[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 48 (Monday, March 23, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H1812-H1814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TENANT INCOME VERIFICATION RELIEF ACT OF 2015
Mr. STIVERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 233) to allow reviews of certain families' incomes every 3
years for purposes of determining eligibility for certain Federal
assisted housing programs.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 233
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Tenant Income Verification
Relief Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. REVIEWS OF FAMILY INCOMES.
(a) In General.--The second sentence of paragraph (1) of
section 3(a) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42
U.S.C. 1437a(a)(1)) is amended by inserting before the period
at the end the following: ``; except that, in the case of any
family with a fixed income, as defined by the Secretary,
after the initial review of the family's income, the public
housing agency or owner shall not be required to conduct a
review of the family's income for any year for which such
family certifies, in accordance with such requirements as the
Secretary shall establish, which shall include policies to
adjust for inflation-based income changes, that 90 percent or
more of the income of the family consists of fixed income,
and that the sources of such income have not changed since
the previous year, except that the public housing agency or
owner shall conduct a review of each such family's income not
less than once every 3 years''.
(b) Housing Choice Voucher Program.--Subparagraph (A) of
section 8(o)(5) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42
U.S.C. 1437f(o)(5)(A)) is amended by striking ``not less than
annually'' and inserting ``as required by section 3(a)(1) of
this Act''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Stivers) and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
General Leave
Mr. STIVERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
to add extraneous material on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. STIVERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in support of H.R. 233, the Tenant Income Verification
Relief Act, and I am proud to cosponsor it with my colleague from
Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter).
This is a very simple bill that helps relieve stressful burdens of
fixed-income tenants who participate in the housing choice voucher and
project-based housing programs all across the country. Additionally, it
is a responsible reform bill that will allow housing authorities to
work more efficiently and effectively at less cost to the taxpayers.
I have heard from housing authorities from Columbus, Ohio, from
Circleville, Ohio, from other parts of my district, and throughout the
country about how burdensome this requirement is on elderly tenants as
well as on the housing authorities.
Current law requires tenant verification of income at move-in and
recertification annually. This legislation allows for the
recertification of residents' incomes every 3 years rather than
annually for individuals and families on fixed incomes.
It will permit housing authorities to verify these tenants' incomes
when they change as well as annually. Based on a recent U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development study of these 2 million residents on
fixed incomes, about half of them are on very fixed incomes that are
not changing. Most of them are using Social Security as their main
source of income.
This bill is a great first step toward ensuring our Nation's low-
income families have safe places to live, while also reducing
administrative burdens on families and on these housing authorities and
toward saving taxpayer resources. I ask my colleagues to join me and
Mr. Perlmutter in supporting this commonsense legislation.
Finally, I would like to thank the gentleman from Colorado for his
leadership and for his commonsense approach on this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I want to thank Mr. Stivers for joining me in H.R. 233, and I want to
thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Hensarling, and the ranking
member, Ms. Waters, for their support of this bill as well.
Mr. Stivers has described it well, but I think we should go through
it one more time, just so the record is clear for future generations.
H.R. 233, the Tenant Income Verification Relief Act of 2015,
represents a bipartisan effort to aid our most vulnerable constituents
and to provide marginal regulatory relief to public housing authorities
and to those who have privately owned rental properties who wish to
service housing vouchers.
Currently, private property owners and State and local housing
agencies must review income annually for all rental assistance
recipients. That includes recipients who receive most or all of their
income from fixed sources--such as from Social Security or other
pensions--and, therefore, see little income change from year to year.
Our legislation reduces administrative burdens by allowing for the
recertification of rent and income to occur every 3 years rather than
annually for those on fixed incomes. In other words, housing
authorities and those who accept vouchers would be allowed to conduct
triennial income recertifications for households of which 90 percent or
more of their income is fixed.
The annual review requirement also places burdens on those within
fixed income households themselves, who must gather and submit
information needed to verify income and deductions and who, in some
cases, must go to agencies for in-person reviews.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which wrote in support of
H.R. 233, said that this change would substantially reduce paperwork
burdens for low-income seniors and for people with disabilities and
administrative costs for agencies and owners.
More than half of rental assistance recipients are elderly or
disabled, who often rely on fixed incomes, and income reviews are the
single largest source of rental assistance administrative costs.
[[Page H1813]]
Due to ongoing budget pressures, our public housing authorities are
struggling to manage their Section 8 housing programs. In fact, it is
estimated the amount Congress appropriates to fund the housing choice
voucher program is only 74 percent of what is actually required to run
the program.
The Public Housing Authorities Directors Association wrote to me,
saying:
Both in principle and in practice, your bill is a
commonsense approach to streamlining Federal rental
assistance programs at a time when scarce financial resources
are straining housing authorities' program delivery.
Since continued budget pressures are precluding Congress from funding
the cost of administering this program 100 percent, we must look at
solutions to control expenses or the cost of running the program.
This provision or concept is not new. In fact, it has been included
in several comprehensive Section 8 reform bills by both Democrats and
Republicans. In fact, the administration included language similar to
H.R. 233 in the 2016 budget proposal.
I stand here today with my friend, Mr. Stivers from Ohio, with a
reasonable and commonsense proposal, making our public housing programs
more efficient, and we all want to find ways to make our government run
more efficiently.
I have a number of letters to include for the Record.
Public Housing Authorities
Directors Association,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2015.
Hon. Ed Perlmutter,
House of Representatives,
Washington DC.
Dear Congressman Perlmutter: On behalf of the Public
Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA), I would
like to thank you for introducing the Tenant Income
Verification Relief Act of 2015 (HR 233) as an original co-
sponsor. If enacted, this bill would allow Housing
Authorities (HAs) to conduct triennial recertifications for
households where 90 percent or more their income is fixed.
Passage of the Tenant Income Verification Relief Act of
2015 would benefit millions of low-income elderly and
disabled households with fixed incomes in the Section 8
Tenant-Based Voucher and Public Housing programs. Fixed-
income households, who are served by Housing Authorities,
would benefit if they could be spared from having to go
through the burdensome, confusing and stressful
recertification process annually but to do so every three
years instead.
Many households who receive Federal rental assistance live
on fixed incomes. According to HUD's Resident Characteristics
Report August 2013 through November 2014, approximately 20
percent of voucher-assisted households have a disabled head
of household and approximately 22 percent have an elderly
head of household. Approximately 17 percent of Public
Housing-assisted households have a disabled head of household
and approximately 31 percent have an elderly head of
household. Although HUD's national data reflects a degree of
overlap in households' types of income, approximately 55
percent of households receive Supplemental Security Income
(SSI), Social Security and/or a pension for all or some of
their annual income, in both Section 8 tenant-based and
Public Housing programs.
Your legislation would also produce cost-savings for
Housing Authorities, which struggle each year from downward
funding prorations in Section 8 voucher program
administrative fees and/or the Public Housing Operating Fund.
Taken together, the above figures illustrate the scope and
scale of relief that would benefit applicable low-income
households and the Housing Authorities that serve them.
Legislation regarding triennial recertifications for fixed-
income households has been a feature of both House and Senate
authorizing rental assistance reform bills for several years,
but has not been enacted into law yet. PHADA has demonstrated
the adverse impacts of downward funding pro-rations, in terms
of Housing Authorities' operations to serve low-income
households, participating property owners and the communities
in which they live. Introduction of the bill is an important
step for future action that could not come a moment too soon.
Both in principle and practice your bill is a common sense
approach to streamlining Federal rental assistance programs
at a time when scarce financial resources are straining
Housing Authorities' program delivery. Given the urgent need
for relief to low-income households and Housing Authorities,
we believe that the bill can and should be enacted either as
an amendment or a stand-alone bill as soon as possible.
Thank you and your staff for working on issues important to
HAs and the low-income people they serve. PHADA and its
members look forward to working with you and your colleagues
to secure passage of the bill.
If you need any information or have questions, please feel
free to call me at 202-546- 5445.
Sincerely,
Timothy G. Kaiser,
Executive Director.
____
March 20, 2015.
House of Representatives.
Dear Representative: The real estate industry is pleased
that Congress supports efforts to streamline rental
assistance programs. Our industry believes it is imperative
for Congress to pass legislation that will improve the
federally assisted housing rental programs for both residents
and owners alike: doing so saves taxpayer dollars and
eliminates inefficiencies. We support H.R. 233, the ``Tenant
Income Verification Relief Act of 2015'' introduced by
Congressman Perlmutter (D-CO) and Congressman Stivers (R-OH).
Our organizations represent owners, management companies,
lenders, builders, developers, and housing cooperatives. We
have long-supported these programs. The Housing Choice
Voucher program provides rental subsidies to approximately
two million low income households who obtain housing in the
private rental market. This program broadens the range of
housing choices for families seeking affordable housing, has
a high success rate and serves as the cornerstone for public
federal housing policy. The Project-Based Rental Assistance
programs house nearly 1.3 million families and elderly
households in privately owned housing--representing
successful public and private partnerships that not only
provide quality housing but often connect residents with
services. This is particularly important for elderly
residents, who may otherwise be forced to move to nursing
homes. These programs are essential tools that also preserve
and expand the supply of quality affordable housing, a
necessity in today's tight rental markets.
However, in spite of the overall success, the programs
suffer under the weight of too many inefficient and
duplicative requirements. The myriad overlapping and
redundant procedures make the programs difficult to
administer and, with respect to the voucher program, deter
many professional landlords from participating. As such, we
have worked diligently with Congress for several years to
formulate common sense legislation that would streamline the
sometimes burdensome procedures associated with operating and
maintaining an assisted housing portfolio.
H.R. 233 significantly reduces administrative burdens by
allowing for the recertification of residents' income to
occur every three years rather than annually for those
residents on fixed incomes, permitting verification review
efforts to focus on those whose incomes change.
We urge you to support efforts to streamline the assisted
housing programs and urge Congress to pass H.R. 233, the
``Tenant Income Verification Relief Act of 2015.''
Sincerely,
Council for Affordable and Rural Housing (CARH);
Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM); Leading
Age; National Apartment Association (NAA); National
Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA);
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB); National
Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC); National
Association of Realtors (NAR); National Leased Housing
Association (NLHA); National Multifamily Housing
Council (NMHC).
____
Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities,
Washington, DC, March 17, 2015.
Hon. Jeb Hensarling, Chairman,
Hon. Maxine Waters, Ranking Member,
Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters: The
Tenant Income Verification Relief Act of 2015 (H.R. 233) is a
well-designed, common sense measure to ease administrative
burdens in federal rental assistance programs while
maintaining key protections for low-income program
participants. We strongly recommend that Congress move
promptly to enact the bill.
Currently, owners and state and local housing agencies must
review income annually for all rental assistance recipients.
That includes recipients who receive most or all of their
income from fixed sources such as Social Security or SSI and
therefore see little income change from year to year. This
requirement imposes sizable administrative costs. More than
half of rental assistance recipients are elderly or disabled
households that often rely on fixed incomes, and income
reviews are the single largest source of rental assistance
administrative costs. The annual review requirement also
places burdens on the fixed-income households themselves, who
must gather and submit information needed to verify income
and deductions and in some cases must go to agency offices
for in-person reviews.
HUD has eased burdens modestly by administratively
streamlining review requirements for fixed-income households
(and has proposed regulations to codify the change), but HUD
lacks authority to allow less frequent reviews because the
annual income review requirement is statutory. H.R. 233 would
reduce the frequency of required reviews for fixed-income
families to once every three years and direct HUD to
establish procedures to adjust income for inflation in the
intervening years. This change would substantially reduce
paperwork burdens for low-income seniors and people with
disabilities and administrative costs for agencies and
owners. The need for the administrative savings is
particularly acute now, since both the
[[Page H1814]]
Public Housing Operative Fund and Housing Choice Voucher
administrative fees have been deeply underfunded in recent
years.
The changes in H.R. 233 have been proposed in a series of
bills that received strong bipartisan support. For example,
provisions similar to H.R. 233 were included in both the
Affordable Housing and Self-Sufficiency Improvement Act
(AHSSIA), which a subcommittee of the House Financial
Services Committee approved by a voice vote in January 2012,
and the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA), which the House
passed 333-83 in July 2007.
Congress should enact this important, timely, well-vetted
proposal without further delay.
Sincerely,
Barbara Sard,
Vice President for Housing Policy.
____
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment
Officials,
Washington, DC, March 19, 2015.
Hon. Ed Perlmutter,
Longworth Building, Washington, DC.
Hon. Steve Stivers,
Longworth Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Rep. Perlmutter and Rep. Stivers: On behalf of the
over 22,000 members of the National Association of Housing
and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), I am writing today to
underscore our strong support for the expeditious approval of
the Tenant Income Verification Act of 2015 (HR 233) that you
are both sponsoring.
This common-sense legislation would amend the U.S. Housing
Act of 1937 to allow PHAs to reduce the frequency of re-
examinations for families that receive at least 90 percent of
their income from fixed sources. PHAs would not be required
to review a public housing or Section 8 family's income for
any year for which the family certifies that it has a fixed
income and the source of the income has not changed since the
previous year. PHAs would be required to conduct a review of
the family's income not less than once every three years; in
any year in which a PHA does not conduct a review of income,
a family's prior year income determination would be adjusted
by applying an inflationary factor.
NAHRO strongly supports the bill's focus on reducing
unnecessary administrative burdens. We also believe this
legislation properly balances the need to maintain
responsible government protections; the legislation does not
adversely impact residents and provides long-overdue
administrative relief that will increase local PHA's ability
to address other pressing needs. Responsible reform
legislation such as this ultimately enables PHAs to work more
efficiently and effectively at less cost to the federal
government.
NAHRO has been working with both HUD and members of
Congress to bring about responsible programmatic and
regulatory reforms. This legislation is a strong and
necessary step forward. In this regard, we were pleased to
see that the Administration included language similar to HR
233 in the FY 2016 budget proposal. We urge the House to
approve this legislation under suspension of the rules so
that it can be promptly sent to the Senate for adoption.
We stand ready to continue to work with members of Congress
on both sides of the isle to approve properly balanced
programmatic reforms that sustain the ability of PHAs to
provide decent, safe and affordable housing for vulnerable
families.
Respectfully,
Saul N. Ramirez Jr.,
Chief Executive Officer, NAHRO.
____
National Low Income
Housing Coalition,
Washington, DC, March 18, 2015.
Hon. Jeb Hensarling,
Chair, House Committee on Financial Services, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Hon. Maxine Waters,
Ranking Member, House Committee on Financial Services, House
of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters: On
behalf of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, I am
pleased to support H.R. 233, legislation that would allow
public housing agencies to reduce the frequency of income
recertifications for HUD rent assisted households whose
income is at least 90% from fixed-income sources. Income
recertifications for fixed-income households would be only
every three years, instead of annually.
NLIHC members include non-profit housing providers,
homeless service providers, fair housing organizations, state
and local housing coalitions, public housing agencies,
private developers and property owners, housing researchers,
local and state government agencies, faith-based
organizations, residents of public and assisted housing and
their organizations, and concerned citizens. We do not
represent any sector of the housing industry. Rather, NLIHC
works only on behalf of and with low income people who need
safe, decent, and affordable homes, especially those with the
most serious housing problems, including people who are
homeless. NLIHC is funded entirely with private
contributions.
Because a tenant's share of rent is based on income,
recertifications are done to make sure tenants are paying the
correct amount of rent. The Department of Housing and Urban
Development estimates that fixed-income families are about
50% of all public housing, housing choice voucher, and
project-based rental assistance tenants. If implemented, this
policy change could substantially reduce administrative
duties for public housing agencies and owners, as well as
recertification time for tenants.
This is an idea whose time has come. One of the suggestions
resulting from the 2005 National Housing Voucher Summit,
which NLIHC convened, was to implement rent simplification
policies, including reducing the income recertification
period for people whose income is largely from fixed sources,
such as Social Security and SSI, to three years. In the years
when recertifications are not required, Summit participants
recommended, tenant incomes could be adjusted based on the
cost-of-living adjustment in any income maintenance program
in which the household participates.
We applaud Representatives Ed Perlmutter and Steve Stivers
for introducing this important legislation and hope that
Congress acts swiftly toward its enactment.
Sincerely,
Sheila Crowley,
President and CEO.
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that we pass this today
here on the floor of the House and that the Senate passes it quickly
and sends it to the President's desk.
I thank my friend, Mr. Stivers, for joining me on this bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. STIVERS. Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I just want to ask all of my
colleagues to support this legislation. It is common sense, and it
simplifies an administrative burden. It saves money for taxpayers, and
it allows people on fixed incomes, whether they be senior citizens or
disabled, to have less onerous burdens. This is a commonsense bill.
I thank the gentleman from Colorado for his leadership, and I urge
everyone to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stivers) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 233.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________