May, 13 2011, 01:26pm EDT
House FY12 Funding Plan Would Dismantle Housing Safety Net
On Wednesday the House Committee on Appropriations released its draft 302b allocations, the amounts each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees will have available to spend on their respective FY12 funding bills. The allocation for the subcommittee that funds HUD, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (T-HUD) subcommittee, is budgeted $7.7 billion below the FY11 final appropriation, a 14% cut.
This cut comes just a month after Congress cut HUD's FY11 funding by 6.5%.
WASHINGTON
On Wednesday the House Committee on Appropriations released its draft 302b allocations, the amounts each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees will have available to spend on their respective FY12 funding bills. The allocation for the subcommittee that funds HUD, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (T-HUD) subcommittee, is budgeted $7.7 billion below the FY11 final appropriation, a 14% cut.
This cut comes just a month after Congress cut HUD's FY11 funding by 6.5%.
HUD programs provide the only affordable housing option available to the lowest income people in communities across the United States. People who rely on federal housing assistance and other low income housing advocates are deeply concerned that repeated cuts to HUD appropriations will lead to people losing their homes.
The 302b allocations are the outcome of the budget resolution passed by the House in April, H. Con. Res. 34 (also known as the Ryan Plan), which also proposed massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs, This resolution directed the House to cut non-security discretionary programs by $1.6 billion over the next ten years.
"The Members of the House of Representatives who voted for the Ryan budget plan apparently prefer evicting residents of public and assisted housing, half of whom are elderly or disabled, to asking people who are well-off to pay more in taxes," said Sheila Crowley, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "Already, only 1 in 4 households who are eligible for federal housing assistance receive it, because of funding for HUD does not approach meeting the need. Low income people simply cannot survive one more cut."
The final budget resolution for the current year, FY11, made deep cuts to many HUD programs, including the Public Housing Operating and Capital Funds and the Community Development Fund. The additional cut proposed in the 302b allocations will jeopardize the continued operation of low income housing units, as well as threaten programs that ensure safe, healthy living conditions for low income people.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone. NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy and educates the public on housing needs and the strategies for solutions.
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