Summary below:
"The Omnibus provides a total of $41.5 billion in discretionary funding for HUD for 2009. This represents an increase of $2.2 billion (5.5 percent) over the 2008 funding level, once an adjustment is made for differing budgetary offsets used in the two laws.
A major concern is renewal funding for Housing Choice vouchers. As explained in the memo, the Omnibus does not appear to provide sufficient funding to renew all vouchers used by low-income families in 2008. Unless additional funds are made available to supplement the amount provided by the Omnibus, the program could serve tens of thousands fewer families in 2009 than in 2008, despite the fact that housing needs are growing dramatically due to the recession.
At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that, taken together, the Omnibus and the previously-passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 make significant investments towards preserving federal rental housing assistance for low-income families. Two areas are worth particular mention (and are discussed briefly in the memo). First, the funding provided by Congress in these two pieces of legislation should help to restore stability to the Section 8 project-based rental assistance program, which has experienced a funding crisis since 2007. Second, Congress has provided a large increase in capital funding for public housing, which, for the first time in many years, will allow agencies to begin to address the substantial backlog of capital of repair needs. (Nonetheless, public housing operating funding remains severely underfunded.)"
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