Housing cuts
The Manchester (VM) Journal
August 20, 2004
BURLINGTON - The Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire Interagency Councils to End Homelessness have sent a letter to the federal government warning that cuts to housing funds proposed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will increase homelessness.
In a letter sent to the Executive Director and Chair of the federal U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the councils state: "If the current HUD proposal for Section 8 cuts are implemented, the very problem the Interagency Council has been asked to address - homelessness - will be severely exacerbated."
Section 8 housing vouchers are federal rental subsidies available only to the very lowest-income households in Vermont.
"The councils in all three states are committed to ending homelessness, but without the basic funding mechanisms to keep families housed, much of our work is negated," said Cathleen Voyer, Director of Housing and Transportation for Vermont's Agency of Human Services, and Chair of the Vermont Interagency Council.
Advocates estimate approximately 740 low-income families are at risk of losing their Section 8 housing vouchers. Tenants pay 30 percent of their income toward housing costs, while the Section 8 rental subsidies pay the remainder.
The Vermont Interagency Council to End Homelessness was created in November 2003 by an executive order from Gov. James Douglas. Appointees to the Council represent a dozen state and federal agencies, individuals who have been or are homeless, as well as local homeless providers.