Privatization of Public Housing Shelved — For Now

HUD’s attempt to privatize all of America’s public housing has been put on hold — for now. You played an important role. Thousands of you signed the petition and spread the word, so that those at the House Financial Services Committee hearing on May 25 understood what the stakes were.

Barney Frank and Maxine Waters asked the right questions, and HUD’s answers revealed what was hidden in the language of the bill, namely, that all public housing in America would be subject to privatization. Under the PETRA bill, public housing could result in new ownership that would take out mortgages from private banks to fix and maintain the property. In the case of budget cuts to HUD, or mismanagement by new owners, the mortgage payments would be endangered and foreclosure would be a real issue. Banks that held the mortgages could foreclose and then those banks would own what is now public housing.