History
US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s new Deal, Title II, Section 202 of the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed June 16, 1933, directed the Public Works Administration to develop a program for the construction and reconstruction of low-cost housing and slum clearance – permanent, federally funded housing, which authorized the creation of the Country’s first public housing and created an entity desiring to create a housing policy to eliminate slums, built low income housing and create jobs and business opportunities.
The beginning of public housing can be traced back to Wagner-Steagle Housing Act of 1937. Which was created by the United States Housing Administration, it required the construction of public housing units which were to replace the existing substandard housing. One of the major objectives was to increase the quality of housing without increase the quantity.
Incomes for those who would move into these units would be set at very low levels, so as not to complete with the private market. The Federal Government would would provide the money for the new housing and the ownership and operation of the created housing would be local – that entity would be known as a Public Housing Authority, appointed by local elected officials.
Congress, recognized the plight of poor people and passed another Housing Act pledging the government to the goal of a “decent home and suitable living environment for every American family.”… A major factor was the disparity between those who lived in public housing and those who ran the show. Surveys showed that over 90% of the public housing executives were business and professional men who have never lived in public housing and have very little understanding of or respect for the families that did. As a result of this, housing declined to its absolute worst. The housing developments became havens of crime, drugs, despair, hopelessness and disillusion. Things were so bad that police would not come into the high rises. It was almost as if the inhabitants were invisible persons living in an invisible world that the mainstream of society would just as soon not acknowledge.
All this changed during the mid-60s when rebellion ripped the cities of Philadelphia, Newark, Plainfield, New Brunswick, Detroit, Tampa, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Both the Kerner and Douglas Commission reports named inadequate, unsafe, overcrowded housing conditions as a major factor causing these urban rebellions.
“Greater tenant participation was named as one possible method of revising the negative trend and bringing equity.”
In 1967, Congress passed an updated Housing Act which included a modernization component that was designed so that local housing authorities could upgrade the physical conditions and outdated management policies. The program required tenant involvement that had been hard fought and demanded by those living in public housing. “24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 964: RESIDENT PARTICIPATION & INVOLVEMENT, input as identified and sited in regulation.
About a year later the Philadelphia Housing Authority applied to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 3.5 million dollars to modernize two public housing sites – Tasker Homes and Richard Allen Homes. Residents at both sites filed suit against the Authority and HUD stating that proper tenant participation requirements had been ignored. Resident involvement, in the planning and programming of the modernization and management policy decisions and practices was demanded and acquired.
The Resident Advisory Board, was formed in 1967 and then incorporated in March of 1969, the Resident Advisory Board, Philadelphia Housing Authority and Housing Urban Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding which overturned the old regulations and gave the residents additional rights, new viability and bargaining power. The Memorandum also created a city-wide bargaining agent know as the RESIDENT ADVISORY BOARD (RAB).
Early government involvement in housing for those in need was primarily in the area of building code enforcement that required landlords to meet certain standards and make cited modifications to the Landlord/Property Owners properties. Listed below are the various forms of public and assisted housing,.
Housing Categories
Public Housing
Public Housing in the United States is administered by federal, state and local agencies to provide subsidized assistance for low income households. Initially public housing was one or more blocks of low and high rise buildings, although locations were built with households consisting of a wide variety of incomes, family sizes and with widely recognized construction codes and standards. As a result of mismanagement, extremely high vacancies, negative attitudes/actions and concentrated areas of poverty and neglect. Public Housing, became the housing of last resort.
Scattered Sites
Scattered-sites are subsidized housing were affordable units are scattered throughout diverse neighborhoods. They can be single units or apartment spread out throughout the city or clusters of family units. Originally constructed as an alternative form of public housing designed to prevent the concentration of poverty. The benchmark class-action case that led to popularization was Gautreaux vs Chicago Housing Authority in 1969 which primarily was to address residential segregation. Philadelphia had – Whitman and some others!
Low Income Housing Tax Credit
With the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which includes Section 42 of the Tax code, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. The tax credit program does not give grants/loans, it does provide a tax incentive to owners of rental housing – affordable rental housing. The incentive an annual tax credit ($for $reduction in Federal taxes) in the initial ten year period, from the time that tenants have access to the housing assistance provided all requirements are met. Tax Credits are provided to each state using a formula, the State of Pennsylvania uses the “Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency”. Applications are accepted only during the application cycle. The entity to manage Tax Credit sites owned and operated by PHA is the Philadelphia Asset and Property Management Corporation ”
Conventional
A location/development that consists of subsidized units of continuous rows and blocks of housing, the units are for rental purposes for prospective tenants who meet the selection criteria. Properties are divided up into Family Developments, Family and Senior Developments and Senior Developments.
A location/development that consists of subsidized units of continuous rows and blocks of housing, the units are for rental purposes for prospective tenants who meet the selection criteria. Properties are divided up into Family Developments, Family and Senior Developments and Senior Developments.
Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8)
With the passage of the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act., created the Section 8 Program to encourage the private sector to construct affordable homes. It is a voucher system with direct to landlord payments. Housing Assistance Payment – HAP. for eligible households receive assistance in the covering of the gap between market rents of 25 to 30% of the households income.
Alternative Management Entity (AME)
Alternative Management Entities can be a receiver, private contractor, private manager or any other entity that is under contract with a Housing Authority, under a management agreement, or that is otherwise duly appointed or contracted (for example – by court order or agency’s actions) to manage all or a part of the Agencies operations
Resident Management Corporations
It is HUD’s policy to encourage resident management. HUD encourages HAs , resident councils and resident management corporations to explore the various functions involved in management to identify appropriate opportunities for contracting with a resident management corporation. Potential benefits of resident-managed entities including improving quality of life, experiencing the dignity of meaningful work, enabling residents to choose where they want to live, and meaningful participation in the management of the housing development
