Opinion ID: 1963825
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the brooke amendment

Text: The United States Housing Act of 1937 [14] established a program of federal aid to local agencies in order to provide decent housing to those who could not obtain it privately. The purpose of the Act was to assist the various states to remedy unsafe, unclean conditions and an acute shortage of decent dwellings for low-income families. In the 1960's, contracts between the federal government and local housing authorities, under which federal subsidies were given to the local housing authorities to build housing projects, generally provided that the housing projects themselves should be self-supporting. Operating expenses were to be paid from the income of each project. Any operating deficits were to be made up from past surpluses accumulated during prior successful years of operation. By 1969, NCHA had a large operating deficit and applied to HUD for additional money to meet the anticipated deficits of the 1970's. In order to receive help, NCHA was told it would have to devise a rent schedule that would produce enough income in its projects so that they would attain financial feasibility in a few years. Under the proposed rent schedule, minimum rentals would come out to figures which in some cases would be over 40% of a family's income. Congress had a deep concern that families of very low income would be squeezed out of the competition for public housing. In December of 1969, Congress passed the Brooke Amendment which limited the amount of rent that local agencies could charge a family to one-fourth of its income. Congress' intent in passing this amendment was to make sure that the extremely poor families were not shut out from being able to obtain public housing. In order to compensate for the loss of income that was previously available in the form of higher rentals from tenants, Congress authorized HUD to pay the local housing authorities the difference between operating expenses and the income they received from rents. This allowed the local housing authorities to make up the amount of money attributable to maintenance and operating expenses that exceeded 25% of their tenants' income. The language of 42 U.S.C. § 1401 and § 1402 makes it abundantly clear that a prime feature of public housing programs today is rent limitation and that the purpose of public housing is to make decent, safe and sanitary dwellings available to low-income families. The legislative history of P.L. 91-152, officially known as the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1969, bears this out. Senate Report 91-392 stated that: Section 211 of the bill would amend the U. S. Housing Act of 1937 to add a new section 24 which would provide an additional assistance program in behalf of very low-income tenants of public housing projects. This section would authorize rental assistance payments with respect to units in low-rent housing projects, including low-rent housing in private accommodations, to enable families of very low income to afford rentals with no more than 25% of their incomes. (Emphasis added). Assistance would be in the form of annual payments by the Secretary to public housing agencies pursuant to contracts entered into with the local agencies. Existing as well as new units would qualify for assistance and assistance could be continued for the life of the project so long as it served low-income tenants. At the present time, annual contribution payments by the Federal Government to local agencies cover the debt service on private borrowings financing the development or acquisition costs of the projects. Operating and maintenance expenses are payable out of rentals paid by the low-income tenants. . . . [The] costs are too high for the very poor to bear. . . . Local housing agencies have attempted to meet this problem by charging minimum rents for some units below the operating costs attributable to the units, with the higher income tenants making up the difference. This has helped somewhat but not enough. For the most part the neediest families have been excluded from the public housing program. This section would enable families, regardless of how low their incomes are, to afford the rentals necessary to support project operating costs with no more than 25 percent of their income. S.Rep.No.91-392, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 1451-1452 (1969), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1969, pp. 1524, 1541. The House Senate Conference Report 91-74 retained the same basic concept of Section 211 of the Senate bill. It did this by generally limiting rents that may be charged public housing tenants to no more than 25% of their income, provided federal funds are available to cover the amount by which the appropriate rental charges exceed 25% of the income of the tenant and to cover the cost of adequate operating and maintenance services.