the Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies subcommittees in the House and the Senate.

For more information about HUD's programs and activities, see CRS Report RL34591, Overview of Federal Housing Assistance Programs and Policy, by [author name scrubbed], [author name scrubbed], and [author name scrubbed].

President's FY2017 Budget

Totals

On February 9, 2016, the Obama Administration submitted its FY2017 budget request. It included $48.9 billion in gross discretionary appropriations for HUD, not accounting for savings from offsets and other sources. That amount is about $2 billion (4%) more than was provided in FY2016 (see Figure 1).

For more information about HUD's budget request, see HUD's FY2017 Budget Overview.

For a table of account-by-account requested funding levels, see HUD's FY2017 Departmental Summary, Budget Authority.

For additional detail about funding levels for specific programs and activities, see HUD's FY2017 Congressional Budget Justifications.

When looking at net discretionary budget authority—accounting for the effect of offsets, rescissions, and other savings—the President's budget is requesting a slight decrease relative to FY2016. As shown in Figure 1, when accounting for the savings from offsets and other sources, the President's FY2017 budget requests less than $38 billion in net discretionary funding for HUD, a decrease of about $329 million (<1%) compared to the net budget authority provided in FY2016.

The difference in net and gross figures is largely attributable to an increase in savings available from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance fund. FHA offsets are estimated by HUD to increase in FY2017 by $2.3 billion compared to FY2016.

For more information about the President's request for FHA, see HUD's Congressional Budget Justifications, Mortgage and Loan Insurance Program (FHA Fund). (NOTE: Estimates of FHA receipts for FY2017 may change when the President's budget is re-estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).)

Figure 1. Total HUD Discretionary Funding, With and Without Savings from Offsets, FY2016 Enacted and FY2017 Request

Source: Chart prepared by CRS based on information in the President's FY2017 budget documents. Note that estimates from the President's budget may differ from congressional estimates (which are used in CRS appropriations reports) due to differences in estimates of various offsets between the Administration and the Congressional Budget Office.

Section 8 and Public Housing

The largest dollar amount increase relative to FY2016 proposed in the President's FY2017 budget would go to the largest account in HUD's budget, tenant-based rental assistance. That account, which funds the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, would receive nearly $21 billion in FY2017, an increase of $1.2 billion relative to FY2016. That increase accounts for more than half of the overall increase in gross funding requested for HUD. The increase is partly for higher costs to renew vouchers for families currently receiving assistance, partly to pay higher administrative fees, and partly to fund several new Administration initiatives. The President's budget requests funding for an estimated 10,000 new vouchers to serve families experiencing homelessness, as well as a new mobility demonstration designed to encourage voucher program participants to move to lower-poverty areas.

For more information about the President's request for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance.

The President's FY2017 budget requests an increase of $196 million (+1.8%) relative to FY2016 for the second-largest program in HUD's budget, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance. The relatively small requested increase reflects one-time savings of approximately $240 million attributable to completing an accounting change in the program. HUD's budget documents state that the funding level requested will be sufficient to maintain current services.

For more information about the President's request for Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Project-Based Rental Assistance.

The two primary accounts that fund the Public Housing program would receive relatively level funding compared to FY2016 (a 1.8% decrease for the Capital Fund and a 1.5% increase for the Operating Fund). The Choice Neighborhoods program, which offers competitive grants to redevelop distressed assisted housing properties, including public housing, would receive a comparatively large funding increase (+60%).

For more information about the President's request for Public Housing, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Capital Fund; Operating Fund; and Choice Neighborhoods.

Homeless Assistance

The President's budget requests a funding increase in FY2017 over the prior year for the Homeless Assistance Grants (+$414 million, or +18%). The additional funding is associated with the Administration's goals of ending chronic and family homelessness. In addition to the increased funding requested for the Homeless Assistance Grants, the President's budget includes a request for $11 billion over 10 years in mandatory funding (to be provided outside of the annual discretionary appropriations process) to help achieve the goal of ending family homelessness by 2020.

For more information about the President's request for Homeless Assistance Grants, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Homeless Assistance Grants.

For more information about the President's Homeless Assistance for Families proposal, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Homeless Assistance for Families.

Block Grants

The President's FY2017 budget request includes a funding decrease relative to FY2016 for the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program (about $180 million less, or -6%) and level funding for the HOME Investment Partnerships program. The budget also requests several policy changes for both programs, including changes designed to reduce the number of communities that qualify for grants.

For more information about the President's request for CDBG, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Community Development Fund. (Note that CDBG is funded within the Community Development Fund.)

For more information about the President's request for HOME, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

Legislative Proposals

The FY2017 budget request contains a number of legislative proposals that would make changes to several HUD programs and activities, including rental assistance programs (Section 8 and public housing), homeless assistance, the block grant programs (HOME and CDBG), and FHA.

For example, the proposals include, among others, an elimination of the cap on the number of properties that can participate in the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD); changes to the medical expense deduction for participants in rental assistance programs; additional fungibility for public housing funding; changes to the way surplus property is to be made available to serve the homeless; changes to who can administer certain homeless assistance funding; authority for the Secretary to investigate violations of Lead Disclosure rules; various changes to the CDBG program, including grantee eligibility and oversight; various changes to the HOME program, including grantee eligibility; and a number of changes to the FHA single family mortgage insurance program, including enhanced oversight of lenders. Several of the provisions in the President's budget (medical expense deduction, public housing fungibility, homeless program changes, etc.) are similar to provisions included in H.R. 3700, which was approved by the House.

For more information about legislative proposals included in the President's budget, see HUD Congressional Budget Justifications, Explanation of General Provisions.

For more information about H.R. 3700, see CRS Report R44358, Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015 (H.R. 3700): In Brief, by [author name scrubbed], [author name scrubbed], and [author name scrubbed].

Key Policy Staff

Area of Expertise

Name

Phone

E-mail

Public and Assisted Housing, including Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher and public housing; project-based Section 8 rental assistance

[author name scrubbed]

[phone number scrubbed]

[email address scrubbed]

Community development, including CDBG and capacity building

[author name scrubbed]

[phone number scrubbed]

[email address scrubbed]

Section 202 housing for persons who are elderly, Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities, homeless assistance, HOPWA, and Fair Housing

[author name scrubbed]

[phone number scrubbed]

[email address scrubbed]

FHA, HOME, housing counseling, Native American housing programs

[author name scrubbed]

[phone number scrubbed]

[email address scrubbed]

Author Contact Information

[author name scrubbed], Specialist in Housing Policy ([email address scrubbed], [phone number scrubbed])