UNTAPPING THE POTENTIAL

UNTAPPING THE POTENTIAL “Having a stable place to call home is the best gift a mother can give to a child.”

SURVEY PARTICIPANT2

The potential for PHA homeownership programs to transform the economic outcomes of households across generations is vast but significantly underutilized. Research including interviews and surveying of rental and homeownership voucher program participants paints a clear picture that expanding and improving these programs will better align with participants’ needs. Further, interviews with PHA homeownership program contractors and PHA staff reinforce the need for ambitious investment into homeownership programs as a means to positively change lives. But not only can improved programming benefit individual households, it too can benefit entire communities and the affordable housing subsidy infrastructures at large. Rental vouchers have become the federal government’s largest program to address the nation’s affordable housing crisis. As with most welfare assistance programs, the underlying goal is to eliminate the need to participate in the program entirely. But with a housing affordability crisis rooted in deeply steeped racism, income inequality, classism, ableism, stagnant wages, and reliance on a private profit-driven rental housing market, rental vouchers alone cannot meet the vast and urgent need for housing and also provide the supports to reduce program need in the long-term. Currently, only a quarter of households who qualify for vouchers are able to obtain them due to high need and demand in markets across the country.1 In fact, HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research found that across age groups, length of HCV assistance is increasing, meaning waiting lists for new households, particularly in larger markets, grow ever longer.32 Part of the issue is that a rental voucher can assist a household with affording this month’s rent, but it cannot control what next month’s or next year’s rent will cost. This, in addition to the reliance on private landlords who can ultimately refuse to rent or displace current renters with limited safeguards, means that housing authorities cannot truly provide for stable and consistent housing options. Or in other words, as rents increase there are only two possible outcomes, either invest more funding in the voucher program to maintain the status quo, or keep funding static and provide less households with vouchers to afford rent increases. Neither option results in an improved outcome. However, by increasing the number of homeownership vouchers that come with predictable and consistent housing payments, cost savings to the PHAs should free up additional resources to either offer more vouchers or afford rising rents. While the need for greater investment in the rental voucher program is glaringly evident, there is also a need for innovation and a seismic shift in how we view, value, and deliver services to voucher program participants. Many voucher holders desire homeownership and an opportunity to access a tangible path to the elusive “American Dream.” In addition, for Black households, there is an urgent need to reverse the tide of government generated wealth stripping. Increasing the number of homeowners in the voucher program could also save on costs as many

1.   The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, America’s Rental Housing Report 2020 2.   Survey participant. Homeownership Opportunities for Housing Choice Voucher Holders and Public Housing Residents Survey. Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance. February 2021. 3. The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, Length of Stay in Assisted Housing. October 2017