[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 10, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6010-H6013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEMONSTRATION ACT OF 2018
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 5793) to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development to carry out a housing choice voucher mobility
demonstration to encourage families receiving such voucher assistance
to move to lower-poverty areas and expand access to opportunity areas.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5793
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 ``Housing Choice Voucher
Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018''.
SEC. 2. HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEMONSTRATION.
(a) Authority.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development (in this section referred to as the
``Secretary'') may carry out a mobility demonstration program
to enable public housing agencies to administer housing
choice voucher assistance under section 8(o) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) in a manner
designed to encourage families receiving such voucher
assistance to move to lower-poverty areas and expand access
to opportunity areas.
(b) Selection of PHAs.--
(1) Requirements.--The Secretary shall establish
requirements for public housing agencies to participate in
the demonstration program under this section, which shall
provide that the following public housing agencies may
participate:
(A) Public housing agencies that together--
(i) serve areas with high concentrations of holders of
rental assistance vouchers under section 8(o) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) in poor, low-
opportunity neighborhoods; and
(ii) have an adequate number of moderately priced rental
units in higher-opportunity areas.
(B) Planned consortia or partial consortia of public
housing agencies that--
(i) include at least one agency with a high-performing
Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program; and
(ii) will enable participating families to continue in such
program if they relocate to the jurisdiction served by any
other agency of the consortium.
(C) Planned consortia or partial consortia of public
housing agencies that--
(i) serve jurisdictions within a single region;
(ii) include one or more small agencies; and
(iii) will consolidate mobility focused operations.
(D) Such other public housing agencies as the Secretary
considers appropriate.
(2) Selection criteria.--The Secretary shall establish
competitive selection criteria for public housing agencies
eligible under paragraph (1) to participate in the
demonstration program under this section.
(3) Random selection of families.--The Secretary may
require participating agencies to use a randomized selection
process to select among the families eligible to receive
mobility assistance under the demonstration program.
(c) Regional Housing Mobility Plan.--The Secretary shall
require each public housing agency applying to participate in
the demonstration program under this section to submit a
Regional Housing Mobility Plan (in this section referred to
as a ``Plan''), which shall--
(1) identify the public housing agencies that will
participate under the Plan and the number of vouchers each
participating agency will make available out of their
existing programs in connection with the demonstration;
(2) identify any community-based organizations, nonprofit
organizations, businesses, and other entities that will
participate under the Plan and describe the commitments for
such participation made by each such entity;
(3) identify any waivers or alternative requirements
requested for the execution of the Plan;
(4) identify any specific actions that the public housing
agencies and other entities will undertake to accomplish the
goals of the
[[Page H6011]]
demonstration, which shall include a comprehensive approach
to enable a successful transition to opportunity areas and
may include counseling and continued support for families;
(5) specify the criteria that the public housing agencies
would use to identify opportunity areas under the plan;
(6) provide for establishment of priority and preferences
for participating families, including a preference for
families with young children, as such term is defined by the
Secretary, based on regional housing needs and priorities;
and
(7) comply with any other requirements established by the
Secretary.
(d) Funding for Mobility-Related Services.--
(1) Use of administrative fees.--Public housing agencies
participating in the demonstration program under this section
may use administrative fees under section 8(q) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(q)), their
administrative fee reserves, and funding from private
entities to provide mobility-related services in connection
with the demonstration program, including services such as
counseling, portability coordination, landlord outreach,
security deposits, and administrative activities associated
with establishing and operating regional mobility programs.
(2) Use of housing assistance funds.--Public housing
agencies participating in the demonstration under this
section may use housing assistance payments funds under
section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42
U.S.C. 1437f(o)) for security deposits if necessary to enable
families to lease units with vouchers in designated
opportunity areas.
(e) Waivers; Alternative Requirements.--
(1) Waivers.--To allow for public housing agencies to
implement and administer their Regional Housing Mobility
Plans, the Secretary may waive or specify alternative
requirements for the following provisions of the United
States Housing Act of 1937:
(A) Sections 8(o)(7)(A) and 8(o)(13)(E)(i) (relating to the
term of a lease and mobility requirements).
(B) Section 8(o)(13)(C)(i) (relating to the public housing
plan for an agency).
(C) Section 8(r)(2) (relating to the responsibility of a
public housing agency to administer ported assistance).
(2) Alternative requirements.--The Secretary shall provide
additional authority for public housing agencies in a
selected region to form a consortium that has a single
housing choice voucher funding contract, or to enter into a
partial consortium to operate all or portions of the Regional
Housing Mobility Plan, including agencies participating in
the Moving To Work Demonstration program.
(3) Effective date.--Any waiver or alternative requirements
pursuant to this subsection shall not take effect before the
expiration of the 10-day period beginning upon publication of
notice of such waiver or alternative requirement in the
Federal Register.
(f) Implementation.--The Secretary may implement the
demonstration, including its terms, procedures, requirements,
and conditions, by notice.
(g) Evaluation.--Not later than five years after
implementation of the regional housing mobility programs
under the demonstration program under this section, the
Secretary shall submit to the Congress and publish in the
Federal Register a report evaluating the effectiveness of the
strategies pursued under the demonstration, subject to the
availability of funding to conduct the evaluation. Through
official websites and other methods, the Secretary shall
disseminate interim findings as they become available, and
shall, if promising strategies are identified, notify the
Congress of the amount of funds that would be required to
expand the testing of these strategies in additional types of
public housing agencies and housing markets.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Huizenga) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Maxine
Waters) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and to include any extraneous material on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of much-needed legislation that
would authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry
out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration program that would
encourage families receiving such voucher assistance to move to
communities of their own choice and to expand their access to
opportunity areas.
The Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018 is a
bipartisan piece of legislation that passed out of our committee with a
vote of 53-0. This unanimous vote shows its need and showcases the
broad support of the legislation across the political spectrum.
The legislation would further improve voucher mobility to help more
households using housing vouchers move to communities of their choice,
including those with access to better paying jobs, good schools,
transportation, and greater healthcare opportunities.
Through the demonstration, HUD and the public housing agencies, also
known as PHAs, would be able to develop new models for improving
voucher mobility and provide counseling to help HUD-assisted families
move to these areas of opportunity.
A recent Harvard study showed that giving housing vouchers to low-
income families significantly improved their lives and provided
children with greater opportunity and a better shot at success. The
study estimated that moving a child out of public housing to a low-
poverty area will increase the child's total lifetime earnings by
nearly $302,000.
The study clearly demonstrates that offering low-income families
housing vouchers and assistance in moving to these lower poverty
neighborhoods has substantial benefits for the families themselves, for
the communities, and for taxpayers.
Helping all Americans afford decent, stable homes is the key to
ensuring that people have the opportunity to lead healthy and
productive lives. Enacting this legislation is an important step that
Congress can and should take to address this challenge.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such
time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is an unfortunate reality in our country that a
child's ZIP Code can determine her future and that families often have
limited options in choosing where to live.
Rigorous studies have demonstrated that giving a low-income family
the opportunity to move to a lower poverty neighborhood can have a
profound impact, particularly for young children.
For example, one study found that young boys and girls in families
that used a voucher to move to lower poverty neighborhoods were 32
percent more likely to attend college and earn 31 percent more annually
compared to their counterparts in families that did not receive a
voucher.
However, families with housing choice vouchers continue to face
significant challenges if they want to move to a better neighborhood.
In fact, data shows that only one in eight families with children with
a housing choice voucher used their vouchers to live in low-poverty
areas.
H.R. 5793 will help reduce barriers to mobility for families with
housing choice vouchers by establishing a demonstration program that
would enable and incentivize public housing agencies to form regional
collaborations that will enhance opportunities for mobility across
jurisdictions.
This is a bipartisan proposal that was included in previous HUD
budget requests under the Obama administration. The Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities estimates that this demonstration will allow more
than 7,000 families to move to areas of opportunity.
I am pleased to support this legislation, and, of course, I urge my
colleagues to do the same.
I would like to say that Mr. Cleaver and Mr. Duffy have worked very
hard to get this demonstration. I am very pleased about that because it
is well known that I have big concerns about HUD and HUD's ability to
give the kind of support to the least of these and families that need
it so desperately. But this may be an indication that we can get more
positive action from HUD.
So, again, I am very pleased to support this legislation, and I would
like all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy), who is the chairman of the
Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. I commend him on his fine work.
[[Page H6012]]
Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan
for yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5793, the Housing Choice
Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act.
I want to thank Mr. Cleaver. We have worked together on a number of
different pieces of legislation.
{time} 1615
This is just another example of two like-minded people seeing a
problem. This isn't earth-shattering, earthquakes and lightning aren't
happening, but this is a small demonstration project that can modify a
program that can have a true impact on people's lives.
The insight that Mr. Cleaver, the gentleman from Missouri, brings to
this issue was incredibly helpful. I just want to thank him for his
friendship and his help in working on this bill.
We should evaluate Federal programs and look at how successful they
are. What are the results of the programs that we implement?
I strongly believe that, as we evaluate these programs, we should
focus on supporting the programs and ideas that lead people away from
dependency on the government and bring people toward self-sufficiency.
Money is a component. How much we spend to help people is relevant.
But how much we spend on Federal Government programs isn't the end-
all, be-all. It is the actual success of the program and the money that
we spend and the leading people out of poverty and dependency into
self-sufficiency and opportunities.
We have to give families the opportunity to pick themselves up so
they can find a better job, they can live in a safer environment, and
they can better provide for their children. H.R. 5793 moves toward
those goals by authorizing the HUD Secretary to carry out a housing
choice voucher demonstration program designed to help those receiving
housing vouchers move to areas of lower poverty and to opportunity,
helping them better their lives.
So, currently, the housing choice voucher program works with around
2,200 public housing authorities to administer 2.2 million vouchers
across the Nation. While you would think that a lot of the PHAs would
translate into more people being helped, it actually creates some
complexity and inefficiency.
In some cases, not all cases, PHAs are fighting to keep as many
vouchers and government resources as possible. They are trying to keep
those resources to themselves when operating in the same general
region.
When that happens, when someone might want to take that voucher and
go somewhere else, there are roadblocks and barriers put it place that
make it more challenging. So, instead of cooperating, the PHAs compete
and put up barriers that prevent individuals from moving to a different
area and actually bettering their lives.
This bill would allow HUD to implement a plan to regionalize various
PHAs in one area to allow for portability and movement to higher
opportunity areas.
The gentleman from Michigan mentioned this. We know that low-income
children whose families move to areas of lower poverty have higher
earnings as adults. We must eliminate the cycle of poverty that keeps
generations of families living within the same area with a limited
amount of opportunity. Helping people move to better opportunities will
increase the chances for them to achieve academic success and reduce
intergenerational poverty.
I think, as we look around the country, we have help wanted signs
everywhere. Everyone is looking for help. Different regions have
different starting wages. So, if you live in one area and you might not
have as much opportunity or as great of wages, you don't have the money
to go to a different part of town or a different area of your State and
you can't take advantage of a better paying job.
What we are saying is let people go. Give them the voucher and let
them move. Let them get that great job. That mobility that we give them
helps them actually start climbing the economic ladder and, hopefully,
get off dependence of the Federal Government. What that does is, again,
launch them on their economic career, but it frees up resources to help
somebody else out. This is a win-win deal.
So, again, it is a demonstration project. I think it is going to
work. I know Mr. Cleaver and the ranking member do as well. Again, this
is just another sign of parties working together to help people. We
don't always agree on everything, but this was, again, a commonsense
proposal that can make HUD work better and help more people out.
I want to thank both the ranking member and Mr. Cleaver for working
so diligently on this effort and allowing this to go under suspension.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he
may consume to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), the ranking
member of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the Financial
Services Committee and the lead Democratic sponsor of this bill.
Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, let me, first of all, thank Chairman Duffy
from our subcommittee for working on this significant piece of
legislation, as well as the chair and the ranking member of the full
committee. I am not going to take long. I think most of the salient
points have already been made.
If I had a chance to rename this piece of legislation, it would be
the Living in Higher Opportunity Neighborhoods Act. That is exactly
what we are doing when we pass this act.
This bill should pass without anyone even doing third-level thinking.
All you have to do is read the Harvard research project from Raj
Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz, which spoke about the
improved opportunities for children based on their location. Higher
opportunity neighborhoods offer just about everything that we would
want a child to have growing up in this country.
This choice voucher act, under section 8 of the 1937 housing bill,
will provide opportunities for people to move out of areas of high
poverty concentration into neighborhoods where there are opportunities.
As a former mayor, this is the part I wish we could do on a lot of
projects, and that is, if public housing authorities want to
participate in this program, they must submit a regional plan, which
means that they will work beyond their own special interests.
In the case of PHAs in Kansas City, Missouri, we are separated by
five other cities by one street, called State Line. So this would also
provide an opportunity for Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City,
Missouri, to work together. I am sure that there are situations all
across the country which will provide opportunities for PHAs to work
together.
I will just end by saying that this program is one that I think we
are going to find people in these neighborhoods strongly supporting.
Should this legislation be signed by the President, I hope that we will
do everything we can to make sure that the communities, as a whole,
understand what this bill is, because I think it speaks to the overall
needs in the urban core in particular.
I am appreciative of the fact that I was allowed to be involved in
this piece of legislation. I appreciate all the great work that my
colleague and my neighbor across the hall, Mr. Duffy, has made
available.
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the
balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly support this bill because we all must have
hope. We all must have hope that we can get rid of poverty, that we can
open up opportunities, that we can do something that would allow
families who are locked into very poor neighborhoods be able to escape
those neighborhoods and have better opportunities.
It is not always clear how that is going to happen, but given this
legislation by Mr. Duffy and Mr. Cleaver, they certainly are attempting
to put something together that may be able to move these families and
give them better opportunities.
We know that we support housing with Section 8 and public housing
projects, et cetera, and we know that we have people who have Section 8
certificates who have been desperately looking for a decent place to
live and would love to be able to move into higher opportunity
neighborhoods.
We have got to think in this collaboration that is going to be done
about
[[Page H6013]]
how we are going to convince landlords to be more open to accepting
voucher choice participants. We have got to think about what public
housing programs can do. Most, of course, public housing is in poor
neighborhoods. But certainly, if we have those who are in stronger
neighborhoods, better neighborhoods, perhaps there can be the kind of
collaboration that can see to it that people in some of the poorer
neighborhoods and public housing would have an opportunity for moving
into these better neighborhoods.
So, again, I think we must be hopeful. We don't always know how it is
going to be done, but to give it a try is certainly worthwhile.
Mr. Speaker, I would certainly ask my colleagues to support this
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, there is an old adage: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Well, guess what, folks; this is kind of broke. We need to look for
different ways of fixing it.
This bill today that my colleague from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver) and my
colleague from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy) have been working on is that
attempt to look for those answers. We do truly have common goals. They
are common goals of opportunity, reward, and upward mobility for all
Americans and to give them that opportunity.
Whether you are watching on C-SPAN or maybe in the gallery right now,
what you are seeing on the floor may not compute with what you are
seeing in the news all the time. We actually are agreeing on things. We
actually are trying to move ahead and trying to better our citizens and
our constituents in a way that will ultimately benefit not just them
and their families individually, but their communities, our collective
State, and, by extension, our country. That is what we are trying to do
here today.
I just, again, want to commend the gentlemen from Wisconsin and
Missouri for their work on this and for the leadership of the ranking
member and Chairman Hensarling, as well, on this.
As we move forward to try to provide that opportunity to provide that
upward mobility, to give citizens the real choice of what to do with
their lives and how to live their lives, I can think of no better way
than starting off with this pilot program.
And, hopefully, as I share the confidence with my friend from
Wisconsin, I believe this will work. When it works, we will have that
proof to go back and to use things like that Harvard study and others
that have shown that upward mobility is achievable and that people
aren't locked into one location or one mindset or one community. They
can choose to be a part of that, but if they know they are going to
have greater opportunity somewhere else, then the Federal Government
shouldn't stand in the way of that opportunity. This bill does exactly
that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to suggest to my colleagues that they vote for
this very important piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance
of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 5793.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. HUIZENGA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________