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President's budget shorts domestic spending
Contains little good news for low-income
people
SEATTLE—March 7, 2005—President Bush’s proposed budget
for 2006, announced on
February 7, includes
proposals
to cut a number of programs,
both in housing directly and in programs that affect
Seattle Housing
residents and other low-income people. Local government
officials are already expressing concern about the effect that these
cuts will have at the local level, and have organized a rally for
Thursday, March 10. (Click here for
details.)
Housing
programs
For Low Income Public Housing, the budget proposes cuts of 5 percent
to the operating subsidy and 10 percent to the capital subsidy.
This continues a trend from the current
Administration that has seen overall funding for public housing
decrease by
20 percent since 2001 (including these proposed cuts).
For this same period,
capital subsidies decrease by
22 percent.
If the nationwide cuts apply proportionately to SHA, it could mean a
cut of about $1.2 million on the operating side and another $1.4
million on the capital side.
According to SHA Executive Director Tom Tierney,
“We will make every effort to absorb these cuts without damaging our
service to residents. I am confident that we will continue to
provide the same level of housing for our tenants, but it will
certainly be a challenge.”
On the Section 8 side, the
proposed budget locks in the
2005
cuts.
The
2005 funding leaves SHA about
$6
million short
of the funding needed
to fund the
total number of vouchers that we are assigned
(7,861)
at the current average cost per voucher ($787 per
month).
SHA is addressing this funding shortage by not re-issuing
vouchers when families leave the voucher program. In effect, this
means that the Section 8 waiting list is frozen. Not only is it
closed to new applicants, those already on the waiting list have no
opportunity to move into housing either. SHA is
currently serving
about 250 fewer households than last year as a result
of
these 2005 cuts.
In the Section 8 program, every
million dollars in cuts translates to about 100 vouchers.
Over the next several months, Seattle Housing will
consider ways to change the Section 8
program in order to respond to proposed cuts. Changes
to current
payment standards (how much subsidy is paid out for an
apartment), utility allowances and other program components will be
considered.
Other proposed cuts
Beyond
the cuts to public housing and Section 8, there are
proposed
cuts to other housing, community development,
and low-income service programs as well. The most
impact may come from
cuts to the Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) program.
This
$4.7 billion program is proposed to be reduced to
$3.7 billion,
combined with 17 other programs,
and moved out
of HUD to the Commerce Department.
Over the past four years, the City of
Seattle has spent $68.2 million from CDBG. Approximately
13 percent has supported
production and preservation of multifamily
rental housing;
another 10 percent has supported
homebuyer and home rehabilitation projects, including weatherization
programs;
and 18 percent has been used
for emergency services for homeless people and domestic violence
victims.
Other proposed cuts include reducing the Section 811 program
(housing
for disabled
people)
by 50 percent, and reducing funding for
housing for people with
AIDS
(HOPWA) by 5 percent. SHA has developed
two projects in recent years with AIDS Housing of Washington that
used 811 funding.
Some of these cuts are said to be offset by additions to funding for
home ownership and funding for the President’s initiatives to “end
chronic
homelessness.”
But in total, HUD’s budget is proposed to be cut by 11 percent.
The budget process
When the White House announces the President’s
proposed budget, as it did on February 7, it signals the beginning
of the budgeting process for the next federal fiscal year—2006 in
this case. This is the first step in a long process that will
finally conclude when both houses of Congress have approved the
budget. In 2004, negotiations on the 2005 budget did not conclude
until after the election. Over the next several months there will be
on-going discussions and negotiations, in Washington, D.C. and
across the country, about every part of the budget.
Concerns expressed at
local level
Concerns about budget cutbacks and the pressures
these will cause at the local level are already emerging. On Monday,
March 7, the Seattle City Council passed a resolution opposing the
elimination of the Community Development Block Grant program as a
part of the HUD budget. The resolution requests that Congress enact
"a fiscal year 2006 budget and appropriations package that funds
CDBG formula grants at no less than fiscal year 2005 allocation of
$4.355 billion, without making further reductions in public housing,
homeless programs and other housing assistance."
In addition to this resolution, the Seattle City
Council is also sponsoring a rally in the lobby of the Seattle City
Hall on Thursday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m. The rally precedes a trip
to Washington, D.C. by several elected officials who will be
attending a National League of Cities meeting. Officials who will be
present at the rally will carry petitions signed by people at the
rally back to the State's Congressional delegation in D.C. for their
consideration. For more information about Thursday's rally, call
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen's office at 684-8808.
Seattle Housing Authority will
be working with elected representatives and national housing
associations, including the Council of Large Public Housing
Authorities and the National Association of Housing and
Redevelopment Officials, to inform the debate on these issues.
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