House and Senate negotiators hammered out a compromise last week on fiscal 2006 spending for the Department of Housing and Urban Development that would preserve the Community Development Block Grant program and HOPE VI — two programs the Bush administration proposed eliminating.
Approval of HUD appropriations for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 came Thursday evening at a meeting of a bicameral conference committee appointed by the House and Senate to resolve differences between their respective versions of spending legislation.
Not all details of the agreement were available yesterday, but sources familiar with the lawmakers’ discussions said CDBG would be funded at $4.2 billion, which is below the $4.7 billion appropriated for fiscal 2005. HOPE VI, which demolishes or rehabilitates severely distressed public housing, would receive $100 million, down from $143 million in fiscal 2005.
Affordable housing advocates, including John C. Murphy, executive director of the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, said they were disappointed with the $500 million spending reduction for CDBG, but pleased that lawmakers decided to retain the program. President Bush had proposed replacing the flexible grant program that is very popular among local officials with a less well-funded program that the Department of Commerce would have administered.
The spending package also would provide $15.5 billion for Section 8 rental-assistance vouchers, up from the $14.7 billion Congress appropriated in fiscal 2005. The HOME Investment Partnerships program would receive close to $1.8 billion, down from the $1.9 billion Congress appropriated for it in fiscal 2005. The public housing capital fund would receive almost $2.5 billion, also slightly below the fiscal 2005 enacted level.
The package, part of a larger spending bill covering appropriations for the Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development departments, is expected to head back to both chamber floors for final legislative approval some time this week.
Meanwhile, HUD officials are preparing for the arrival of Orlando J. Cabrera as the department’s new assistant secretary for public and Indian housing. The Senate approved Cabrera’s nomination Nov. 4.
Cabrera, who was executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp., will succeed Michael Liu as assistant secretary responsible for the Section 8 rental-assistance voucher program that consumes more than half of HUD’s annual budget, along with public housing and Native American housing programs. Liu left the position in the spring to become a senior vice president at Dutko Worldwide, a private consulting firm.
Cabrera, a former partner with Holland & Knight LLP, has experience in affordable housing development and has been involved in low-income housing tax credit transactions at the state and county levels. A HUD spokesman said yesterday that Cabrera’s swearing-in has not yet been scheduled.
