Housing Authority gets $200,000 from HUD

Benicia’s housing authority has received $207,978 from the federal government to make capital improvements to public housing in town.

The money is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Capital Fund Program, which offers annual funding to approximately 2,900 public housing authorities to build, repair, renovate and/or modernize the public housing in their communities, according to a HUD press release.

The agency said it awarded more than $2.7 billion to public housing authorities (PHA) in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Housing authorities use the funding to complete large-scale improvements such as replacing roofs or making energy-efficient upgrades to replace old plumbing and electrical systems, officials added.

To help provide residents with decent, safe and sanitary housing and respond to the growing demand for affordable rental housing, HUD uses the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), a comprehensive strategy that complements the Capital Fund Program.

In 2011, HUD released Capital Needs in the Public Housing Program, a third-party independent study that estimated the capital needs in the public housing stock in the U.S. The study found the nation’s then-1.1 million public housing units were facing an estimated $25.6 billion.

Since Congress authorized the RAD demonstration in November of 2011, early results show it is generating significant additional capital for distressed public housing. As a result, 130,000 public housing units have converted to a more sustainable Section 8 financing platform, all without any additional costs to taxpayers.

Public housing authorities and their partners have generated over $8.6 billion to preserve or replace distressed units and support local jobs in their communities — all without additional federal resources.