March 9, 2018

Trump wants to raise rents on 1.7 million poorest Americans

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities -Under President Trump’s proposal to raise rents by up to $1,800 a year on the poorest households receiving federal rental assistance — virtually all of which have annual incomes of less than $7,000 — roughly 1.7 million people (including nearly 1 million children) would face eviction, hardship, and homelessness.

The President’s 2019 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development would raise rents on people with rental assistance in several different ways. One is by raising the “minimum rent” for non-elderly, non-disabled households. Currently, assisted households generally must pay 30 percent of their income for rent. ...A leaked HUD document indicates that the proposal would raise the monthly minimum rent for non-elderly, non-disabled households to $152 and make it mandatory across housing agencies. That would triple the rent for households now paying a $50 minimum.

The proposal would affect only the poorest people receiving federal rental assistance, raising rents on some 1.7 million people, including 970,000 children. The number of children in severe poverty has grown substantially since the mid-1990s, in part because the safety net’s erosion for families with children has left many such families with little or no income when they’re jobless. Many of the other affected adults have been homeless, or may have physical or mental health conditions or limited education that make it difficult to find or sustain employment.

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