WASHINGTON - August 18 - Deficit reduction proposals must not harm low income Americans or ask them to bear the extraordinary burden of the national debt.

This is the message of 40 housing and community development organizations in a letter to the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, known as the “super committee.” This Congressional committee is charged with achieving further deficit reduction as part of the debt ceiling agreement enacted in early August.

“The debt deal as it stands includes caps on discretionary spending,” said Jeremy Rosen, spokesperson from the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF). “These caps will mean reductions in the programs that provide safe, affordable homes and prevent homelessness for many Americans, especially low income families.”

Further cuts to non-defense discretionary spending could decimate federal housing and community development programs. In its letter, CHCDF states that these programs “have powerful impacts on individual and community well-being, not only directly by supporting stable housing for vulnerable people, but also through their effects on economic growth, education, employability, community health, and job creation, particularly for those at the bottom of the economic ladder who have been hardest hit by the recession.”