CLASP Policy Comment: Reducing Administrative Burdens in Federal Housing Programs

Overview and Core Objectives of Administrative Burden Reduction

• Fundamental Principles of Housing Access:

  • A safe place to call home is a fundamental human need.
  • Systems designed to collect information for housing assistance often create severe administrative burdens for households experiencing poverty and housing instability.
  • Navigating complex application procedures, sourcing documentation, and presenting personal details can be overwhelming or impossible under the chronic stress of poverty.
  • Administrative burdens lead to application dropouts, failure to complete re-certification, lost time, personal stress, and out-of-pocket costs.

• Core Goals for Burden Reduction:

  1. Simplify Application and Recertification Processes: Streamline forms, eliminate redundant data requests, and reduce submission steps.
  2. Mitigate Psychological Costs: Reduce stigma, anxiety, fear, and demoralization associated with applying for and receiving public assistance.
  3. Transfer Administrative Labor: Shift the burden of documentation and verification away from low-income applicants and onto administering agencies.

Program Scale, Demographics, and Structural Underfunding

• Scale of Federal Rental Assistance:

  • Nationwide, over $3000$ local public housing authorities (PHAs or HAs) administer housing programs.
  • Public housing programs serve approximately $2000000$ residents.
  • The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program serves approximately $5000000$ participants.

• Demographics and Systemic Context:

  • Due to historical and ongoing discrimination in housing markets and government programs, racial minorities are disproportionately represented: roughly $35\%$ of households in public housing and HCV programs are Black, and approximately $15\%$ are Latinx.
  • Racist narratives framing marginalized groups as undeserving have historically driven systemic underfunding of public housing and voucher programs.
  • Administrative burdens operate as a form of racial injustice resulting from decades of federal, state, and local failures to protect and invest in Black homes and neighborhoods.

• Non-Entitlement Nature and Resource Scarcity:

  • Unlike entitlement programs such as SNAP or Medicaid (which serve all individuals who meet eligibility criteria), federal rental assistance programs have strict funding caps.
  • Only $1\text{ in }4$ (or by some estimates, $1\text{ in }5$) eligible low-income renters receive federal housing assistance.
  • Evidence from SNAP demonstrates how paperwork deters participation: $40\%$ of eligible non-participants are deterred by paperwork, and $37\%$ report that applying takes too much time relative to work and family duties.

Waitlist Transparency, Communication, and Application Availability

• Impact of Long and Opaque Waitlists:

  • Because rental assistance is not an entitlement, applicants frequently apply to multiple programs across various HAs.
  • Annual federal allocations to HAs are capped, creating waitlists that span months, years, or decades.
  • Living conditions while waiting on housing lists are often severe: sleeping on couches, paying high rates for motels, entering exploitative labor agreements in exchange for shelter, or sleeping in public spaces (increasing exposure to criminal legal system involvement).

• Proactive Waitlist Communication Strategies:

  • Current practice places the entire burden on applicants to check status by calling HAs every $2\text{ to }3\text{ months}$, supplying full names and application numbers.
  • HAs should implement automated text messages, phone calls, and emails notifying applicants of changes in their waitlist position and providing estimated waiting times derived from historical data.
  • Automated outreach should prompt applicants to update information to determine if they qualify for specific preferences.
  • Centralized portals like waitlistcheck.com provide useful status-checking for internet-connected households, but direct proactive outreach remains essential for unsheltered applicants who may remember email logins better than HA portal URLs.

• Continuous Open Application Policies:

  • HAs frequently close waitlists to the general public for extended periods (e.g., the District of Columbia Housing Authority froze its waitlists at $70000$ applicants for a decade between $2013$ and $2023$; Baltimore reopened its waitlist in $2023$ after a $4\text{-year}$ closure).
  • Brief application windows lock out households experiencing sudden housing crises.
  • HUD should require HAs to maintain centralized, continuously open application waitlists scaled to regional or state levels (e.g., the Massachusetts Section 8 Centralized Waiting List utilized by over $100$ HAs).

• Systemic Benefits of Open Centralized Waitlists:

  • Accurate Data Collection: Fully captures the true scale of housing need in a jurisdiction, strengthening policy and funding advocacy.
  • Consistent Priority Enforcement: Protects vulnerable individuals who downplay trauma from being turned away without applying.
  • Improved Homeless System Coordination: Helps service providers track unsheltered individuals missed during Point-in-Time (PIT) counts.
  • Empowered Self-Advocacy: Establishes a clear single entry point for applicants to connect with caseworkers and navigate resources.

Streamlining Documentation, Verification, and Interview Requirements

• Simplifying the Screening Application Stage:

  • Eligibility determinations occur twice: at initial application submission and upon selection from the waitlist.
  • HAs should provide concise, plain-language PDF explainers embedded directly in application packets and online portals.
  • Include a single check-box option allowing applicants to select "register me for everything that I might qualify for."
  • Designate specialized community engagement staff at HAs to handle applicant education, freeing caseworkers to focus on active clients.
  • Integrate multi-program applications across jurisdictions and embed cross-program enrollment links (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid) on housing confirmation pages.

• Reforming Verification Hierarchies and Self-Attestation:

  • HUD's formal verification hierarchy designates self-certification as a last resort, compelling HAs to demand extensive original documentation.
  • Valuing paper documentation over self-attestation reinforces a classist and racist culture of distrust toward low-income individuals.
  • Research from the Urban Institute showed that expanding self-attestation flexibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly improved program efficiency across HAs.
  • HUD should reorder verification hierarchies to encourage self-attestation for simple self-reported figures (e.g., child support payments or savings account balances).

• Data Sharing and Inter-Agency Coordination:

  • HAs currently use the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System to verify data against Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) databases.
  • Data partnerships should be restructured to reduce processing times rather than audit applicants; for instance, SNAP participation should serve as a categorical proxy for income eligibility in rental assistance.

• Eliminating Mandatory In-Person Interviews:

  • Mandatory in-person visits suppress participation among shift workers, parents lacking child care, and individuals without reliable transportation.
  • Federal regulations do not require income and family composition examinations to occur in-person (unless requested as a disability accommodation under Notice PIH 2020-33(HA), REV-2).
  • Remote briefings, hearings, and online document submissions—clarified during COVID-19 flexibilities—should be adopted permanently across all HAs.

Navigating and Standardizing Preference Systems

• Mechanics of Local Preference Models:

  • To manage demand, HAs construct local preference systems using first-come/first-served lists, lotteries, point allocations, general preferences (priority lists near the top), or limited preferences (set-aside program slots accessed via direct referrals like Coordinated Entry).
  • Mandatory federal preferences established in the early $1980$s (displaced families, rent burdens exceeding $50\%$ of income, substandard housing, homelessness) were eliminated by Congress in the late $1990$s, granting PHAs broad local discretion.
  • Comparing traumatic experiences to determine "worthiness" creates deep psychological distress, forcing applicants to share sensitive trauma details to obtain higher placement.

• Policy Recommendations for Preference Governance:

  • Clearly explain local preference rules and waitlist impacts on applications using plain, actionable language and visual flowcharts.
  • Transition change-of-circumstance reporting away from ad-hoc submission forms to scheduled, automated prompts (text/email).
  • Re-evaluate the federal standardization of general preferences to remove the informational burden of navigating inconsistent local PHA rules.
  • Launch a federal demonstration program to test community-centered waitlist administration models.

Expediting the Transition from Waitlists to Housing Units

• Voucher Search Barriers in the Private Market:

  • While public housing unit assignment is managed directly by HAs, HCV holders must negotiate leases in the private market.
  • Nationwide, HUD estimates only $60\%$ of voucher recipients successfully lease a unit before voucher expiration; in some areas, up to $50\%$ of vouchers expire unused.
  • Structural barriers include short search windows (typically $60\text{ days}$), lack of source-of-income protection laws, and strict landlord screening rules.

• Strategies to Assist Voucher Holders:

  • Standardized Search Services: Mandate a standardized baseline of housing search assistance services within PHA 5-Year and Annual Plans.
  • Mandatory Term Extensions: Establish federal minimum requirements forcing HAs to grant extensions on voucher search windows.
  • Presumptive Eligibility: Adopt models like the Los Angeles HUD waiver, issuing vouchers immediately to unhoused individuals while deferring income verification up to $60\text{ days}$ post-issuance.
  • Direct Cash Assistance Demonstrations: Partner with philanthropic organizations to study providing voucher holders cash payments equal to Fair Market Rent (FMR) during search terms to cover interim costs (overcoming statutory prohibitions that prevent federal housing funds from direct cash distribution under Moving to Work rules).

• Restricting Invasive Landlord and HA Screening:

  • HUD should establish federal standards limiting landlord screening data (credit checks, criminal records, landlord references).
  • Eliminate HA "at-home upkeep assessments," where officials inspect an applicant's current dwelling to evaluate cleanliness prior to approving public housing entry.

Interim Redeterminations, Reporting Mandates, and Lease Provisions

• Analysis of 10-Day Reporting Mandates:

  • HUD's sample public housing lease contains provisions requiring tenants to report any change in family size within $10\text{ days}$.
  • Failure to report within $10\text{ days}$ can lead to eviction for misrepresentation or retroactive rent increases resulting in severe tenant debt.
  • No statutory or administrative mandate exists in federal law (42 U.S.C. § 1437f, 42 U.S.C. § 3544, 24 CFR § 966.4) requiring changes in family size to be reported within $10\text{ days}$.
  • Federal law mandates eligibility and income evaluations at only two mandatory points: initial application and annual reexamination.

• Recommended Lease and Reporting Reforms:

  • Revise sample leases to require immediate reporting only under high-threshold circumstances (e.g., if a temporary resident brings $200 or more in monthly income).
  • Make non-annual family size reporting optional, or establish simple 6-month check-ins focused exclusively on family size and income shifts.
  • Cease punitive enforcement that penalizes low-income tenants for sheltering unhoused friends, relatives fleeing domestic violence, or individuals returning from prison.

Reforming Community Service and Asset Accumulation Rules

• Community Service and Self-Sufficiency Requirement (CSSR):

  • Mandates that nonexempt adult public housing residents complete $8\text{ hours per month}$ ($96\text{ hours per year}$) of community service or self-sufficiency programming.
  • Approximately $14\%$ of public housing residents were subject to CSSR in $2015$ (note: $9$ HAs participating in the Moving to Work demonstration impose actual employment/work requirements).
  • Nonexempt tenants must submit signed verification forms annually.
  • HUD issued Notice PIH-2016-06 allowing HAs to accept tenant self-certification of CSSR compliance, subject to annual third-party audits.
  • HUD should mandate universal self-certification across all HAs, eliminate required annual random-sample audit checks, and partner with Congress to achieve full statutory repeal.

• Asset Reporting and the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program:

  • Asset Rules: Federal rental assistance does not limit total household assets; however, calculated income generated from assets is included in gross income computations, driving excessive document collection.
  • HUD should encourage total self-certification for household asset verification.
  • Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS): Enacted in $1990$, FSS allows tenants whose rent increases due to higher earned income to deposit the difference into an escrow savings account.
  • FSS Underutilization: Only $3\%$ of eligible households currently participate out of $2000000+$ eligible families (over half of which are headed by Black, Latina, and multi-racial women).
  • HUD should establish automated opt-out enrollment models for FSS to expand wealth-building nationwide.

Immigrant Access to Housing Assistance and Language Access

• Conflict Between Federal Immigration Statutes:

  • Housing program eligibility is fractured across Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act of $1980$ ("eligible noncitizen" status) and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of $1996$ (PRWORA) ("qualified alien" status).
  • The PRWORA 5-Year Bar Misconception: PRWORA bars qualified permanent residents from Federal Means-Tested Public Benefits (FMTPB) for $5\text{ years}$. However, HUD determined that no housing programs under its authority are classified as FMTPBs. This exemption is widely misunderstood, leading attorneys to advise clients against applying and PHA staff to improperly reject eligible noncitizens.
  • Programs with no noncitizen restrictions include the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and emergency homeless shelters.

• Improving Noncitizen Access Policies:

  • Mandate that every PHA publish an updated matrix outlining program eligibility by funding source and specific immigration status.
  • Create an online HUD eligibility tool for noncitizens.
  • Reinforce guidance that mixed-status households can receive prorated assistance without requiring Social Security Numbers (SSNs) for ineligible members.

• Mitigating the Public Charge Chilling Effect:

  • The $2019$ Trump Administration public charge rule (replaced in September $2022$ under the Biden Administration) and proposed mixed-status family exclusion rule (withdrawn) created a lingering "chilling effect."
  • Qualitative studies (e.g., Philadelphia $2019$ study) confirm widespread distrust, fear of deportation, and fear of government surveillance preventing eligible immigrant families from applying for shelter or reporting landlord violations.
  • HUD must publish clear trauma-informed guidance, invest in trusted community organizations, and explicitly state on application forms how documentation will and will not be shared.

• Addressing Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Barriers:

  • Title VI of the Civil Rights Act mandates language access for federally funded programs.
  • Nearly half of all LEP individuals live in states with severe affordable housing shortages: California ($25\%$), Texas ($14\%$), and Florida ($10\%$).
  • Common structural language failures:
  • Over-reliance on machine translation tools (e.g., Google Translate), which contain severe error rates (demonstrated by UCSF studies on non-English medical and technical instructions).
  • Translated forms containing instructions written exclusively in English.
  • Labeling Traditional/Simplified Chinese as spoken dialects (Cantonese/Mandarin).
  • Automated phone trees lacking in-language navigation.
  • HUD must condition funding on strict language access compliance, fund bi- or multi-lingual navigators at HAs, prioritize human translation services over machine tools, and publish common error implementation guides.

Structural Limits and Legislative Imperatives

• Ineffectiveness of Administrative Reform Without Legislative Expansion:

  • Administrative simplification alone cannot resolve housing instability while federal funding remains structurally insufficient.
  • Long waitlists and administrative churn are direct results of rationing limited aid to those perceived as the "neediest."
  • Onerous reporting and fraud checks function as surveillance mechanisms that disproportionately impact women of color.

• Required Legislative Actions:

  • Lift statutory housing restrictions on immigrants and individuals with criminal legal records.
  • Expand protections for renters and regulate the private market against source-of-income discrimination.
  • Repeal the Faircloth Amendment (which caps the construction of new public housing units).
  • Significantly expand federal budget appropriations for public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, and homelessness assistance programs.