HUD Says Housing Needs Drop Eight Percent

HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said that the drop by some 440,000 households is a "welcome reversal of a ten-yeartrend in which the number of worst case needs grew. The decrease is strong evidence of the effectiveness of thisAdministration's economic and housing policies in helping the very lowest income households." Though the picture has improved, Cuomo noted that nearly five million renter households still fall into the worse casehousing category that most needs rental assistance. Renter households with worst case needs are defined as thosethat have very low incomes (below 50 percent of their area's median income), do not already receive rentalassistance from federal or state programs, and either pay more than half their income for housing or live in severelysubstandard housing.