HAI Group is a leading sponsor of the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC), a nonprofit that researches the impact that affordable homes bring to families and communities. In this guest blog, Kelly McElwain, PAHRC’s industry intelligence and research manager, explains how a recent federal program can be leveraged to address housing needs.

Despite an estimated shortage of 7.3 million rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income families, public housing authorities (PHAs) nationwide have not received congressional funding to build new deeply affordable housing in their communities in decades. PHAs’ hands became even more tied after Congress passed the Faircloth Amendment, which capped PHA public housing stock at the number of public housing units they operated as of October 1, 1999 (known as their ‘Faircloth Authority’). This created a de facto ban on building new public housing.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week announced “substantive changes” to a portion of its Section 8 Renewal Policy Guidebook to streamline project-based rental assistance contract renewals.

While the terms ‘subsidized’ and ‘affordable’ often go hand in hand when most people think about the U.S. affordable housing stock, the reality is that only 25 percent of the country’s affordable rental units receive government subsidies. The other 75 percent is known as naturally occurring affordable housing, or NOAH. NOAH refers to rental properties that are affordable to low- and moderate-income families due to the properties’ age, amenities, physical condition, or location in lower-cost markets. But, despite their vast presence, these properties are at a high risk of disappearing due to redevelopment, disrepair, and economic instability. HAI Group’s Staci Canny talked to Dr. Hilary Lopez, executive director of Reno Housing Authority in Nevada, and Dunni T. Cosey Gay, director of the Preservation Compact, a Chicago-area policy collaborative, to hear how their organizations have found success with preserving NOAH in their respective communities as a complement to subsidized housing. 

The terms public housing and affordable housing are often confused, and understandably so, as both refer to rental housing established for eligible low-income families. But public housing and affordable housing are very different in terms of organization, management, and funding. 

Lawmakers should have included investments in affordable housing in the Inflation Reduction Act, says National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) CEO Mark Thiele. 

A new study commissioned by the National Apartment Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council projects the need for 4.3 million new apartments by 2035 to keep up with expected demand but notes that due to housing underproduction after the 2008 financial housing crisis, keeping new units affordable will be a challenge.