Using Federal Data Sources for Housing Advocacy By Andrew Aurand, Vice President for The sample size from one year of ACS data is Research, National Low Income Housing not large enough to draw annual estimates for Coalition smaller populations. Therefore, multiple years of ACS data are combined for smaller areas. Housing advocates have long used federal data The Census Bureau releases five-year ACS data to measure, visualize, and communicate their that provides a five-year moving average for communities’ unmet housing needs to inform all communities, down to census tracts. The policy at the national, state, and local levels. Data five-year data are not as timely as the annual from the American Community Survey (ACS), for data, but they are more reliable (because of the example, allow us to quantify the critical housing larger sample) and available for many more shortage for extremely low-income renters. communities. ACS data are often used by federal HUD’s A Picture of Subsidized Households, agencies to determine how money is distributed meanwhile, gives us a look at the quantity and across the country. geographic distribution of HUD-subsidized housing. The ACS provides housing advocates with important information. The ACS for example The following section provides a brief overview captures data on housing costs and household of federal data sources for housing advocacy. income, allowing us to calculate the prevalence Members of Congress often threaten to cut of housing cost burdens across communities. financial resources for data collection and The data also allow us to measure the shortage dissemination, making it imperative that (or surplus) of housing for various income advocates and organizations promote and groups. NLIHC uses ACS data to produce its protect these programs. The Census Project, for annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable example, is a network of organizations that fight Homes, which estimates the shortage of against significant budget cuts to the planning affordable rental housing in each state, DC, and of the 2020 U.S. Decennial Census and the the largest metropolitan areas. Other important implementation of the ACS. variables in the ACS include race, household type, and employment. HOUSING NEED, SUPPLY, AND QUALITY The U.S. House of Representatives has voted in recent years to make participation in the American Community Survey ACS voluntary rather than mandatory of See https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ U.S. citizens by prohibiting enforcement. acs/ and http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/ Research from the Census Bureau shows that jsf/pages/index.xhtml. a voluntary ACS would lower response rates by as much as 20 percentage points (see The The ACS is a nationwide mandatory survey American Community Survey: Development, of approximately 3.5 million housing units Implementation, and Issues for Congress), annually, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. forcing the Bureau to send surveys to a larger The survey is distributed on a rolling basis, number of households and spend more time with approximately 295,000 housing units following up with them in person and by surveyed each month. The annual data provide telephone to encourage participation. These timely information on the demographic, social, additional steps would add to the Bureau’s economic, and housing characteristics of the expenses. If the ACS became voluntary and the nation, each state, the District of Columbia, and Bureau did not take these additional steps, the other jurisdictions with at least 65,000 residents. 2–30 2019 ADVOCATES’ GUIDE survey’s sample size would decline, resulting provide housing and services to the homeless in less accurate data, especially for small population must conduct a count each January communities and hard-to-reach populations. of sheltered homeless persons in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens. A Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy separate count is conducted every other January Data (every two years) of unsheltered homeless See https://bit.ly/29Epvjd. persons whose primary nighttime residence is The U.S. Census Bureau provides HUD with not ordinarily used as a regular place to sleep, custom tabulations of ACS data that allow users such as a car, park, abandoned building, or bus to gain a better understanding of the housing or train station. Although not required, HUD problems among households of different income encourages CoCs to conduct an annual count of levels. The Comprehensive Housing Affordability unsheltered homeless persons. Strategy (CHAS) data are primarily used by The PIT count is a labor-intensive task Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)- coordinated at the local level. The result is entitled communities in their HUD-required a point-in-time estimate of the number of Consolidated Plan and can also be useful for homeless in the U.S. and among specific housing advocates in measuring the housing subpopulations, such as individuals, families needs in their community. The CHAS data with children, veterans, unaccompanied youth, use HUD-defined income limits to categorize and the chronically homeless. These estimates households as extremely low-, very low-, low-, are published in HUD’s Annual Homeless and moderate-income. The data also count the Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. number of housing units affordable to each of The Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is an these income groups. Therefore, the data provide inventory of beds available for the homeless a count of households at different income levels population by program, including emergency and the number of housing units affordable to shelters, supportive housing, and rapid them at the national, state, and local levels. The rehousing. data also provide important information on cost burdens, overcrowding, and inadequate kitchen American Housing Survey and plumbing by income level. The data can also See https://bit.ly/1xBqTYQ. be broken down by race, elderly/non-elderly status, household size, and disability status. The national American Housing Survey (AHS) is a longitudinal survey of housing units. It is The most recent CHAS data are from the five-year funded and directed by HUD and conducted by 2011-2015 ACS. HUD provides a web-based query the U.S Census Bureau every odd numbered year. tool that makes commonly used CHAS data readily The AHS is unique in that it follows the same available, particularly housing cost burdens, for housing units over time. The survey includes communities. More advanced users can download questions about the physical characteristics the CHAS raw data for more detailed analyses. and quality of housing units and about their HUD Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory occupants, so users can identify how the price, Count quality, and occupants of dwellings change over time. The same sample of housing units See www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/ were followed from 1985 to 2013 with changes pit-and-hic-data-since-2007 and https://www. to the sample to account for new construction, hudexchange.info/homelessness-assistance/ demolitions, and conversions. ahar/#reports. A new national sample of housing units was HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) count is the primary drawn for the 2015 AHS. The core national tool for measuring the extent of homelessness sample represents the nation plus its 15 in the nation. Continuums of Care (CoC) that largest metropolitan areas. For the first time, NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION 2–31 HUD-assisted units were identified through price range that movers could expect to pay administrative data and oversampled, for the cheapest 40% of apartments. In select so comparisons between subsidized and metropolitan areas where voucher holders are unsubsidized housing would be more reliable concentrated in certain neighborhoods, FMRs than in the past. Supplemental samples in the are set at the 50th percentile for a three-year time AHS provide data for additional metropolitan period. FMRs influence the maximum rent that areas, contingent on HUD’s budget. The 2015 an HCV will cover, so the 50th percentile FMRs AHS also included supplemental questions are intended to expand the range of housing on food security, healthy homes, housing opportunities available to voucher households, counseling, and neighborhood arts & culture. enabling them to deconcentrate out of low Supplemental questions typically change from opportunity areas. In FY19, there are three 50th survey-year to survey-year. The 2017 AHS percentile FMR areas. included supplemental questions on delinquent HUD published a final rule on November 16, housing payments, disaster preparedness, and 2016, that eventually eliminates 50th percentile commuting. FMRs and requires local public housing agencies The AHS is the data source for HUD’s Worst Case in 24 metropolitan areas to use Small Area Housing Needs Report provided to Congress FMRs rather than traditional FMRs to set HCV every two years. This report identifies the payment standards. Small Area FMRs reflect number of very low-income households in rents for U.S. Postal ZIP Codes, while traditional the U.S. who either spend more than half of FMRs reflect a single rent standard for an entire their income on housing or live in physically metropolitan region. The intent of Small Area inadequate housing. HUD provides data from FMRs is to provide voucher payment standards these reports, dating from 2001 to 2013, in its that are better aligned with neighborhood-scale Housing Affordability Data System. The AHS rental markets, resulting in relatively higher sample is not large enough to calculate estimates subsidies in neighborhoods with more expensive for specific states or smaller areas other than rents and lower subsidies in neighborhoods the metropolitan areas for which HUD includes a with lower rents. Small Area FMRs are expected supplemental sample. to help households use vouchers in higher opportunity neighborhoods. Small Area FMRs Fair Market Rents for all metropolitan areas are available on HUD’s See https://bit.ly/2bX49my. FMR webpages. Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are published by Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Data and HUD each year for every metropolitan area Mapping Tool and nonmetropolitan county in the U.S.