Require That Recipients of Housing Assistance Participate in a Work Support Program and Give Waiting-List Priority to Applicants Who Work

Federal housing programs, with limited exceptions, do not require that assisted tenants engage in work-related activity, and such assistance is not targeted specifically to the working poor. However, the voluntary Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program helps tenants find and keep employment that increases their earnings. As participants successfully complete the program and leave assisted housing, the housing assistance they formerly received is made available to those on waiting lists. Lawmakers could require public housing agencies (PHAs) to give priority to people on the waiting list who are already working and thus might be more likely to achieve self-sufficiency.

If the federal government expanded the FSS program and changed the waiting-list policy for PHAs, while holding constant the overall number of assisted households, net federal spending would increase by about $10 billion from 2016 through 2025, CBO estimates. The estimated cost includes $12 billion in federal spending to compensate staff who develop FSS contracts, help participants obtain jobs and services, provide ongoing case management, and maintain escrow accounts. The estimated budgetary effect also reflects $2 billion in federal costs associated with the rent payments that PHAs would usually retain but instead would put in escrow accounts held for the tenants when their income increased. (CBO is unaware of research that demonstrates that participating in the program affects participants’ income; therefore, the estimate does not include such an effect.) Finally, the estimated budgetary effect reflects $4 billion in federal savings associated with replacing FSS participants who leave the housing assistance programs with households that include working adults. Such households have higher income and therefore make larger rent payments than the average household receiving assistance under current law.