Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668)

December 4 , 2007

Twenty-seven months after the devastating hurricanes, over 100,000 households still cannot return to their Gulf Coast homes.

The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668) is stuck in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee. There are currently only 10 cosponsors of the bill (12/4/07). The companion bill passed in the House (3/07) by a bipartisan vote of 305-124. The people of the Gulf Coast region need and deserve access to safe, affordable housing.

Catholic Social Teaching principles inform and challenge us to act in accord with our calling as believers. We are challenged to treat every person with human dignity, as each is made in the image of God, and to have a preferential option for those who are poor. Only in this way will the common good (general welfare, in the language of the U.S. Constitution) be served.

Hundreds of thousands of housing units were destroyed during the 2005 hurricanes. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition estimates that 70% of the most severely damaged units were affordable to low-income families. However, only about 15% of the federal funding has been allotted to rental properties – and this includes all economic levels of rental property.

Five months after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA provided the first transitional housing in the form of travel trailers, which have proven to be unhealthy. Renters who received the trailers are in trailer parks, homeowners have theirs on their own property. FEMA recently announced a program allowing families living in the unsafe trailers to move to a hotel room until adequate housing can be found.

Problems abound!

• 69,000 households remain in trailers or mobile homes – 20% are renters in parks

• Over 70% of the severely damaged homes were affordable to low income families – few of these have been replaced

• 5000 cases of rental assistance were terminated – 25% of which were wrongfully terminated, and after months being re-instated. It is estimated that an equivalent error rate affects the 307,000 other households receiving FEMA assistance (77,000).

• Across the nation, only 6.2 million homes have rents affordable to extremely-low-income households (earning under 30% of the area median income), although there are 9 million households in this category.

• 70% of the families needing housing assistance (Feb. 2007) have annual incomes below $15,000

• The major federal resource for rental housing is an increased allocation in the Low Income Housing Tax Credits. However, to be eligible, income needs to be between 50% and 60% of the area median. So, it does not serve those most in need.

• Costs of repairs and insurance have skyrocketed. Therefore, initial estimates of funding to repair to 54,000 units will now assist fewer than 25,000.

• State and local actions limit the effective housing for hurricane survivors:

• Jefferson Parish, LA discriminatory zoning made it impossible to build an apartment complex for low income elderly and disabled in New Orleans
• A City Council member and state Senator for New Orleans East tried to prohibit any multi-family housing from being built in their districts.

• An audit of the New Orleans metro area rental market discovered race-based discrimination against African-Americans in over 57% of the transactions. Another study found 66% of Black evacuees were discriminated against in their attempts to find housing.

• Housing advertisements on the internet contained discriminatory statements.

The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668) addresses many of the above issues.

• Each unit of public or assisted housing that is demolished must be replaced with a unit of housing that is affordable to a family of similar economic means. They can be anywhere in the district, and should be in economically integrated communities. Concentrated communities of poverty are prohibited in the language of the bill.

• The right to return is given to all residents who were in good standing at the time of evacuation.

• A Fair Housing Initiative program is incorporated into the bill.

• Administration of rental assistance will be returned from FEMA to HUD, the agency with expertise and infrastructure to do the work.

• An additional 5,500 Section 8 project-based vouchers for the Gulf Coast are included – a significant step toward providing the 25,000 needed.

S. 1668 is one additional big step in providing a road home to the areas devastated by the hurricanes of 2005. We need to provide significant funding to provide housing units for the lowest-income families in the area, and those hoping to return. No federal funding is currently dedicated to the households with an income below 30% of the area median.

The proposed National Housing Trust Fund, passed and funded by the House of Representatives earlier this year, will be the most significant assistance to this extremely-low-income group. The Senate is beginning work on legislation to develop this fund.

It is critical that we work for passage of both S. 1668 and a Senate companion to H.R. 2895 (National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007).

NETWORK Values

NETWORK believes that access to safe, affordable housing is a basic right. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has reminded us, “Decent housing for all our people is a moral imperative.” (The Right to a Decent Home, 1975)