Obama Expresses Support for One-for-One Replacement of Units

In an interview published in the September-October issue of the Journal of Housing and Community Development, Presidential candidate Barack Obama expressed support for reinstating the one-for-one replacement requirement. The Journal is a bi-monthly magazine published by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO).

Obama was the only candidate to respond to questions sent to the offices of each of the presidential candidates in January. Prior to 1996, federal housing law provided that every public housing unit that was demolished had to be replaced on a one-for-one basis with another public housing or equivalent unit. In 1996 this requirement was suspended and later repealed by Congress.

In addition to expressing his support for the one-for-one replacement requirement, Obama said he will restore cuts to the public housing capital and operating funds and community development block grant (CDBG) programs.

The details of Obama’s answers can be found here.

Household Expenses Rise Faster than Income

Findings from a recently released report found all major categories of homeowner expenses increased faster than incomes. The report, Stretched Thin: The Impact of Rising Housing Expenses on America’s Owners and Renters, was released by the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference.

The report identified the following increases in household expenses: mortgage payments increased 46 percent; utilities increased 43 percent; property taxes 66 percent; and, property insurance. These increases occurred while incomes rose 36.3 percent. The report also found rental costs increased faster than income. During the same period rents rose by 51 percent while the renters income rose only 31.4 percent.

New York City Losing Affordable Housing Stock

Four percent of New York City’s privately owned subsidized rental housing was lost in 2007 according to a report released by the Community Service Society (CSS). CSS is a 160 year-old institution which utilizes public policy innovations to support poor New Yorkers in their quest to be full participants in the civic life of the nation’s largest city. CSS employs a variety of tools – advocacy, direct service, research and policy analysis, and strategic partnerships – to forge consensus on appropriate policy interventions to facilitate the economic mobility of low-income New Yorkers.

The report, Closing the Door 2008: Subsidized Housing Losses in a Weakened Market, states this loss of housing is slightly less than the average loss of rental units from 2004 to 2006. All of the losses were in low-market areas, primarily in the Bronx with one development located in Manhattan. According to the report most of the units were Mitchell-Lama units. Created in 1955, the Mitchell-Lama program provides affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate- and middle-income families. There are 101 City-sponsored, moderate- and middle-income rental and limited-equity cooperative developments in New York City, almost 46,000 units.

CSS is calling for a variety of policy recommendations including support for tools to New York City and non-profit organizations to preserve distressed housing; placing Mitchell-Lama apartments under the rent stabilization program; and, preserving and extending the Mark Up to Market program to provide incentives to owners to remain in federally subsidized programs. The Mark Up to Market program allows owners to obtain the comparable market-rate rent levels for all units covered under a project-based Section 8 contract and redistributes the increased cash flow resulting from such rents. These incentives provide owners with an effective tool to recapitalize and preserve their properties as affordable housing

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