THE 2006 PUBLIC HOUSING FINANCE UPDATE

摘要

This is my fourth annual update for the Journal on the status of public housing financing. I am calling attention to financing because we will not see essential improvements in the condition of our public housing unless additional resources are harnessed to supplement annual federal appropriations. While a consultant study published by HUD in 2000 found a $21.6 billion unfunded backlog of capital needs as of 1998, and that about $2 billion per year is needed to address depreciation, annual public hou ing Capital Fund allocations have declined about 4% annually over the past six years. The Capital Fund appropriation proposed by both houses of Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2007 is only slightly above the amount needed to keep pace with ongoing depreciation, and hardly addresses the backlog.