Brooke Amendment

What Is the Brooke Amendment?

The Brooke Amendment is the provision of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1969, signed December 24, 1969, that capped what public housing tenants could be charged as a share of their income. Section 213 amended the Housing Act of 1937 so that public housing rents “may not exceed one-fourth of the family’s income, as defined by the Secretary.” The cap had to take effect within 90 days. The amendment is named for Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, a Republican who served from 1967 to 1979 and backed public housing legislation.

Congress titled the provision “Reduced Rentals for Very Low Income Tenants of Public Housing Projects,” signaling its purpose: to keep the poorest residents from spending too much of their income on rent.

How It Works

The 25% cap changed over time:

• 1969: Rent capped at 25% of income.
• 1979: The cap became 25% for very low-income families and 30% for others.
• 1981: Public Law 97-35, the 1981 budget reconciliation law, rewrote the rent rules around a 30% standard, effective October 1, 1981.

Under current law (42 U.S.C. § 1437a), a public housing family generally pays the highest of 30% of monthly adjusted income, 10% of monthly income, or the portion of welfare assistance designated for housing. Agencies set a minimum rent of up to $50 a month, with hardship exemptions, and must let each family choose once a year between this income-based rent and a flat rent. The same income-based formula is the basis of the total tenant payment used in project-based Section 8 and vouchers.

Example

Suppose a family’s adjusted income is $24,000 a year, or $2,000 a month. At 30%, its payment for rent, including any utility allowance, would be about $600. If its income fell to $1,500 a month, the payment would drop to about $450. The rent follows the household’s income, not the cost of the apartment.

Criticisms and Limitations

Income-based rent protects tenants from extreme cost burden, but it ties rent revenue to tenants’ incomes rather than to the cost of running the buildings. The same 1969 law allowed federal annual contributions to cover more than debt service, and federal subsidies came to fill the gap between rents and operating costs. Housing authorities still depend on them. Critics also note that because rent rises as earnings rise, the formula acts like a tax on additional work. Later policies, such as the flat-rent option and the Family Self-Sufficiency program, partly address that concern. The 30% standard that grew out of the Brooke Amendment also became the general benchmark for affordability. See the thirty percent rule for that broader debate.