Virtual Hearing - Universal Vouchers: Ending Homelessness and Expanding Economic... (EventID=112746)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinancialCmte Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. (ET) full Committee Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry will host a virtual hearing entitled, “Universal Vouchers: Ending Homelessness and Expanding Economic Opportunity in America." - - - - - - - - Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be: • Ann Oliva, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget Policies and Priorities • Mary Cunningham, Vice President, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy, Urban Institute • Benjamin Metcalf, Managing Director, Terner Center for Housing Innovation, University of California, Berkeley • Chancela Al-Mansour, Executive Director, Housing Rights Center • Howard Husock, Adjunct Scholar, Domestic Policy, American Enterprise Institute Background on Homelessness Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic Prior to the pandemic, homelessness was on the rise again in America. From 2007 to 2015, annual point-in-time (PIT) count of persons experiencing homelessness overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) registered a 15% decrease, reaching a low of 549,528. Declines in homelessness were especially dramatic among certain subpopulations—veterans experiencing homelessness dropped by 47% during this period. Since 2016, however, homelessness overall has increased by 5.6%, with 580,466 persons experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2020. Increases in homelessness among certain populations have been especially dramatic: For the first time since HUD began conducting the PIT count in 2005, unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness outnumbered those who were sheltered,4 with the key driver being persons with chronic patterns of homelessness.5 Four consecutive years of increased unsheltered homelessness has cut across all geographies. Indeed, rural communities had the largest percentage of people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations (44%) in 2020 and experienced the greatest increase in unsheltered homelessness between 2019 and 2020 (8.3%), followed by major cities (39% in unsheltered locations and a 7.5% increase in unsheltered homelessness between 2019 and 2020). Additionally, stark racial inequities in homelessness persist. Although White individuals make up 74% of the U.S. population, they constitute only 48% of people experiencing homelessness. By contrast, over 67% of people experiencing homelessness are Black, Indigenous, and Latinx, despite representing 12%, 1%, and 16% of the total U.S. population, respectively. The lack of affordable housing is the primary cause of homelessness and housing instability in the United States. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, 37.1 million households, nearly one-third of all the households in the U.S., spent over 30% of their incomes on housing, and nearly half of them (17.6 million) paid over 50% of their incomes on housing.10 Of this latter cohort of severely cost-burden renter households, virtually all (99%) are low-income—defined by HUD as income up to 80% of local area median income—and three-quarters are extremely low income—defined by HUD to be up to the federal poverty line or 30% of local area median income whichever is higher. Over 60% of these severely cost-burdened, low income renters are people of color. The overrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx households among those experiencing severe rent burdens and homelessness is driven in part by the nation’s long history of racial discrimination and exclusion. For decades, federal housing policy was explicitly racially discriminatory. Although the Fair Housing Act (FHAct) outlawed discrimination in housing in 1968, contemporary patterns of poverty, disinvestment, and residential segregation continue to mirror, and in some cases surpass, historical indicators of socioeconomic segregation and exclusion. Research examining racial discrimination in relation to homelessness has found that “socioeconomic disadvantage furthered by racial discrimination may be a more important precursor of homelessness for black and other ethnic minority persons; whereas serious mental illness and family problems are more likely to be precursors of homelessness for white individuals.”15 Indeed, another study found that Black men were more likely to experience lifetime homelessness due to lower incomes, and higher rates of incarceration and traumatic events. Formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public and according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, “of the 11 million people detained or incarcerated in jails every year, as many as 15 percent report having been homeless." Impact of... Hearing page: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=407952