MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Some 9 million people in the U.S. rely on federal housing assistance. Now, currently, they can stay on it as long as they need, but NPR has learned the Trump administration is working on a rule to limit how long people can keep that aid to pay their rent. NPR's Jennifer Ludden is here with more. Hey there.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Hi.
KELLY: OK, tell me more about what exactly this proposed rule would do.
LUDDEN: So it's not proposed yet. It's being written by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But according to an internal document, it would allow local housing authorities to impose a time limit and also work requirements. I spoke to an agency staffer who did not want to be named because they're not authorized to speak to the media. They said the time limit in the draft rule was two years, but that may have changed. Now, none of this would apply to those who are elderly or disabled. And just to be clear, it's not something all local housing authorities would have to do. They could choose it if they wanted. Now, a HUD spokesperson would not provide details or even confirm there is a rule in the works.
KELLY: OK. Well, let's lay out what the stakes would be. I mean, what is the argument for imposing a cut-off date on housing assistance?
LUDDEN: Well, you know, HUD Secretary Scott Turner says his agency's ultimate mission is to help people get off of subsidies and become self-sufficient. I also spoke with Howard Husock. He's at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and he's been making this case for a while. He points out, you know, demand for rental aid way outstrips supply, and most people have to wait years to get it.
HOWARD HUSOCK: And there's a whole lot of people who qualify for this kind of aid who don't receive it. So there's an inefficient use of our housing because people can stay so long.
LUDDEN: He says a time limit could spread this aid to more people, although Husock thinks that two years is too short.
KELLY: So if the housing secretary wants people to become self-sufficient, do we have data - is there evidence that time limits would do that?
LUDDEN: So a small group of housing authorities actually have had the power from Congress for decades now to impose time limits. Some of them have. And the record is mixed. Josh Meehan advocates for this group. He also leads Keene Housing in New Hampshire, which used to have a five-year time limit. But when that deadline approached to cut off people's aid, he says it was clear their financial situations had not gotten better.
JOSH MEEHAN: Their incomes hadn't moved appreciatively upwards in those five years. And so if they had terminated those folks, I mean, I think it's fair to assume they would have wound up back on our waiting list.
LUDDEN: So Keene dropped its time limit. Other places have also done that. You know, they say people's wages just cannot keep up with skyrocketing rents. Now, I did speak with the head of the Delaware State Housing Authority, who says their five- to seven-year time limit program does help a lot of people, but he said the main reason is not the limit. It's because they also cap rents, and they have this automatic savings account and lots of other supports that help tenants. Now, we do not know if the Trump administration rule would include any of that.
KELLY: Jennifer, let's just flip this around. We've been talking about the impact on renters. What about on landlords, on housing suppliers? I know you have reported housing vouchers are already hard to use in the private market.
LUDDEN: This is exactly what the HUD staffer raised, that it would scare off landlords if they had to go through this whole process of finding a new tenant every two years. Also this employee says the prospect of high turnover and vacancies could spook private investors and lenders who finance affordable housing. You know, their deals rely on vouchers for their tenants to pay their rent. And the worry is that if all that were upended, we could just see a lot more homelessness.
KELLY: That's NPR's Jennifer Ludden. Thank you.
LUDDEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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