HUD Grants to Help Create 6,500 Homes Cuomo Awards Nearly $600 Million in Housing Assistance For Low-Income Elderly

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28  -- Finding an affordable, decent and safe place to live will soon be easier for more almost 8,150 low-income senior citizens, thanks to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which today awarded $597 million to non-profit groups around the U.S. to create more than 6,500 federally subsidized apartments.

HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who announced the awards, said that the assistance is going to groups in 42 states and the District of Columbia under HUD's Section 202 Program for senior citizens.

``The money that we awarded today is one way we can give back to those who have given us so much,'' Cuomo said. ``Our elderly should never have to worry about being able to afford a safe and decent place to live.''

In addition to funding construction and rehabilitation projects to create the apartments, the HUD grants will subsidize rents on the apartments for five years so that residents will pay only 30 percent of their incomes as rent.

To be eligible for the assistance a household must be classified as ``very low income,'' which means an income less than 50 percent of the area median. Nationally, this means an income of less than $17,570 a year.

HUD provides two forms of Section 202 funds to non-profit groups:

    * Capital advances. This money covers the cost of developing the housing.
      It does not need to be repaid if the housing is available for occupancy
      by very low-income seniors for at least 40 years.

    * Project rental assistance. This money covers the difference between the
      resident's contribution toward rent and the cost of operating the
      project.

0f the 20.9 million households headed by older persons in 1997, the most recent data available, 21 percent were renters, according to the U.S. Administration on Aging report, Profile of Older Americans: 1999. The median family income of older renters was $10,867.

HUD issued a report last year that said more than 7.4 million senior citizen households pay more than they can afford -- defined as more than 30 percent of their income -- for housing. Others live in housing that is either substandard or fails to accommodate their physical limitations or needs for assistance.

The HUD report, Housing Our Elders: A Report Card on the Housing Conditions and Needs of Older Americans, identified four serious challenges to elderly housing conditions in the U.S.: adequacy, affordability, accessibility and appropriateness.

Some 339 groups applied for the Section 202 assistance and 161 received grants.

   HUD Section 202 Grant Awards to States
     (in millions of dollars, rounded)

    Alabama                        5.6
    Arizona                        6.0
    Arkansas                      10.8
    California                    82.3
    Colorado                       8.5
    Connecticut                    9.8
    District of Columbia           6.4
    Florida                       19.2
    Georgia                        8.5
    Hawaii                         4.9
    Idaho                          3.9
    Illinois                      31.4
    Indiana                        3.9
    Iowa                           5.6
    Kansas                         6.4
    Kentucky                      12.2
    Louisiana                      7.8
    Maine                          2.9
    Maryland                      20.0
    Massachusetts                 25.9
    Michigan                      14.7
    Minnesota                      8.8
    Mississippi                    4.1
    Missouri                      15.6
    Nebraska                       3.7
    New Jersey                    18.2
    New Mexico                    10.1
    New York                      74.1
    North Carolina                17.5
    Ohio                          30.8
    Oregon                         7.3
    Pennsylvania                  30.2
    Rhode Island                   5.4
    South Carolina                 5.0
    South Dakota                   2.2
    Tennessee                     12.9
    Texas                         19.4
    Utah                           6.0
    Vermont                        2.0
    Virginia                       8.7
    Washington                     7.6
    West Virginia                  1.3
    Wisconsin                      9.1


    TOTAL                       596.97

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development