The National Housing Law Project Celebrates Federal Voucher Program 50th Anniversary

HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program is the Nation’s Largest Federal Housing Program, Serving Over 2.3 Million Households

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Housing Law Project today released the following statement by deputy director Deborah Thrope celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Housing Choice Voucher program:

“For 50 years, vouchers have been an essential tool used by our federal government to build a world where everyone has a safe, stable, and healthy home. Vouchers address the country’s history of racist and discriminatory housing segregation by helping people of color, people with disabilities, families with children, and seniors choose where they want to live at a cost they can afford. They make it easier for millions of Americans to pay for necessities like health care and groceries because less of their paycheck is going towards rent.

“Rent is the biggest bill families pay each month. Most working tenants are struggling, and housing costs have far outpaced wages for years. The need for rental assistance is so great that there are long waitlists to receive a voucher across the country. Aggressive rental housing markets also make it difficult for families to lease-up with their voucher. On today’s anniversary, let’s recommit to improving and expanding the voucher program so that more people who need vouchers can get them and use them to secure a stable home.”

NHLP has been at the forefront advocating for tenants’ rights to be protected in the Housing Choice Voucher program by:

• Establishing many of the fundamental rights afforded to HCV program tenants, including good cause for eviction and a range of procedural rights, through decades of litigation and advocacy.
• Modernizing the program by helping draft the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act and the regulations pursuant to it;
• Advocating for the widespread application of Small Area Fair Market Rents and more recently, the program’s expansion, to increase housing choice and mobility; and
• Working with partners to pass and uphold state and local voucher anti-discrimination laws and pushing HUD to publish resources for tenants and PHAs including a nationwide map of protections against source of income discrimination.

NHLP also recently helped pass a first-of-its-kind law in California that will increase transparency and improve oversight and accountability of Public Housing Authorities’ administration of the voucher program through the use of success rate and other data.