Housing Assistance Efficiency Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Today, I rise to urge passage of the Housing Assistance Efficiency Act, a bill that I introduced earlier this year. As the ranking member said, an identical version of this legislation passed the House by voice vote last December.

Many laws are intended to ensure efficiency in Federal agencies but often have unintended consequences, preventing agencies from serving the public and costing taxpayers money.

Currently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Program is forced to spend too much time fulfilling administrative obligations, instead of helping individuals and families transition out of homelessness and putting them on a path to independent living.

This legislation will reduce government inefficiency and make it easier for Americans struggling to find a foothold to access the already existing resources available to them.

Twice each fiscal year, HUD has to reallocate unused or returned funds in the Emergency Solutions Grants Program. Because funds are almost never unused or returned under this program, the reallocation of funds takes a lot of time and human capital to complete but with little end purpose.

It is administratively more efficient to reallocate funds only once per year. This frees up HUD employees to provide more human resources toward better providing service to constituents. We shouldn't saddle HUD with more administrative work that isn't helping anyone.

In addition to mandatory fund allocations, HUD faces a mountain of paperwork as it tries to administer that important system used by more than 3 million Americans each year. Prior to 2009, private nonprofits could administer rental assistance through HUD's Continuum of Care.

Nonprofits are uniquely positioned to handle the needs of those seeking rental assistance, using expertise in individual communities of vulnerable populations to serve the clients where they are.

The HEARTH Act, however, muddled rental assistance laws, and private nonprofits were left off the list of entities allowed to administer rental assistance. Currently, only States, local government units, or public housing agencies can dispense this housing assistance, although nonprofits have substantial experience and the ability to reach vulnerable populations that is often unavailable to government programs.

Private nonprofits can still execute other homelessness programs, but they have to go through public housing agencies or another layer of bureaucracy to get rental assistance to their clients or to the landlord. This creates more bureaucratic burdens when individuals and families really need the help quickly to stay in their homes.

Passing this bill would remedy both these problems, make HUD a more efficient agency, and get homelessness assistance to those who need it more quickly. This is particularly important in San Diego, where access to affordable housing has been continually one of our region's biggest obstacles and where we have the third largest homeless population in the country. By passing today's bill, we can help HUD be more efficient and ensure that community experts and nonprofits are not hamstrung by Federal inaction.

In their statement supporting this legislation, the San Diego Housing Federation said: ``This bill removes barriers to helping get important resources to those who need it most.'' Mr. Speaker, that is what it is all about.

I urge my colleagues to help pass this legislation and take substantive action to improve government efficiency and help fight chronic homelessness in our country.

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