Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5793) to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration to encourage families receiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty areas and expand access to opportunity areas.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of much-needed legislation that would authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration program that would encourage families receiving such voucher assistance to move to communities of their own choice and to expand their access to opportunity areas.

The Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018 is a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed out of our committee with a vote of 53-0. This unanimous vote shows its need and showcases the broad support of the legislation across the political spectrum.

The legislation would further improve voucher mobility to help more households using housing vouchers move to communities of their choice, including those with access to better paying jobs, good schools, transportation, and greater healthcare opportunities.

Through the demonstration, HUD and the public housing agencies, also known as PHAs, would be able to develop new models for improving voucher mobility and provide counseling to help HUD-assisted families move to these areas of opportunity.

A recent Harvard study showed that giving housing vouchers to low- income families significantly improved their lives and provided children with greater opportunity and a better shot at success. The study estimated that moving a child out of public housing to a low- poverty area will increase the child's total lifetime earnings by nearly $302,000.

The study clearly demonstrates that offering low-income families housing vouchers and assistance in moving to these lower poverty neighborhoods has substantial benefits for the families themselves, for the communities, and for taxpayers.

Helping all Americans afford decent, stable homes is the key to ensuring that people have the opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives. Enacting this legislation is an important step that Congress can and should take to address this challenge.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy), who is the chairman of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. I commend him on his fine work.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, there is an old adage: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, guess what, folks; this is kind of broke. We need to look for different ways of fixing it.

This bill today that my colleague from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver) and my colleague from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy) have been working on is that attempt to look for those answers. We do truly have common goals. They are common goals of opportunity, reward, and upward mobility for all Americans and to give them that opportunity.

Whether you are watching on C-SPAN or maybe in the gallery right now, what you are seeing on the floor may not compute with what you are seeing in the news all the time. We actually are agreeing on things. We actually are trying to move ahead and trying to better our citizens and our constituents in a way that will ultimately benefit not just them and their families individually, but their communities, our collective State, and, by extension, our country. That is what we are trying to do here today.

I just, again, want to commend the gentlemen from Wisconsin and Missouri for their work on this and for the leadership of the ranking member and Chairman Hensarling, as well, on this.

As we move forward to try to provide that opportunity to provide that upward mobility, to give citizens the real choice of what to do with their lives and how to live their lives, I can think of no better way than starting off with this pilot program.

And, hopefully, as I share the confidence with my friend from Wisconsin, I believe this will work. When it works, we will have that proof to go back and to use things like that Harvard study and others that have shown that upward mobility is achievable and that people aren't locked into one location or one mindset or one community. They can choose to be a part of that, but if they know they are going to have greater opportunity somewhere else, then the Federal Government shouldn't stand in the way of that opportunity. This bill does exactly that.

Mr. Speaker, I want to suggest to my colleagues that they vote for this very important piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5793, the Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act.

I want to thank Mr. Cleaver. We have worked together on a number of different pieces of legislation.

This is just another example of two like-minded people seeing a problem. This isn't earth-shattering, earthquakes and lightning aren't happening, but this is a small demonstration project that can modify a program that can have a true impact on people's lives.

The insight that Mr. Cleaver, the gentleman from Missouri, brings to this issue was incredibly helpful. I just want to thank him for his friendship and his help in working on this bill.

We should evaluate Federal programs and look at how successful they are. What are the results of the programs that we implement?

I strongly believe that, as we evaluate these programs, we should focus on supporting the programs and ideas that lead people away from dependency on the government and bring people toward self-sufficiency. Money is a component. How much we spend to help people is relevant.

But how much we spend on Federal Government programs isn't the end- all, be-all. It is the actual success of the program and the money that we spend and the leading people out of poverty and dependency into self-sufficiency and opportunities.

We have to give families the opportunity to pick themselves up so they can find a better job, they can live in a safer environment, and they can better provide for their children. H.R. 5793 moves toward those goals by authorizing the HUD Secretary to carry out a housing choice voucher demonstration program designed to help those receiving housing vouchers move to areas of lower poverty and to opportunity, helping them better their lives.

So, currently, the housing choice voucher program works with around 2,200 public housing authorities to administer 2.2 million vouchers across the Nation. While you would think that a lot of the PHAs would translate into more people being helped, it actually creates some complexity and inefficiency.

In some cases, not all cases, PHAs are fighting to keep as many vouchers and government resources as possible. They are trying to keep those resources to themselves when operating in the same general region.

When that happens, when someone might want to take that voucher and go somewhere else, there are roadblocks and barriers put it place that make it more challenging. So, instead of cooperating, the PHAs compete and put up barriers that prevent individuals from moving to a different area and actually bettering their lives.

This bill would allow HUD to implement a plan to regionalize various PHAs in one area to allow for portability and movement to higher opportunity areas.

The gentleman from Michigan mentioned this. We know that low-income children whose families move to areas of lower poverty have higher earnings as adults. We must eliminate the cycle of poverty that keeps generations of families living within the same area with a limited amount of opportunity. Helping people move to better opportunities will increase the chances for them to achieve academic success and reduce intergenerational poverty.

I think, as we look around the country, we have help wanted signs everywhere. Everyone is looking for help. Different regions have different starting wages. So, if you live in one area and you might not have as much opportunity or as great of wages, you don't have the money to go to a different part of town or a different area of your State and you can't take advantage of a better paying job.

What we are saying is let people go. Give them the voucher and let them move. Let them get that great job. That mobility that we give them helps them actually start climbing the economic ladder and, hopefully, get off dependence of the Federal Government. What that does is, again, launch them on their economic career, but it frees up resources to help somebody else out. This is a win-win deal.

So, again, it is a demonstration project. I think it is going to work. I know Mr. Cleaver and the ranking member do as well. Again, this is just another sign of parties working together to help people. We don't always agree on everything, but this was, again, a commonsense proposal that can make HUD work better and help more people out.

I want to thank both the ranking member and Mr. Cleaver for working so diligently on this effort and allowing this to go under suspension.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, it is an unfortunate reality in our country that a child's ZIP Code can determine her future and that families often have limited options in choosing where to live.

Rigorous studies have demonstrated that giving a low-income family the opportunity to move to a lower poverty neighborhood can have a profound impact, particularly for young children.

For example, one study found that young boys and girls in families that used a voucher to move to lower poverty neighborhoods were 32 percent more likely to attend college and earn 31 percent more annually compared to their counterparts in families that did not receive a voucher.

However, families with housing choice vouchers continue to face significant challenges if they want to move to a better neighborhood. In fact, data shows that only one in eight families with children with a housing choice voucher used their vouchers to live in low-poverty areas.

H.R. 5793 will help reduce barriers to mobility for families with housing choice vouchers by establishing a demonstration program that would enable and incentivize public housing agencies to form regional collaborations that will enhance opportunities for mobility across jurisdictions.

This is a bipartisan proposal that was included in previous HUD budget requests under the Obama administration. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that this demonstration will allow more than 7,000 families to move to areas of opportunity.

I am pleased to support this legislation, and, of course, I urge my colleagues to do the same.

I would like to say that Mr. Cleaver and Mr. Duffy have worked very hard to get this demonstration. I am very pleased about that because it is well known that I have big concerns about HUD and HUD's ability to give the kind of support to the least of these and families that need it so desperately. But this may be an indication that we can get more positive action from HUD.

So, again, I am very pleased to support this legislation, and I would like all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), the ranking member of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the Financial Services Committee and the lead Democratic sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly support this bill because we all must have hope. We all must have hope that we can get rid of poverty, that we can open up opportunities, that we can do something that would allow families who are locked into very poor neighborhoods be able to escape those neighborhoods and have better opportunities.

It is not always clear how that is going to happen, but given this legislation by Mr. Duffy and Mr. Cleaver, they certainly are attempting to put something together that may be able to move these families and give them better opportunities.

We know that we support housing with Section 8 and public housing projects, et cetera, and we know that we have people who have Section 8 certificates who have been desperately looking for a decent place to live and would love to be able to move into higher opportunity neighborhoods.

We have got to think in this collaboration that is going to be done about

how we are going to convince landlords to be more open to accepting voucher choice participants. We have got to think about what public housing programs can do. Most, of course, public housing is in poor neighborhoods. But certainly, if we have those who are in stronger neighborhoods, better neighborhoods, perhaps there can be the kind of collaboration that can see to it that people in some of the poorer neighborhoods and public housing would have an opportunity for moving into these better neighborhoods.

So, again, I think we must be hopeful. We don't always know how it is going to be done, but to give it a try is certainly worthwhile.

Mr. Speaker, I would certainly ask my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, let me, first of all, thank Chairman Duffy from our subcommittee for working on this significant piece of legislation, as well as the chair and the ranking member of the full committee. I am not going to take long. I think most of the salient points have already been made.

If I had a chance to rename this piece of legislation, it would be the Living in Higher Opportunity Neighborhoods Act. That is exactly what we are doing when we pass this act.

This bill should pass without anyone even doing third-level thinking. All you have to do is read the Harvard research project from Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz, which spoke about the improved opportunities for children based on their location. Higher opportunity neighborhoods offer just about everything that we would want a child to have growing up in this country.

This choice voucher act, under section 8 of the 1937 housing bill, will provide opportunities for people to move out of areas of high poverty concentration into neighborhoods where there are opportunities. As a former mayor, this is the part I wish we could do on a lot of projects, and that is, if public housing authorities want to participate in this program, they must submit a regional plan, which means that they will work beyond their own special interests.

In the case of PHAs in Kansas City, Missouri, we are separated by five other cities by one street, called State Line. So this would also provide an opportunity for Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, to work together. I am sure that there are situations all across the country which will provide opportunities for PHAs to work together.

I will just end by saying that this program is one that I think we are going to find people in these neighborhoods strongly supporting. Should this legislation be signed by the President, I hope that we will do everything we can to make sure that the communities, as a whole, understand what this bill is, because I think it speaks to the overall needs in the urban core in particular.

I am appreciative of the fact that I was allowed to be involved in this piece of legislation. I appreciate all the great work that my colleague and my neighbor across the hall, Mr. Duffy, has made available.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent during roll call votes No. 314-321. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on H.R. 5793 the Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act, ``Yea'' on H.R. 5749, Options Markets Stability Act, ``Nay'' on ordering the previous question on H. Res. 965, ``Nay'' on H. Res. 965, Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 200) Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, ``Nay'' on H. Res. 985, ``Nay'' on H. Res. 985, Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 50) Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act and providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 3281) Reclamation Title Transfer and Non-Federal Infrastructure Incentivization Act, ``Yea'' on the Motion to Recommit H.R. 200, and ``Nay'' on H.R. 200, Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.