The House on Tuesday passed legislation by voice vote to allow private nonprofits to administer permanent housing assistance.

Only public housing agencies and state and local governments can administer the assistance under current law. The bill would also direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to allocate unused funds annually instead of twice a year.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), the measure's sponsor, argued the changes would help make the department more efficient. 

"It's administratively more efficient to reallocate funds only once a year," Peters said. "This frees up HUD employees to provide more human resources toward providing better service to constituents. And we shouldn't saddle HUD with more administrative work that isn't helping anyone."

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) said allowing nonprofits to administer housing assistance would further reduce HUD's workload.

"It restores nonprofit participation and maximum community flexibility by delegating authority to these organizations to rental assistance," Pearce said.