Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The Housing Choice Voucher program is the Federal Government's largest program helping low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. (2) The Housing Choice Voucher program is proven to have positive impacts on voucher holders, including increased housing stability, reduced homelessness, and children lifted out of poverty. (3) As a public-private partnership, the Housing Choice Voucher program relies on the willingness of private landlords to accept vouchers. (4) Landlord participation is declining in the Housing Choice Voucher program, with an average of 10,000 housing providers leaving the program each year between 2010 and 2016. (5) Landlord participation is especially lacking in high-opportunity neighborhoods that have low poverty rates and good access to quality schools, jobs, and public transportation. (6) The Secretary has conducted and continues to conduct research on landlord participation in the Housing Choice Voucher program. (7) The Moving to Work demonstration program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development has given participating public housing agencies the ability to test innovative strategies to incentivize landlords to accept vouchers. (8) Indian Tribes and tribally designated housing entities, which do not participate in the Housing Choice Voucher program, benefit from the Tribal Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, which provides rental assistance to Native American veterans who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.