Statement from NLIHC President Sheila Crowley on the Obama Administration’s budget outline for FY11
February 1, 2010
PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 1, 2010
Contact: Taylor Materio 202-662-1530 x.227 taylor@nlihc.org
Statement from NLIHC President Sheila Crowley on the Obama Administration’s budget outline for FY11
This morning, the Obama Administration released its budget outline for fiscal year 2011. We are pleased that President Obama’s budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development includes innovative proposals that are steps toward achieving a just and balanced housing policy for the country. However, as millions of families across the country struggle during this devastating economic climate to find and keep housing they can afford, we urge the President and Congress to take further action to address the housing needs of our lowest income neighbors.
Positive and forward-thinking components of the Administration’s HUD budget include:
- $1 billion in funding for the National Housing Trust Fund. The NHTF was established in 2008 and, once funded, will provide communities with funds to build, rehabilitate and preserve housing for people with the lowest incomes (www.nhtf.org). The Administration’s budget documents note that funding the National Housing Trust Fund “will help address the growing shortage of affordable housing, which is one of the most serious and economic problems facing the country” by providing funds to produce 29,000 homes for renters and 7,000 homes for homebuyers. The NHTF was included in President Obama’s first budget request, but Congress has yet to provide funding for the NHTF. It is critical that the President and Congress take active steps to capitalize the NHTF as requested in the FY11 budget.
- $85 million in funding to provide approximately 10,000 new housing vouchers for people who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless. While funding these additional vouchers is an important step forward, we know that in this recession we must do more. NLIHC has called on the Administration and Congress to provided 250,000 new vouchers in the current fiscal year to help low and extremely low income people who are otherwise unable to access affordable housing during the economic downturn.
- A proposal for a new Transforming Rental Assistance (TRA) initiative that would begin to combine funding streams for 13 HUD programs into one flexible and streamlined source of funding. The President requested $350 million in funding for this initiative that would, according to the budget request, “preserve approximately 300,000 new units of public assisted housing, increase administrative efficiency…and enhance housing choice for residents.” NLIHC looks forward to working with the HUD Secretary and staff on this new initiative.
- The inclusion of 100% of funds needed to cover public housing operating costs, a positive increase from previous budget requests, as well as the renewal of existing housing choice vouchers and project-based contracts.
We must object to proposed cuts to programs that produce housing for very low income seniors and people with disabilities (the Section 202 and 811 programs). We support bills currently in Congress to modernize these programs and urge Congress to pass this legislation and fully fund these essential programs that serve some of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
We are grateful that the HUD budget was spared the cuts to domestic discretionary programs that are included in the overall budget. Nonetheless, essentially flat funding for HUD this year is insufficient given the high demand for housing assistance as a result of the recession.
We look forward to working with HUD and members of Congress to ensure that additional action is taken to fully solve the affordable housing crisis.
NLIHC’s analysis of selected HUD program funds for FY11 is available at: http://www.nlihc.org/doc/FY11-Budget-Chart-HUD-Programs.pdf
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. More information is at www.nlihc.org
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National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
727 15th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005
202/662-1530; Fax 202/393-1973; info@nlihc.org; www.nlihc.org
