The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) hosted a webinar, Making Every Voucher Count: Strengthening the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Speakers discussed potential legislative and administrative reforms, local initiatives, and innovative solutions to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program including:
- Increasing utilization rate and striking the right balance between budgeted authority and voucher spending;
- Report: Improving Utilization in the Housing Choice Voucher Program, a new study by the RAND Corporation and the Terner Center for Affordable Housing to improve efficiency, expand participation and better support participating families.
- Adding service fees to vouchers to support housing navigation, landlord outreach, and security deposit assistance to streamline the lease-up process;
- Go Deeper: Service fees were included with the Emergency Housing Voucher program, but not traditional HCVs.
- Reducing duplicative HUD inspections and compliance paperwork if inspection requirements were met within the past year;
- Report: Reforming the Inspections Process: A Necessary Step for a Stronger Housing Choice Voucher Program, by BPC to streamline the process, expand landlord participation in the HCV program, and promote greater voucher use, particularly in high-opportunity communities.
- This idea is included in the Choice in Affordable Housing Act sponsored by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) in the House and in the ROAD to Housing Act in the Senate.
- Converting HCVs to electronic benefit transfers without federal lease inspection requirements such as with HCV programs in Colorado or the city of Philadelphia; and
- Matching grants from HUD and local governments to invest in deeply affordable units.
