A new study published in Housing Policy Debate, “Public Housing Authorities in the Private Market,” examines the factors that impact the involvement of public housing authorities (PHAs) in owning housing outside of the traditional HUD-assisted stock and the extent to which this occurs. PHAs owned more than 150,000 housing units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted stock in 2013.
Declining federal resources since the 1980s, policy devolution, and other policy shifts have increasingly pushed PHAs to use private-market approaches to finance and manage their housing portfolios, including ownership of housing outside of the traditional HUD-assisted stock. To better understand how PHAs have responded to this shifting policy environment, the researchers used multiple data sources to estimate the quantity of housing owned by PHAs outside the traditional HUD-assisted stock and to analyze the characteristics of PHAs that do. Among the data sources researchers used were a national survey of PHA directors, the National Housing Preservation Database(NHPD) offered by NLIHC and the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation, and NLIHC’s database of state and local rental housing programs.
PHAs’ organizational characteristics helped predict whether they owned housing outside of traditional HUD-assisted units. Larger PHAs and PHAs that operated independently of local political offices were far more likely to own housing outside of the traditional stock. The authors suggested this was likely due to the larger PHAs having greater organizational capacity and experience managing rental units and the independent PHAs not being thwarted by local government oversight. When controlling for other factors, neither the presence of affiliate organizations (e.g. non-profit or for-profit development entities) nor experience with HUD demonstration programs (e.g. Moving to Work) significantly predicted whether PHAs owned housing outside of traditional HUD programs like public housing.
PHAs located in more politically progressive areas, areas with a relatively higher share of very low-income renters living in crowded conditions, and/or areas with a growing share of African American residents all tended to own more units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted stock. PHAs operating in states with a state housing trust fund with a dedicated source of revenue, in states that allowed for consolidation of PHAs, and/or in local jurisdictions with bond-issuing authority were also more likely to own units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted stock.
One key takeaway from the study’s findings is that state and local housing production programs, such as housing trust funds, play a pivotal role in allowing PHAs to acquire and maintain housing outside of HUD assistance. State housing trust funds with consistent funding likely provide these PHAs with critical sources of gap-financing for affordable housing development not available elsewhere.
“Public Housing Authorities in the Private Market” is at: https://bit.ly/2V7TKeW