Last Friday, January 23, 2009, the Senate Appropriations Committee released the highlights of the spending portion of the Senate’s economic recovery package, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. The direct spending portion totals $365 billion. The proposal includes a number of funding provisions of interest to housing and homeless advocates:
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$1.5 billion for a Homeless Prevention Fund through the Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG) program to provide funding for homeless prevention activities (this is the same as in the House bill). This could result in $41.2 million for NJ and help 5,900. Click here for details;
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$2.25 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed homes (the House bill includes $4.19 billion);
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$5 billion for the public housing capital fund to enable public housing agencies to address a backlog in capital needs;
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$2.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to enable state and local governments, in partnership with community-based organizations, to acquire, construct, and rehabilitate affordable housing and provide rental assistance to poor families. Up to 20 percent may be used to provide incentives to grantees to use funding for investments in energy efficiency and green building technology;
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$2.1 billion for full-year payments to owners receiving Section 8 project-based rental assistance; and
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$1.4 billion for grants or loans for energy retrofits and green technology for Section 202, 811, and project-based Section 8 properties.
Unlike the House version, the Senate proposal does not include funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) or rural housing.
Neither the House nor the Senate version includes funding for the National Housing Trust Fund or additional Section 8 vouchers, as many advocates, including the Advocacy Network and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, have urged.
However, because both the House and Senate versions include $1.5 billion for prevention activities through the ESG program, the Advocacy Network and the Alliance expect that this provision will be included in the final legislation.
Next Steps: The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its portion of the package on January 27th. Democratic leaders hope to have the package on the Senate floor by the end of the week, so that the legislation may proceed to the conference stage as quickly as possible. The House is expected to vote on its version of the legislation as early as tomorrow.
The language of the appropriations portions of the House economic recovery package can be accessed here.
