HUD announced last week that its Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) surpassed $4 billion in capital investment to make repairs to distressed public housing, already reaching twice the 2016 level of capital investment in public housing. RAD provides public housing authorities with the flexibility to convert public housing to a project-based Section 8 platform, which gives them flexibility to leverage other private and public sources of funding in order to make needed repairs. Currently, RAD is leveraging $19 in capital for every $1 of public housing funds, significantly expanding the ability of local public housing authorities to improve and repair their public housing properties. HUD’s backlog of capital needs is assessed at over $26 billion; without RAD, HUD estimates that it would take 46 years for housing authorities to accomplish the same level of repairs and renewal.