HUD Supportive Housing

A new report from the GAO covers funding of HUD’s supportive housing program. Housing for Special Needs: Funding for HUD’s Supportive Housing Programs, GAO Report #16-424 was released on May 31, 2016.  The GAO findings are:

Until program funding for new development ceased in fiscal year 2012, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) used a two-phase process to allocate and award capital advances for Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly (Section 202) and Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811). First, HUD headquarters allocated the amount of appropriated funds for capital advances to each of the 18 regional offices using a funding formula, which accounted for regional housing needs and cost characteristics. Funding was further divided among 52 local offices using a set-aside formula and was also split between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas for Section 202. In 2010, HUD eliminated the set-aside which had guaranteed a minimum amount of funding for each local field office. The process for making capital advance awards did not change, but HUD was better able fund properties at a higher level. Second, applicants submitted applications to the applicable HUD regional office, and staff from these offices evaluated and scored applications based on various criteria, including capacity to provide housing and ability to secure funding from other sources. Applicants in each regional office were ranked highest to lowest and funded in that order. Any residual funds that were not sufficient to fund the next project in rank order were pooled nationwide and HUD headquarters used a national ranking to fund additional projects.

Most but not all states (including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) had applicants that received capital advances for Section 202 and Section 811 in fiscal years 2008 through 2011. GAO found that some states had applicants that received capital advances in each of the years reviewed, while other states did not. In the period reviewed, four states had no applicants that received Section 202 capital advance awards, and eight states had no applicants that received Section 811 capital advance awards. HUD officials cited several reasons applicants from some states may not have received funding during this period, including applications that were submitted may have been ineligible or higher-scoring applications from other states may have been selected instead. The capital advance amounts varied. For Section 202, total capital advance amounts for fiscal years 2008-2011 for states that received at least one award ranged from less than $24 million to more than $75 million. For Section 811, total capital advance amounts for fiscal years 2008-2011 for states that received at least one capital advance award ranged from less than $4 million to more than $15 million.

A pdf of the full report is available here.