CLPHA Advocacy

Washington, D.C., May 18, 2026 — La Shelle Dozier, CEO of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), released the following statement in support of the revised bipartisan House housing package, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act:

"CLPHA supports passage of the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act and commends Chair French Hill and Ranking Member Maxine Waters for their bipartisan work to advance meaningful housing legislation. We encourage House leadership to bring the bill to the floor promptly and urge the Senate to act swiftly to send a final package to the President.

The amended House bill reflects important improvements that directly benefit the public housing authorities (PHAs) and the low-income families our members serve. Most notably, the removal of the Senate's problematic Moving to Work provisions is a significant win. Those provisions would have imposed burdensome and infeasible reporting requirements on existing MTW agencies and proposed an expansion cohort with limited flexibilities that would have undermined agencies' abilities to respond to local housing needs. Their removal reflects the legitimate concerns CLPHA and our members raised throughout this process.

We are also encouraged by the inclusion of meaningful National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) streamlining reforms, which will reduce regulatory barriers to housing development and preservation, which is a priority for large PHAs working to expand and modernize their housing stock.

The urgency of this legislation cannot be overstated. The 10 Year Roadmap for Public Housing Sustainability recently estimated that the baseline cost to preserve the nation's public housing portfolio stands at $169.1 billion, which reflects decades of chronic federal disinvestment and an aging public housing stock that continues to deteriorate. The NEPA reforms and other provisions in this bill that reduce barriers to development and preservation are exactly the kind of solutions our members need to begin making meaningful progress against this crisis. This bill is an important step in the right direction.

We recognize that no piece of legislation is perfect. The removal of the provision to eliminate the RAD program cap is a setback, and we hope a conference process will create an opportunity to restore this important provision. We will also continue to closely monitor remaining provisions, including the HUD study on work requirements under Section 803.

Even so, this bill represents meaningful bipartisan progress toward addressing the nation's housing affordability and supply crisis. Congress should move quickly to pass this legislation and build on the momentum it creates for the communities and families that need it most."

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About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities 
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 85 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org.

 

 

Media Contact:

Kirsten Greenwell, CLPHA
[email protected]

 (202) 638-1300

(Washington, D.C.) May 8, 2026 – Housing Is, a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging gaps among the housing, health and education sectors to improve life outcomes for low-income individuals and families, and UnitedHealthcare announced today an expansion of their national collaboration to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in public housing. The expansion includes launching three additional Community Collaborative programs at Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) member housing authorities: Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (Norfolk, VA), Durham Housing Authority (Durham, NC) and Louisville Metro Housing Authority (Louisville, KY). The new locations were  announced at the 2026 Housing Is Summit, the preeminent event dedicated to collaboration among the housing, education and health sectors, in Washington, D.C. Together, the organizations support public housing authorities in establishing Community Collaborative programs at the local level while providing national infrastructure to support community and systems-level advancement.

The Community Collaborative programs bring together cross-sector organizations to co-develop, evaluate and sustain interventions to address community health needs. CLPHA, which founded Housing Is and operates the organization under a management agreement, and Housing Is have worked with UnitedHealthcare to foster relationships with public housing authorities (PHAs), federally qualified health centers and community-based organizations to improve the health and well-being of PHA residents and their surrounding communities. Since the collaboration between Housing Is, CLPHA, and UnitedHealthcare was established in 2020, ten PHA members of CLPHA have participated in the program, including Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Atlanta Housing, Housing Authority of the City of Austin, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, Detroit Housing Commission, Houston Housing Authority, King County Housing Authority, Memphis Housing Authority, Housing Authority of New Orleans and Seattle Housing Authority. The Community Collaborative programs in these locations have addressed a wide range of health and social needs from chronic disease and food insecurity to mental health and digital literacy.

“Helping low-income residents improve their health outcomes is central to the missions of CLPHA’s housing authority members, and the collaborative programming greatly supports our members’ efforts to address the most pressing health needs in their neighborhoods,” said La Shelle Dozier, CEO of CLPHA. “UnitedHealthcare has long been a critical partner to CLPHA and Housing Is, and the addition of three new sites in Durham, Louisville and Norfolk builds on many successful years of collaboration. We are honored to continue our groundbreaking work with UnitedHealthcare.”

This work reflects UnitedHealthcare’s broader commitment to investing in communities to help the healthcare system work better for individuals nationwide.  Through its Community Collaborative program, UnitedHealthcare has established more than 40 local programs across 26 states.

“By working jointly with Housing Is, we’ve opened new channels for honest, meaningful dialogue to truly understand and address the unique needs of the communities we serve,” said Mike Cotton, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community & State. “When UnitedHealthcare comes together with community members, government agencies, providers and nonprofits, we’re all better able to deliver the right resources and interventions to those who need them most. These types of collaborations are how we make the health system work better for everyone.”

"Housing Is has long known that data and resident input are crucial to creating, sustaining and scaling successful health interventions, and our longstanding collaboration with UnitedHealthcare helps PHAs to implement health programming in their communities that is driven by this information,” said Abra Lyons-Warren, director of Housing Is. “With this collaborative expansion  into Durham, Louisville and Norfolk, we will have much more data about what health interventions low-income PHA residents in these cities need. Housing Is expresses our gratitude to UnitedHealthcare for continuing and growing this collaboration that meets low-income individuals where they live with opportunities to improve their own health outcomes.”

In September 2025, Housing Is and CLPHA released a request for applications for new Community Collaborative Programs for the first time to eligible PHAs in the CLPHA membership. UnitedHealthcare, Housing Is and CLPHA staff evaluated each proposal and selected:

• Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA)
• Durham Housing Authority (DHA)
• Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA)

 

Media Contact:
David Greer
[email protected]

 (202) 550-1381

 

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About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with physicians, care professionals, hospitals and other care facilities. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow UnitedHealthcare on LinkedIn. For more information on how UnitedHealthcare is working to build healthier communities, visit uhccs.com.

 

About Housing Is

Housing Is helps build a future where sectors work together to improve life outcomes. Housing stability is a critical first step to improve life outcomes for low-income children, families, and seniors; Housing Is is based on the premise that sectors can better meet needs when they work together. Housing Is establishes, broadens, and deepens efforts to align affordable housing, education, and health systems to produce positive, long-term results. Learn more at housingis.org and on LinkedIn.

 

About CLPHA

The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis and public education. CLPHA’s 85 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on LinkedIn.

 

CLPHA and Reno & Cavanaugh are urging HUD to preserve full local control while raising concerns about the legal, administrative, and resident impact in comments submitted to HUD on its proposed rule for establishing work requirements and term limits. It is vital that PHAs determine if work requirements or term limits are appropriate for their communities. If a PHA decides they are not, they should not be penalized or pressured into adoption. CLPHA and its member PHAs are deeply committed to promoting economic self-sufficiency and workforce development for the residents they serve.

Comments on the proposed rule are due today, May 1, 2026. CLPHA encourages members to submit comments before the deadline.

 

CLPHA’s Key Concerns

The proposed rule exceeds HUD’s statutory authority under the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, which does not authorize HUD to condition federal rental assistance on employment or impose term limits. Only MTW PHAs have the statutory authority to implement work requirements and term limits. Additionally, the proposed rule also violates the Administrative Procedures Act. The proposed rule would impose unacknowledged and unfunded administrative burdens on PHAs while exposing them to legal risk. Finally, the proposed rule would create irreconcilable conflicts with existing statutory and regulatory frameworks, including HOTMA and FSS.

CLPHA is fundamentally opposed to the use of term limits as a condition of federal rental assistance as they are unsupported by evidence and inconsistent with the realities of the current affordable housing market. A two-year term limit would be insufficiently protective of residents. As detailed in the comment letter, the objective of self-sufficiency cannot be separated from the question of whether adequate job opportunities and affordable housing are available to residents to climb the economic mobility ladder and exit the program. Work requirement and term limit policies have not been shown by research to raise income sufficiently enough to enable families to afford market-rate housing. These policies alone are not a panacea to self-sufficiency.

CLPHA contends that PHAs should be given maximum flexibility to design local workforce development approaches. At the same time, CLPHA encourages HUD to recognize that the proposed rule alone is not sufficient to advance the goal of resident self-sufficiency at scale. Work requirements and term limits are one tool among many, and their effectiveness depends heavily on the broader ecosystem of workforce development supports available to PHAs and residents such as FSS, ROSS, and Jobs Plus. Yet the proposed rule provides no dedicated funding to support implementation.