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Background on HR 1675, the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009
The HUD Section 811 program is the only federal housing program solely dedicated to assisting the lowest income people with serious and long-term disabilities to live independently in the community by providing integrated affordable rental housing linked with voluntary services and supports.
The Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009 (HR 1675) is essential legislation that will help address the enormous and unrelenting housing crisis faced by millions of extremely low income people with disabilities and will spur the creation of thousands of new 811 units every year by:
- Authorizing a new Section 811 Demonstration Program that fulfills the promise of true community integration as envisioned in the Americans with Disabilities Act;
- Enacting long over-due reforms and improvements to the existing Section 811 production program essential for the program’s long-term viability.
Enactment of HR 1675 will provide states and localities with a new infusion of critically needed Section 811 capital and project-based rent subsidy funding designed to invigorate and sustain the systematic creation of thousands of new permanent supportive housing units every year through partnerships with state housing finance agencies, county and local governments, and non-profit housing providers.