Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development & the Federal Housing (EventID=116728)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinancialCmte Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) full Committee Chairman McHenry and Ranking Member Waters will host a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Administration." ___________________________________ Witness for this one-panel hearing will be: • The Honorable Marcia Fudge, Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ___________________________________ General Background Secretary Fudge was sworn in as the eighteenth Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on March 10, 2021. In her nearly three years as Secretary, she has testified once before the Committee on Financial Services on July 20, 2021. This despite multiple requests to appear in 2023. HUD was established in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. While HUD identifies its mission as “to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all,” the statute charges HUD with providing decent, safe, and sanitary housing through its programs typically for low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. HUD currently employs over 8,600 full-time employees across the United States, and in FY 2023 received more than $77 billion in enacted gross discretionary budget authority. Additionally, for FY 2024, HUD has requested more than $107 billion in gross discretionary and mandatory budget authority. According to HUD, it currently administers approximately 100 active permanent and temporary major mortgage, grant, assistance, and regulatory programs. HUD’s four largest, non-disaster programs as measured by budget authority include: Tenant Based Rental Assistance, Project-based Rental Assistance, the Public Housing Fund, and Homeless Assistance Grants. These four programs consume roughly 75 percent of HUD’s entire annual budget. The vast majority of HUD programs continue to receive funding despite having lapsed legal authorizations, including some authorizations that expired nearly 30 years ago, which limits congressional oversight and public accountability of their effectiveness. HUD also operates the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a government-backed mortgage insurance provider. FHA’s mission is to make mortgage credit available to qualified first-time, low- and moderate-income homebuyers. Since its creation in 1934, FHA has insured more than 53 million mortgages. Housing Unaffordability Housing unaffordability has impacted renters and potential homeowners acutely. Despite HUD’s numerous programs and more than $1 trillion in taxpayer funding since 2000,4 housing continues to be unaffordable for millions of Americans. Housing affordability for single-family homes has hit historic lows, with record numbers of Americans paying more than 25 percent of their monthly income on a mortgage payment. Meanwhile, rents in many places continue to increase due, in part, to a shortage of up to 7 million affordable rental units. The lack of access to affordable rental housing remains a significant and growing challenge. HUD’s own report on the worst-case housing needs across the country states that in 2021, 8.53 million households earning below 50 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) either lived in substandard housing; paid more than half of their incomes on rent; or experienced both. According to the report: “This is a worsening from the record high of 8.48 million in 2011, and substantially higher than the 5.01 million households with worst case housing needs in 2001.” Further, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University: “Between 2019 and 2021, the share of cost-burdened renters grew by 2.6 percentage points to 49 percent of renter households,” and the total number of cost-burdened renters has reached an all-time high. Homelessness Despite billions of dollars in annual federal spending by HUD, homelessness is unequivocally on the rise across the country. HUD’s own January 2023 Point-in-Time Count Report highlights the lack of success in addressing this problem: “The report found more than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12% increase from 2022.” This is the highest number of people reported as being homeless since 2007. In addition, the number of people who became homeless for the first time increased by a staggering 25 percent between FY 2021-2022. This increase is despite the 6 percent increase in the number of beds made available to homeless populations during the last year alone. Further, the number of people experiencing homelessness is... Hearing page: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=411105