NAA/NMHC and other housing organizations have sent a letter to HUD expressing concern with its “Transforming Rental Assistance” (TRA) initiative as outlined in President Obama’s FY 2011 budget.
As mentioned in February, the TRA initiative would convert funding for some public and assisted housing to a new type of project-based voucher.
NAA/NMHC believe the TRA initiative is well-intentioned but ill-conceived. The NAA/NMHC letter points out that current project-based rental assistance programs provide quality rental housing to more than 1.3 million households; it asks HUD not to attempt to overhaul the program, particularly in the current economic environment of extraordinarily risk-averse investors.
NAA/NMHC reiterated strong support of federal efforts to expand the supply of affordable housing, and stand ready to work with HUD to refine proposals from the public housing community to preserve public housing. The letter is available at http://tinyurl.com/4td5kr.