Chairman Price Statement at FY 2023 Budget Request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Hearing

Congressman David Price (D-NC), Chair of the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Good morning, everyone, and welcome Secretary Fudge to your second appearance before the THUD Subcommittee.  Your former House colleagues are glad to see you again, and we look forward to a fruitful exchange.  As a reminder to all the members, please mute your mics when you are not speaking and ensure your video remains on in order to be recognized!

Madame Secretary, you have done a lot of good work in your first year as HUD Secretary. Despite the significant challenges that the pandemic has created, you have managed to lead the deployment of more than $7 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funding and over $12 billion in CARES Act resources to assist the affordable housing industry, state and local partners, and tribal communities in responding to the housing challenges posed by COVID-19. 

This includes targeted assistance to help homeless service providers work in tandem with public housing agencies to navigate the complexities of an emergency housing response and direct assistance to local governments to increase services and provide support to small businesses. 

For years, we witnessed a President’s budget request that flatlined critical housing infrastructure programs such as the Section 202 and 811 programs for the elderly and people with disabilities, and zeroed out community revitalization programs such as Choice Neighborhoods and even the HOME Investment Partnerships. I am pleased that your Department has worked with us to revive and revitalize these programs, building on the progress we have made on this subcommittee on a bipartisan basis to reverse these draconian cuts over the last five fiscal years. 

The impacts of this funding can be seen across all of our districts.  In fact, just last month I visited a Choice Neighborhood development in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where I was able to see the initial stages of a comprehensive redevelopment effort involving a large downtown neighborhood, integrating attractive affordable housing with supportive social services, transportation, and businesses.

Now I give Winston-Salem credit for their remarkable perseverance in pursuing these funds until they finally received an award. But as they understand, a part of the reason they finally got the funds is because of the progress we made in increasing available support for the program, from the time they first applied, when only a handful of projects were funded nationwide, to the present. Thanks to the work of this subcommittee, we can say Choice Neighborhoods is back in business.  So are Section 202 and 811, rental housing for the elderly and people with disabilities. 

Our subcommittee has done that. We have a long-standing bipartisan commitment to addressing the complex housing challenges communities face across America, and we look forward to continuing our work with you to ensure that HUD has the resources necessary to carry out its critical mission. 

Families across the country in urban, suburban, rural, and tribal communities have time and time again been forced into difficult decisions when they try to find affordable housing, constrained by huge waiting lists for vouchers offering rental support and then sometimes having a hard time getting placed even when they have a voucher, thanks to the limited supply and production of affordable housing. Low-income and working families shouldn’t have to wait for years before they get the opportunity to access critical federal support to secure a safe and stable home in a community with good schools, convenient and reliable transportation options, and supportive services.

Health and safety hazards in the home, like carbon monoxide, lead, radon, and mold continue to pose major, potentially life-threatening challenges for renters of all ages. This is the tip of the iceberg of a disgraceful backlog of maintenance and renovation needs in public housing. 

While we have been able to make progress to address homelessness, there is still more work to be done.  HUD’s “Point-in-Time” count – conducted on a single night in January 2021 – found that on any given night, more than 326,000 people are experiencing sheltered homelessness in the United States, of which four in ten were people in families with children. These numbers would have been far worse without the CARES Act and other pandemic relief measures. 

This subcommittee has worked hard to do our part to address these and other challenges, and I am grateful for the cooperative leadership of former chairman, now ranking member, Mr. Diaz-Balart.  Over the last five fiscal years, we have increased resources to the tune of $43 billion for capital improvements to public housing; new affordable housing for the elderly and people with disabilities; and targeted assistance to states, localities, and tribes to address complex housing and community development needs.  

We worked with our authorizing colleagues to enact three supplemental bills in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to provide nearly $80 billion to help individuals and families impacted by COVID-19, including emergency housing assistance, housing counseling services, and assistance to homeowners.

While these investments have been a vital response to the COVID-19 pandemic – they only provide temporary relief for what we know are longer-term challenges. 

The unmet needs in our communities are immense and require us to think boldly about the future of housing in our country. Housing plays a central role in stabilizing communities and creating pathways to homeownership and wealth—it’s hard to keep good health, achieve positive educational outcomes, or reach economic potential without a safe, decent, and affordable place to live. 

Overall, the budget request provides $71.9 billion for HUD--a 9.4 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, including $32.1 billion in housing choice vouchers, $3.6 billion to combat homelessness, $3.8 billion to expand economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for low- and moderate-income families, and $2 billion to construct and rehabilitate affordable rental housing through the HOME program.  These are all increases above fiscal year 2022.

Stable quality housing is foundational to how people build their lives and I am pleased that the budget request before us lays the groundwork for millions of households to remain stably housed or have the opportunity to build a stable, safe, and thriving future. 

Secretary Fudge, I look forward to your testimony today and continuing our work together on these pressing issues.