HUD budget uncertainty threatens families
The Billings (MT) Gazette
November 14, 2004
Editorial
The outlook for many low-income American families is a long, cold winter where affordable housing will be less available.
"The 2004 HUD budget was not adequate," said Lucy Brown, executive director of Billings Housing Authority. Now the uncertainty of the 2005 budget looms. The Bush administration has proposed a $1.1 billion cut in spending on low-income housing in the 2005 Department of Housing and Urban Development budget.
Last year, the HUD budget tardily approved by Congress and signed by President Bush cut funding for housing programs in various ways, setting in motion a cascade of complex changes that were disastrous for thousands of U.S. families living on the edge of poverty. Funding cuts were announced in May and retroactive to preceding months.
The bad news came with just a month left in the fiscal year for public housing agencies across Montana. One result is that 60 fewer Billings families are in decent housing where their share of the rent is based on their income. In Billings and around the state, programs were forced to raise the share of rent their poorest families had to pay.
After Montana housing agencies and the congressional delegation appealed last year's cuts, more than half the money was restored. That still left the Montana Section 8 program $340,000 short for the year, according to George Warn, head of the state program in Helena. As of last week, Warn said about 200 fewer Montana families were being served by this affordable housing program because of federal funding cuts last year.
The 2005 HUD budget has been passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, but hasn't been brought to the floor. Likewise, the HUD budget hasn't passed the House. The uncertainty of what might happen in the yet-to-be-appointed conference committee worries affordable housing advocates. Differences between Senate and House committee versions are significant. In the House, HR 5041 would cut funding by 4 percent on top of a 3 percent cut made last year. The Senate version appears to be less harsh for poor families.
Three months ago, on this page we took a stand against balancing the federal budget on the backs of poor families who can't afford market-price rent. We called on Sens. Conrad Burns and Max Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg to speak up for low-income Montana families, and part of the 2004 cuts was restored.
The belated 2005 budget must not further diminish the programs that were cut last year. It appears that the Senate HUD-VA bill is a better alternative than the cuts packed into the House version. We call on Burns, who serves on the HUD appropriations committee, as well as Baucus and Rehberg to lead the fight to maintain housing funds.
As Congress heads back to the Capitol for a lame duck session Tuesday, there is speculation that it may glop all unfinished budget bills into one or two omnibus bills - creating potential for last-minute changes that could make or break the year for low-income working Montana families.
Burns, Baucus and Rehberg must be vigilant in advocating a fair deal for families in the final HUD budget.
Housing program details
The HUD Section 8 program allows low-income families to afford decent housing. Families pay 30 percent of adjusted gross income for rent and utilities with the program subsidizing the difference between the family's share and the actual cost. The families served by this program have extremely low income. In Billings, 80 percent of families served have incomes of less than 30 percent of the Yellowstone County median household income ($12,850 annually for a family of two).
The need for affordable housing is growing. The Billings Housing Authority has a waiting list of 2,042 families. Those who were able to move into decent housing this fall had been waiting more than a year. Families in the program include members who are elderly, disabled or children. Most families that aren't elderly or disabled are working.