Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an award of more than $1.9 billion in capital funding to public housing authorities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The Capital Fund Program provides annual funding to public housing authorities that build, repair, or modernize the public housing in their communities.  This funding can be used to make large-scale improvements such as new roofs or to make energy-efficient upgrades.  For a full listing of agencies that receive funding,  click here.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the Capital Needs in the Public Housing Program, a study released earlier this month that gave an estimate of the capital needs in the public housing stock nationally.  The results of the study showed that 1.2 million public housing units need an estimated $25.6 billion in large-scale repairs.

Through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Obama Administration has recently developed the Transforming Rental Assistance Initiative, which will allow housing authorities to leverage public and private financing to address capital needs and make public housing units affordable for the long term.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning a demonstration of the new initiative that will require $200 million in funding to rehabilitate federally subsidized affordable housing.  The demonstration would allow improvements to affordable housing and stem the loss of stock from private sector partners who choose to opt-out of affordable housing programs.  The money gained from the demonstration is expected to raise $6.1 billion in private financing to reduce the backup of capital repair needs.