HUD Recovery Funds Create Nearly 9,000 Jobs

Recovery Act funds dispersed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have created nearly 9,000 new jobs in the last year and improved or rehabilitated 150,000 low income homes. According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, over 3,100 public housing authorities have met the funding deadline for receiving nearly $3 billion in funds authorized through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and have used those monies to make significant improvements to public housing units. Under the rules accompanying the awards, funds had to be "obligated" to specific projects or activities within one year or return to HUD for redistribution to other agencies.  The deadline was March 17.

Today Donovan said ""Strict deadlines, such as this one, were written into the Recovery Act to ensure that funds would be used to meet the top goal of putting Americans back to work as quickly as possible.  I am proud of the work HUD and public housing authorities across the country did to meet this critical deadline. It speaks to the commitment they have to improve affordable housing and grow local economies. Families and communities are already seeing new windows, roofs, cost-saving energy-efficient appliances, and much-needed jobs."

HUD disbursed the $3 billion through Public Housing Capital Fund grants.  Under Section 3 of the long-standing Housing and Urban Development Act, state and local governments that receive funding from the Capital Fund in excess of $200,000 are required to document how those funds are used to hire low income individuals and residents of public housing projects.  Earlier this month, HUD announced that three out of four of agencies receiving funds had filed such reports. Capital Fund money can be used to make large-scale improvements such as new roofs and for the replacement of plumbing and electrical systems to increase energy efficiency.

HUD reported that, to date, the recovery act funding, which was intended to help jumpstart the economy in what it called "the worst recession in a generation" had been used on a local basis to address the long-standing capital needs of public housing and to create energy efficiency as well as to create new jobs and retain existing ones.

The $3 billion was allocated by HUD on last March within 30 days of the signing of the Recovery Act, using the Capital Fund's long established formula.  The Recovery Act funds more than doubled HUD's annual support of local housing authorities.  Of the $2.985 billion that was awarded to 3,134 public housing agencies, $2.981 billion was obligated by the deadline and $3.25 million was voluntarily returned to HUD which is working on its redistribution. 

HUD said that 172 of the housing authorities receiving funding had been designated by HUD as "troubled" but that all of those also met the deadline with two returning all or a portion of their funds.

The $3 billion addressed in the current report was a portion of the total of $13.6 billion awarded to HUD under the Recovery Act.  The Department obligated 75 percent of those funds to state and local recipients within 8 days of President Obama's signing of the law.  The remaining 25 percent is being awarded through a competitive bid process. HUD said that 98 percent of HUD's share of Recovery Act funds will be used on a local basis to improve housing and neighborhoods and to create jobs.

HUD invited interested parties to review and track funds that have been spent by HUD under the Recovery Act on the Act's website at http://www.hud.gov/recovery.  Funding notices and tracking of future performance of grants can also be reviewed at that URL.