Former PIH Asst. Secretary urges for more federal support of public housing

In an op-ed in The Hill, Orlando Cabrera, former assistant secretary for Public and Indian Housing at HUD, expresses concern that the president’ budget does not address the nation’s affordable housing shortage, especially public housing, an "invaluable and long-ignored national asset." President Trump’s budget proposal would cut $1.9 billion from the operating and capital funds of public housing, which could result in the loss of thousands of affordable apartments. Cabrera discusses how public housing has been underfunded for years, and this underfunding places a greater burden on taxpayers because it causes inefficiencies in the delivery of other services like healthcare and food. Cabrera also suggests that the impact of adopting the president’s budget would be the greatest deliberate loss of a federally created public asset. In his piece, Cabrera urges Congress and the president to support the Rental Assistance Demonstration program.