Senate Appropriations Posts Agency Materials on the Impact of Sequestration.

All agency letters and testimony are HERE. 

HUD's letter is HERE, and HUD Secretary Donovan testimony is HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

$28 Billion+ in 2010 Oregon Federal Transfer Payments Up 59% Since 2000, to $7,487 Per Capita.

USA Today story is HERE; sortable state table is HERE.

Oregon ranked 25th among state per capita federal transfer payments in 2010; in 2000 it ranked 24th. (2000 dollars were adjusted for inflation).

Using Oregon's 2010 population, and the $7,487 2010 per capita estimate used by USA Today, total federal transfer payments in Oregon were $28,683,251,038 in 2010.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

CBPP Has Projections on Impacts of Possible Budget Cuts to HUD Vouchers.

Full CBPP report is HERE. 

Oregon projections can be found on page 10; the projection is for a reduction in the number of households served from 576 up to 7,088 households under various likely budget scenarios.[Note that across the board cuts would also presumably impact other HUD funded rental assistance programs].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Off Topic: CRS Report on Use of Budget Reconciliation Procedures, 1980-2008.

HERE. (22 measures have been passed by Congress, 3 vetoed by President Clinton).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

How Much Does it Cost for Each $1 Billion in Federal Housing Loan Guarantees? Which Programs Cost the Least/Most?

For federal budget purposes all loan guarantee programs are "scored" as either requiring a set aside of money to cover future losses ("positive credit subsidy") or as producing net revenue ("negative credit subsidy").

More (112 pages) about loan subsidy costs can be found in the OMB FY 2010 budget document, Federal Credit Supplement.

To show you how ALL federal HOUSING loan guarantee programs compare in cost I produced the attached PDF graph HERE, showing the projected federal budget cost/(revenue) for $1 Billion dollars in loan guarantees, as scored in the FY 2010 budget.

Which Housing Loan Guarantee Program Cost the Least/Most Per $1 Billion in Loans?

• A HUD multifamily refinance program (Section 223f) produces the greatest net revenue; producing $32.8 Million in net revenue for every $1 Billion in loans made.
• The proposed HUD HOPE for Homeowners program would be the most expensive, requiring an appropriation of $237.2 Million for every $1 billion in loans made.

Example: RD and HUD Multifamily Loan Costs Per $1 Billion in Loan Guarantees
Loan guarantee programs serving similar needs can also have significantly different costs. As shown on the PDF graphic:

1. A Rural Development multifamily loan program, Section 538, requires $156.8 million in appropriations
2. In contrast, two HUD/FHA Multifamily loan programs produce net revenue:

• The FHA Section 221d4 produces $11 million in net revenue.
• The FHA Section 223f program produces $32.8 million in net revenue.

So, $1 Billion in loan guarantees for the RD Section 538 program are projected to cost:

• $167 million MORE than the FHA 221d4 program and
• $189 million MORE than the FHA Section 223f program.

NOT Included in the PDF graphic:

• Costs for DIRECT loan programs of all kinds.
• Cost for NON housing loan guarantee programs.

ORIGINALLY CREATED AND POSTED ON THE OREGON HOUSING BLOG.

HUD Gets $15.8 Billion in Recovery Bill: I Project Oregon Would Receive $111.5 Million.

I created an Excel spreadsheet HERE that totals up all HUD funding in the Draft Recovery bill that will start to be considered in the House next week. Spreadsheet also includes page # for each program in the bill, and a URL for the draft bill. (I also created a PDF of the spreadsheet HERE).

Press reports indicate that the total spending in the bill at $550 Billion, not including tax cuts.

HUD dollars total $15.8 Billion; so that would be 2.87% of the total $550 Billion
The largest HUD funding is $5 Billion for Public Housing Capital grants.

I took the national HUD dollars by program and applied either 1% or 1/2 of 1% to project an Oregon share of the national HUD dollars. (The Excel spreadsheet allows you to substitute your own % if you disagree with mine).

Using these variables, I project that Oregon would receive .071 % of the national HUD total, or $111.5 Million.

Urban Institute Policy Primer: Federal Programs for Addressing Low Income Housing Needs.

Web page is HERE.

Full primer, as PDF, is HERE.

New Excel Workbook with Oregon "Shovel Ready" Projects.

I have constructed an Excel workbook with Oregon "shovel ready" projects from the U.S. Conference of Mayor's report that I previously posted about HERE.

The new Excel workbook is HERE.

Some observations/clarifications:

1. Instead of the 8 housing projects my previous post indicated, there are a total of 10 Oregon housing related projects, 8 funded by CDBG and the 2 others apparently are public housing projects. These 10 projects produce 192 jobs, require $11.4 million in funding, and require $59,375 in funding per job.These 10 projects are listed in a seperate worksheet in the workbook, sorted by funding required per job.
   
2. You will find several other worksheets in the workbook, including a worksheet sorted from highest to lowest funding required per job and a comparison of Oregon costs by program/sector to US Totals.
3. Funding required per job for Oregon projects is 31% below the national average ($59,570 vs. $86,314).
4. Transit funding required per job is 36% higher in Oregon than in US ($118,731 vs. $87,402).
   
5. The workbook includes a pivot table so you can create your own views of the Oregon projects.
6. While the national report has a program/sector called "school modernization", I did NOT find ANY Oregon projects with that designation. (If you find any, let me know, it's possible I missed them in the 607 page report).
   

While I am sure they will be defended, some projects like the $80 million/ $114,000+ per job for Lake Oswego sewer improvements and the $1.5 million. $65,000 per job to resurface Eugene tennis courts seem sure to questioned.

[Pic is from Wilson River Highway construction, posted at the Oregon Blue Book, Depression Era Public Works website HERE].

Non Profit Down Payment Lobbying Efforts Ramp Up.

As I have detailed HERE, non profit down payment assistance programs have much higher FHA claims rates than than those loans where the buyer does NOT receive down payment assistance.

Despite these facts, the story HERE lists some of the current non profit lobbying efforts to retain these costly programs, including signing up of the National Association of Home Builders and scheduling a teleconference featuring Russell Simmons. (However a later PR HERE says that the conference called for today has been postponed).

House Appropriations Project Based Section 8 Hearings Scheduled for Wednesday.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing has two related hearings scheduled for Wednesday of this week on the topic of HUD project based rental assistance.

First hearing at 10 AM is titled Challenges of the Project Based Section 8 Program and includes advocate testimony; the second hearing at 1PM is titled Status of Project Based Section 8 program and the HUD Housing Assistant Secretary is the lone scheduled witness.

The subcommittee website is HERE.

[Thanks to NLIHC Memo to Members for tip off to these hearings].







Thanks to NLIHC Memo to Members for the tip.

Dumb Government Revisited: Gov Contractors Escape Paying Health Insurance.

Story in WSJ yesterday reminded me of an earlier post HERE where I called the federal government "dumb" because of its failure to collect back taxes from 30,000 federal Medicare providers.

Story yesterday in WSJ HERE, recounts that:

1. Federal government is missing opportunity to require federal contractors to provide health insurance (or dollar equivalent in fringe benefits) to employees by exempting industries from requirement where health insurance is "not typical".
2. Feds also have no system for collecting information on how many of the estimated 5.4 million federal contract employees have employer provided health insurance(or pay dollar equivalents in fringe benefits).
3. $3.16 per hour is currently provided as the fringe benefit equivalent to health insurance. (This seems to me to woefully inadequate to provide anything other than very limited individual [not family] insurance coverage).

With all the commotion about expanding health insurance it strikes me as plain "dumb" to NOT mandate that all government contractors must provide health insurance, or to require a realistic fringe benefit payment sufficient for the employee to pay for privately provided individual insurance, and to track and report health insurance coverage by each government contractor. (It would be equally 'dumb" to allow employees to collect the fringe benefit equivalent, spend it on something other than health insurance, and then enroll [at government expense] in Medicaid).

One way to expand coverage would be to allow private contractors to enroll federal contract employees in the Federal Employee Health Plan, with employees who enroll required to pay a share of the insurance premiums and co-pays just like federal employees, and with employers paying the majority of the insurance premium.

CBPP Analysis of HUD Budget Includes State Table of Impacts.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has issued an analysis of the proposed FY 2009 HUD budget HERE.

Pages 14-16 of that analysis are estimated state impacts of the HUD budget on vouchers, public housing, and project based rental assistance. Oregon estimated impacts:

• Vouchers NOT renewed: 1,500
• Project based units at risk of non renewal 635
• Public Housing Operating Fund shortfall $3.64 Million
• Public Housing Capital Fund shortfall $2.209 Million

Web Video: Barney Frank Asks HUD How CDBG Funding Got Cut in Budget.

A short 3 minute video snippet from this weeks House Financial Services Committee hearing on the HUD budget. Chair Frank asks HUD Secretary Jackson and CPD General Deputy Assistant Secretary Bregon for explanation of impact that elimination of CDBG funding for some cities (as HUD has previously proposed) would have on other cities and how amount of CDBG cut in FY 2009 budget was decided upon.

Joint Economic Committee Holds Hearing on Iraq War Costs.

NY Senator Chuck Schumer chaired a hearing on the economic costs of the war in Iraq recently. Testimony and other materials (graphs/charts/video) can be found HERE.

One of witnesses was Joesph Stiglitz, the author of "The Three Trillion Dollar War" that I blogged about recently. His 8 page testimony can be found HERE.

Iraq War Cost Impacts on Housing and Other Programs: VA Disability Payments.

Every dollar spent in Iraq is a dollar less available for other purposes, including but not limited to, housing.

I have begun reading a new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War. (Fresh Air NPR story on the book HERE). It's written by a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and is packed with facts, figures, and footnotes that support his three trillion dollar cost conclusion.

As I work my way through the book my plan is to highlight data to illustrate the scale of the true financial costs of the war (the political and personal costs are already well documented).

Maybe because I am a Vietnam vet one of the first items to get my attention was the number of veterans receiving veterans disability payments, and the cost of those payments, as covered in Chapter 3 of the book.

Some key data:

• 3.5 million veterans now receive disability benefits, annual cost $34.5 billion, average benefit $8,890.
• More than 900,000 recipients from Vietnam war
• More than 210,000 recipients from first Gulf war (About 40% of first Gulf war veterans by my calculation), $4.3 Billion annually
• Pending claim backlog December 2007: 400,000+
  

Iraq- Afghanistan Wars

• 1.6 million troops have been deployed so far to Iraq and Afghanistan
• 31% (224,000) of 751,000 discharged have filed claims through Dec.07, (Claims approval rate as of summer '07 was 90%), $1.3 billion annually.
  
• 2012 Projection: 405,000 claims filed, $3.1 billion annually
• 2017 Projection: 712,000 claims filed, $6.2 billion annually

HUD FY 2009 Congressional Budget Justification Site Has Buried Nuggets.

Each year, after the budget is presented in early February, HUD posts DETAILED justifications for various programs and organizational divisions.

HUD has now posted the budget justifications for the FY 2009 budget HERE.

This detailed budget information can yield interesting insights. Buried on page 130 of the 150 page PDF Housing section HERE, the budget estimate is that HUD will assist 43,000+ FEWER project based units in FY 2009 vs. the actual project based assistance provided in FY 2007. (1,243,233 vs.1,286,662). Similarly Public Housing units are also projected to decline by 25,000 units (1,155,377 vs. 1,130,343) for a combined two year net loss of 68,000 units in these two programs.

Coupled with reductions in families served by tenant based Section 8 vouchers (HUD does not break out unit counts for vouchers), HUD clearly is helping FEWER absolute numbers of households that it has done at any time in the recent past and is coming nowhere near close to keeping up with even simple population growth.

Cross Post: Oregon Open Government: Privately Financed Travel for Oregon Delegation -Gordon and Earl In the Lead.

Cross Post from my Oregon Open Government Blog on this subject is HERE.

Final Stimulus Bill Housing Provisions: Temporary FHA/GSE Mortgage Limit Increases IN, Mortgage Revenue Bond Refinancings OUT.

Final stimulus bill as passed by both House and Senate and sent to President is HERE as PDF.

The temporary increases in FHA and Fannie and Freddie Mortgage Limits are included; the mortgage revenue bond use for refinancing (in the Senate bill) did NOT make it into the final bill.

Joint Taxation Committee estimated costs for the final bill can be found as PDF HERE.

Editorial Comment: As president had expressed support for mortgage revenue bond provisions as recently as State of the Union address, difficult to understand why they didn't make it into final bill. My doubting Thomas view is that it may have something to do with the fact that Senator Clinton was the first national figure to push this idea, starting last October. Administration/Republicans likely did not want to give her that kind of opening to claim credit during this election year.

Initial CBPP Take on FY 2009 HUD Budget.

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) initial analysis of HUD Budget as a PDF file HERE.

FY 2009 OMB HUD Budget Documents

HUD budget summary as PDF HERE.

HUD detailed budget from Appendix as PDF HERE.

Federal Credit Supplement (used for loan programs) as PDF HERE.

HUD Programs: State Level MS Excel SPREADSHEETS
Housing Choice Vouchers by state HERE
CDBG by state HERE.
HOME by state HERE.
Public Housing Operating Fund by state HERE.
Public Housing Capital Fund by state HERE.