Housing Washington speaker Linda Couch, President of Housing Policy for LeadingAge, speaks out about policy changes on the hill in several articles in the LeadingAge website. This June, her focus was to explore the “Similarities, Differences in House and Senate HUD Funding Bills.”
“As it relates to housing assistance for older adults with low incomes, the House and Senate bills have many similarities, but also some differences,” she says. “The House and Senate bills would each provide $11.747 billion for the renewal of Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) contracts, which provide housing for 1.2 million households.”
She notes that both bills reject the President Trump and HUD Secretary Carson’s request to cut overall HUD funding by 22%.and the Administration’s rent reform proposal, which would change resident rents from today’s 30% of adjusted income to 30% of gross income for elderly households. Although is unlikely the bills will be reconciled into a single, enacted FY19 bill until after the November elections, it is important for Congress to hear consistently from advocates about the importance of these programs.
Authoring many articles for LeadingAge, Linda’s primary job is to provide strategic leadership for LeadingAge’s development of housing policy and priorities, including identifying and analyzing various policy proposals. She works closely with top leadership in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other key federal agencies and examines federally assisted elderly housing policies. Linda develops relationships with key policy-makers and communicate LeadingAge policies with Capitol Hill and other federal personnel.
Hear more from Linda at Housing Washington on October 3rd from 11:45 am – 12:30 pm at the Tacoma Convention Center.
To register, go to www.housingwa.org/register.