The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority has asked landlords renting to tenants using federal Section 8 vouchers not to raise the rents “due to potential federal underfunding.”
CMHA “is preparing to face a significant voucher budget shortfall by the end of the calendar year,” states the Aug. 6 letter from Dorivette Nolan, the agency’s chief of policy, planning and voucher administration.
President Donald Trump has said he would like to implement new policies such as those limiting how long a renter could use Section 8. However, they remain proposals. Section 8, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, helps low-income tenants pay for rent.. CMHA currently administers about 16,000 Section 8 vouchers. If rents are raised, tenants could be responsible for paying increases.
“To preserve subsidy payment to landlords like you and prevent the termination of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contracts, which could result in the displacement of families in our Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, we are implementing various cost-saving measures,” Nolan’s letter states.
Her letter also states: “Your support in this matter would significantly contribute to our efforts to mitigate the shortfall and ensure continued stability for tenants and the program.”
Trump administration proposals would affect Section 8
Signal Cleveland asked CMHA what potential federal spending cuts the agency’s leadership fears. Lissette M. Rivera, the director of external affairs and community partnerships, said it will most likely take a week for the agency to respond to this and other questions Signal Cleveland has about the request for landlords not to raise rent. We’ll report their responses when we receive them.
Subsidized housing advocates have raised concerns about proposals made by Trump, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and others in the administration.
Trump has proposed replacing HUD rental assistance programs, including Section 8 vouchers, with federal block grants that would be administered by the states. The plan was included in the “skinny budget,” an overview of the administration’s discretionary spending priorities for the next budget, sent to Congress in May. Housing advocates fear this method of distributing federal money will reduce current funding for subsidized housing programs.
Trump also proposed a two-year cap on federal rental assistance for “able-bodied adults.” Such assistance includes housing vouchers.
More than 1 million low-income households nationally could lose Section 8 housing vouchers if a two-year cap were implemented, according to research released in July by New York University. Many of those losing the subsidy would be working families with children, according to the report, Policy at a Crossroads: What We Know About Work Requirements and Time Limits in Federal Housing Assistance.
Turner was among the Trump administration cabinet members and other officials who authored a guest essay in the New York Times calling for work requirements for recipients of federal need-based programs such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and housing vouchers.
“For able-bodied adults, welfare should be a short-term hand-up, not a lifetime handout,” they wrote in the May 14 essay. “But too many able-bodied adults on welfare are not working at all. And too often we don’t even ask them to. For many, welfare is no longer a lifeline to self-sufficiency but a lifelong trap of dependency.”
About 20% of Section 8 households nationally could be affected by work requirements, the report found. Most voucher holders already work or are unable to work due to such factors as age and disability.
