NAHT News

375,000 Families may lose Section 8 under Bush Budget Proposal for 2006

Finding affordable housing will be even more difficult under the new budget that the President submitted to Congress, according to a new study.

A study released February 18 week by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 80,000 fewer families are likely to receive “Section 8” Housing Choice Vouchers during 2005, due to a cut in federal funds. The President's budget proposal, filed with Congress on February 7, would temporarily restore funding for about half of these vouchers in 2006, but then proposes cuts in virtually all domestic programs — including vouchers — over the next several years. By the end of the President's five-year budget, all of the vouchers restored in 2006 would be eliminated and the number of families receiving Section 8 Vouchers would be cut by an additional 375,000.

The President's budget also calls for a $3 billion cut in funding in 2006 for HUD programs, which provide resources to state and local communities to help fund affordable housing. The budget proposes a 1/3 cut in HUD's Community Development Block Grant program, and transfers it to the Commerce Department where its days will be numbered. The President's budget proposes similar deep cuts to other critical human services.

“The President's budget is a step in the wrong direction,” said Carol Driscoll, President of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT) and a Section 8 Voucher tenant in Boston. “It will make it more difficult for working families, seniors, and people with disabilities to find a safe, affordable place to live.”

“Section 8” would shrink considerably in the years ahead under the President's budget, for three main reasons:

•  The President's budget proposes to end the longstanding practice of tying funding levels to the realities of local housing markets and economies.

•  The Administration has announced that it will submit to Congress a proposal to eliminate many of the federal rules hat currently ensure that vouchers provide the neediest families with a choice of safe, affordable housing.

•  The President's budget proposes to lock in deep cuts in domestic programs, including housing, with five-year binding spending caps.

“The families who would lose access to housing under the President's budget did not cause the deficit. The reason we have deficits is because of tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq,” said Michael Kane, Executive Director of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants.

According to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, there is a tax cut that mainly benefits millionaires that is scheduled to start taking effect in 2006, at an annual cost rising to $9 billion by 2010. If this tax cut were repealed, cuts in vouchers and other housing programs could be averted.

For the past two years, the National Alliance of HUD Tenants has mobilized Section 8 tenants and their allies to protest the President's attempts to cut the Section 8 budget. Last June, NAHT delivered a “Notice to Quit” to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson at HUD's national Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Local NAHT affiliatelets held similar rallies in cities across the country from May through October to urge Congress to add funds to the President's 2005 budget request.

Although Congress fully funded the 2005 program in December, the amount authorized was 4% less than the year before, due to administrative reductions forced by HUD the “mistakes” admitted by the Administration in January 2005 will result in 80,000 fewer families receiving vouchers by the end of the year, despite Congress' intent.

The Administration has been seeking deep cuts since 2004. NAHT and its affiliates have waged a spirited Save Our Home campaigns that has won full funding from Congress two years in a row.

More detailed background information on the President's ‘06 Budget Proposal's, including detailed numbers regarding the effect of Section 8 cuts for your particular city and state, are available here Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

DON'T AGONIZE! ORGANIZE!

Forming a tenant union is the first step in solving problems in your building. Your right to organize a tenant union without interference from management is protected by federal regulations.

Not sure where to start? Have other questions about your rights? Visit our Tenant Organizing Resources area to find tips for organizing, links and resources you need!!

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