This annual report has wrestled with one question for each of its dozen years: how the 1.1-million unit public housing stock can be sustained or replaced as a low-income housing resource, despite woefully inadequate public housing funding. The grim prospects for adequate direct funding are clear in the preliminary appropriations decisions for fiscal year 2016. The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes a 1980s-level $1.74 billion for the Capital Fund, a $131 million cut from last year and over $1.5 billion short of estimated new annual capital (accrual) needs without even addressing a $26 billion needs backlog, and a public housing Operating Fund appropriation sufficient to fund 84 percent of what HUD's cost formula says a well-managed public housing authority (PHA) needs. The House numbers are worse. Given these prospects, this article largely discusses alternatives to dependence on public housing appropriations.
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