Congressmen Payne and Sires from NJ are among
45 members of Congress to support adequate funding
Debra Underwood, Arnold Cohen, Congressman Donald Payne, Donna Gallup, and Steven Taylor (left to right) during Lobby Day April 2009
On October 6, 2009, we posted about a letter being circulated to all Members of Congress by Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), asking them to sign on to a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate HUD appropriations subcommittees regarding the FY09 voucher funding shortfall.
Even, though the deadline to sign the letter was Thursday October 8th, our members were able to reach out by phone, email and fax and convince both Congressman Donald Payne and Congressman Albio Sires to sign the letter. We appreciate their support of this solution to the FY09 voucher funding shortfall!
The letter was signed by a total of 45 House Members. It was sent to Senate T-HUD Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO), House T-HUD Chair John Olver (D-MA) and Ranking Member Representative Tom Latham (R-IA). Click here to view the final letter.
This is one more example of how the Advocacy Network is having an impact on issues in Washington that affect our efforts to end homelessness.
Richard W. Brown, Gildalina Santos, Congressman Albio Sires, Telissa Dowling and Charles Featherson (left to right) during Lobby Day April 2009.
The House and Senate have not yet scheduled the conference at which they would finalize the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (T-HUD) FY10 appropriations bill, H. R. 3288. The President signed a continuing resolution on September 30, the last day of FY09, that keeps federal programs running until October 30, and the House and Senate are expected to complete work on the FY10 T-HUD bill by that date.
Thus, there is still time to remind those that did not sign the letter to advocate for New Jersey’s Congresspersons to address the voucher funding shortfalls being faced by housing agencies across the country in the final FY10 THUD bill.
A provision in the Senate’s T-HUD bill, but not the House’s, would allow up to $200 million of the bill’s $4 billion in advance appropriations to be available in FY10 to adjust funding shortfalls for public housing agencies to maintain current Housing Choice vouchers. The sign-on letter supports the use of this $200 million to maintain current vouchers and avoid terminations. It further requests that the eligible uses of this $200 million be expanded to keep payment standards at levels necessary to keep rents affordable to voucher holders and to allow housing agencies to continue to issue new vouchers to households on their waiting lists.
Approximately 400 housing agencies nationwide are experiencing current year voucher funding shortfalls, which are causing many housing agencies to reduce their voucher payment standards, freeze waiting lists and otherwise reduce the affordability and availability of vouchers in their communities. The issue was brought to the attention of Mr. Schiff by the California Housing Partnership, an NLIHC state partner.
Our national partner, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) also sent House and Senate appropriators a letter on October 9. This letter urges appropriators to fund HUD programs at the House-proposed levels, which are $1.2 billion above the Senate proposed funding levels. The letter requests adequate funding for public housing, housing choice vouchers, and project-based Section 8, as well as for other key HUD programs. Click here to read the letter by NLIHC
NLIHC’s letter also urges House and Senate appropriators to keep in the final bill a House provision that would prohibit any funds from being used to implement the requirement that certain public housing residents perform eight hours of community service each month. The letter also asks appropriators not to include a Senate provision authorizing HUD’s new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, which NLIHC would rather see go through a thorough authorization process.
