HUD Texas Sequester Letter

Below is a copy of the letter from HUD to Texas Governor Rick Perry regarding the impact of the sequester on Federally-funded housing programs in Texas.  The bottom line losses:

$ 3.4 Million   HOME 
$50.5 Million   Tenant Based Rental Assistance
$ 4.5 Million   Homeless
$ 0.9 Million   Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS
$59.3 Million   Total Loss of HUD Funds in Texas

The Tenant Based Rental Assistance cuts alone are estimated to impact over 8,500 families.

The majority of housing programs in Texas are federally funded.  For context, in 2011 Texas directed only $39.1 Million of its General Revenue and Appropriated Receipts through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

One possible offset for this loss is Texas’s share of the National Mortgage Settlement.  $125 million of this cash payment to the state has not yet been designated for a specific use by the legislature, despite language in the settlement encouraging its use to “ameliorate the effects of the foreclosure crisis.”  The majority of other states are using, or plan to use, most, if not all, of their settlement funds for housing-related activities.

Senator Lucio has filed riders allocating some of Texas’s National Mortgage Settlement funds to housing programs.  These riders have not yet been adopted by the Senate Finance Committee. If they are not adopted, the settlement funds will, by default, go to general revenue.