The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials – the nation’s oldest and largest professional membership organization serving public housing professionals – recently released a searchable online database providing salary information for every employee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) whose annual base salary exceeds $100,000.
According to this data – obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and current as of June 2011– there were more HUD employees nationwide who earned more than $100,000 in base salary last year (4,241) than there are public housing authorities (PHAs) currently administering federal public housing and/or Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher programs (4,071).
NAHRO’s HUD Salary Search Tool is available online at http://www.nahro.org/hud-search.
Highlights of NAHRO’s analysis of HUD salary data:
• The 4,241 HUD employees who were earning more than $100,000 in base salary as of June 2011 represented approximately 45 percent of the 9,384.5 full-time equivalent employees on HUD’s payroll for the federal fiscal year that ended September 30, 2011, according to an analysis of HUD’s fiscal year 2013 budget justificationsas submitted to the Congress.
• In 2011, HUD collected compensation information for the top five highest compensated employees of 3,613 PHAs. According to information recently released by HUD, only 3 percent of PHA executives earned $155,500 or more in total cash compensation (including bonuses) in 2010. By way of comparison, 363 HUD employees received base salaries (excluding bonuses) of at least $155,500 in 2011, a total that represented approximately 4 percent of HUD’s entire workforce at the time.
• According to HUD, only 7 percent of PHA executive directors earned $125,000 or more in total cash compensation (including bonuses) in 2010. By way of comparison, 1,640 HUD employees earned at least $125,000 in base salary (excluding bonuses) last year, a total that represented approximately 17 percent of HUD’s entire workforce at the time.
In 2011, HUD declared its intent to require that all PHAs report salary information for their top five compensated employees, a requirement which HUD does not impose on any of its other funding recipients. In addition to responding HUD notices announcing its plan to institute mandatory reporting, NAHRO submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for “the names, titles, and compensation levels of all HUD employees, including political appointees, whose compensation levels, exclusive of health, retirement and other fringe benefits, exceed $100,000 per year, together with the annual value of health, retirement and other fringe benefits provided to such persons.”
Housing Authority Facts:
• 3,148 housing authorities own federally subsidized public housing. 1,512 of these agencies also administer the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, while another 923 housing authorities administer Section 8 voucher programs but do not own public housing units. (PHAs that operate a Housing Choice Voucher program only and receive less than 50 percent of their funding for employees from HUD were previously exempted from mandatory compensation reporting, although HUD requested that these PHAs submit the compensation information.)
• In total, housing authorities own and administer approximately 1.2 million units of public housing, serving over 2.1 million people.
• Through their administration of the Housing Choice Voucher program, housing authorities serve an additional 1.9 million households, providing housing assistance for over 4.6 million people.
For more information, visit www.nahro.org.