Urban Institute released a new paper on June 23 highlighting the country’s public housing redevelopment needs. Decades of insufficient federal funding and weak oversight have left public housing developments in poor condition, exposing residents to risks that threaten their health and well-being, a plight exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drawing on three decades of research, the paper highlights past errors – including losing critically needed units to demolition and disrepair and a lack of meaningful resident engagement in planning for redevelopment, relocation, services, and amenities. The authors conclude that efforts to preserve public housing must go beyond the mixed-income redevelopment model of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) and Choice Neighborhoods, two competitive grant programs that provide redevelopment funding for relatively few properties compared to need. Rather, the paper recommends repealing the Faircloth Amendment to allow increased production of public housing units, strengthening existing place-based strategies, meaningfully engaging residents in all aspects of the redevelopment process, and raising public housing funding to a level that will preserve and expand this vital resource for affordable housing.
NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign is urging Congress to provide in the next relief package the estimated $70 billion needed to fully address the capital needs backlog in public housing, which would preserve this valuable asset for future generations and ensure current residents are living in safe, sustainable, affordable, and accessible housing.
Read the paper at: https://tinyurl.com/5a6bku3r