Conditional Shelter: Implications of Federal Proposals to Place Work Requirements and Time Limits on Housing Assistance

Session Submission Type: Late-Breaking Roundtable

Abstract

Nearly 5 million households across the U.S. rely on housing assistance administered by HUD and delivered by local housing authorities. This assistance, which includes public housing and rental vouchers, serves only a fraction of eligible households—but those that do succeed in accessing assistance typically receive deep subsidies that have no time limit and are not conditional on seeking or having employment. Recent proposals aim to change this paradigm; President Trump’s administration has proposed a two-year cap on rental assistance for “able-bodied adults” and HUD is reportedly drafting a rule that would impose work requirements and time limits on the work-able adults it assists.

This roundtable will include both researchers and housing authority staff with firsthand experience implementing work requirements and time limits. We will discuss: 1) the rationales used to defend work requirements and time limits; and 2) what evidence exists on the efficacy and real-world implementation challenges of these policies, drawing both on past housing authority experimentation and lessons from other social safety net programs. We will also consider what additional research is urgently needed to inform ongoing policy development and housing authorities’ response.

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Moderator

• Martha M Galvez, New York University

Organizer

• Claudia Aiken, New York University

Speakers

• Will Fischer, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

• Elizabeth Lochhead, New York University

• Ryan Finnigan, University of California, Berkeley

• Jamie Schau, Vancouver Housing Authority