U.S. House Passes Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration

On July 10th, the United States House of Representatives passed the Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act. This bill authorizes the HUD secretary to carry out a demonstration program to encourage families receiving housing choice vouchers to move to lower-poverty areas and expand access to opportunity areas. The bill had broad bipartisan support with a vote of 368-19.

The demonstration program would help housing authorities plan and implement the program and fund services, which include working with families to address barriers, financial coaching, outreach to landlords for participation, housing search assistance, and post-move services like regular check-ins and landlord/tenant mediation.

HUD would select housing authorities to participate through a competitive process. There would be a priority for regional collaborations that have high concentrations of voucher holders in low-opportunity neighborhoods, or one or more small housing agencies, or a high-performing Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program.

If selected, housing authorities and other service partners would work together to identify low-poverty areas and analyze access barriers, determine what resources and services families need, recruit families to participate, and modify agency policies like payment standards and search time to facilitate moves to areas of opportunity.

It is important to note that the recent vote in the House only authorizes the program, it does not provide funding. Funding for the program was included in the House Appropriations Committee Fiscal Year 2019 Transportation-HUD bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee did not include the funding in its version of the bill. If funding for the demonstration is included in the final Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations bill, HUD will issue a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), likely up to six months later. HUD would likely select awardees in the latter half of the 2019 calendar year.